I began my walk as a Christian back when I was around 7 or 8 years old. My best friend at the time was a big Christian along with his family. One day while hanging outside he began to tell me about his church and what his faith entailed. His description of Christianity had me hooked, almost as if God was there telling me to come to him. My friend started telling me about Jesus, telling me how he was the one and only son of God; the savior of mankind. After hearing my friend talk for about an hour about Christianity, I felt compelled to become one. So I asked him, how do I become a Christian. This is what he said, "It's easy, all you have to do is pray to God and accept him into your life and proclaim Jesus as the one and only son of God." And so it began, right there and then I closed my eyes and prayed to God, accepting him into my life and proclaimed his son as my savior and God's son.
Not long after that my parents had enrolled my sister and I into a special kind of catholic CCD program to get us baptized, first communion and confirmed all in one day. At this point my life was devoted to God. I looked forward to church and learning about the Word and what it had to teach me. I began seeing life in a new way, with a new meaning. I felt as though my life had finely had a purpose.
At the age of 8, a little less than a year of doing the CCD classes, the day came to become a full member of the catholic church. My class was the first to go through this ceromony in the new church that they had just finished, which was magnificent. First, I was baptized. I remember the warm holy water coming just below my knees and the priest pooring it over my head. After my baptism came the first communion. I remember walking up to the priest, hands held out one over the other, and received the body of Christ, at which I said "amen" as instructed in my classes. My cousins, who I now refer to as my brothers, had always complained that the bread tasted disgusting, but I found it pretty good. After the communion, next up was confirmation. This, although one of the more important parts in the ceremony, is the most vague in my memory. I remember standing in the isle, holding a candle while the priest preached to us, confirming us into the Catholic church.
After the formal ceromony came the celebrations. There were songs of joy played by the quire. Everyone was happy for us, like one giant family. I could feel the presence of God all around me that night. The most memorable part that really showed that God was there with me was when I received a nice glass cross from a member of the church. I had been walking around in the crowd when all of a sudden a women came up to me wondering if I was Trever, to which I replied yes. She then gave me a box with the cross in it and said, "Here, we put the kids names in your class in a hat and drew one by random and you won this nice glass cross." Now some may argue that happened by chance, but what are the chances that one women just happens to find a small 8 year old wondering around a crowded party, to give him a cross?
It has been 9 years since that amazing day. Since then I have fallen in and out of my relationship with God. For a long time my family had stopped going to church, and I felt my faith slowly creeping away. Like that comfort and joy I got from praying to God just suddenly started to dissapear. Last year, the year I moved down to Florida, I felt like I had no faith what-so-ever. I payed dearly for strayin away from God too. My life was hell, I just wanted to give up every day at school. It felt as if I was forcing myself to keep on going. I kept asking myself, "why is my life so bad?!" At the end of the year I realized, that comforting feeling was no longer over my shoulder, I had strayed away from God. Realizing my mistake I quickly began to pray again, pleading for Gods forgiveness.
That leads me to where I'm at now. I feel as if I'm back to my old self. My relationship with God has returned and is stronger than ever. I believe it was God who put me in this Christian school, and for that, I am eternally thankful. He has given me the best of friends, and practically a new life. I have that appreciation and enthusiasm again when learning about God. My Bible classes in school have become one of the most inspiring classes that I have ever taken. It is from my Bible classes and my excellent Bible teacher, that I will be basing this Blog off of. The lessons I have learned are priceless and I would like to do my part to try and teach it to all of you.
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