My never-ending journey for salvation.

1 Corinthians 2:1-16

When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you in the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but on a demonstration of the Spirti's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.

I was brought up to think that Christianity was not a proper religion. My grandma on my father's side of the family was a dreaded born-again and my parents vowed it was insane and hypocritical. Like who are you to go to church in jeans? Who are you to bless your own house, or to ask forgiveness on your own without seeking penance from Father What's-it? Salvation could only be found through the Catholic church. Every Sunday growing up, my parents would yank us out of bed to go to a very solemn and serious church called St. Joseph's in the very small rural town we lived in.

Before I knew it, I had my first communion. Church was part of my everyday life. My dad played his guitar in the choir regularly, and my mom would cantor very often. I assumed that everyone went to church. I even met my best friend there the year after my reconciliation and first communion. We did Summer Bible Camp and everything. But I do not remember one single message I learned. I just remembered God was real, and we had to pray before eating and before sleeping.

I didn't question it, I just did it. So my dad left our family one day and we quit going to church cold turkey. I remember my mom saying that church gave her a lot of bad memories, and I wondered why we went for so many years if it just didn't mean a thing now. So without the consistent reminders to pray at night and before meals from my father, my religious life really had no structure. At 14, routine church trips were not of the norm, and I didn't really care. God was real. I didn't need to know any more than that.

Two years ago, my then boyfriend (now husband) told me that knowing God exists is not enough. The demons and Satan know God exists, but they won't be going to Heaven. So obviously, I didn't know as much as I thought knew about God, Heaven, and Jesus.

Since then I have changed my views and my life, so I am now changing the direction of this blog. I want to document my experiences in converting. My husband and I have moved to a new town, and have gotten involved in an amazing (and very hip) new church. I have recently joined a life group, and am making these huge changes in my life. I am very excited to share my lifelong testimony here during my never-ending journey for salvation.

"Oh no,...my daughter turned into 'Little House on the Prairie'".

I sent my mom a link to a company called Daniel Boone Log Homes, and the above was her reply. To tell you the truth, I wouldn’t really mind living in some beautiful prairie in the Midwest eating more than my fair share of fried chicken and buttermilk. I wouldn’t mind boiling my entire life down to that of a modest living. Farming. With lots of kids learning simplicities of school (F off matrices and quadratic equations), and making an honest living while donning a bonnet.

Sure childbirth would be really crappy, but it’s also really crappy to be completely and utterly reliant on electronics. Blackberry has a totally different meaning these days! Very seldom do people actually “call on” each other anymore. Quick facebook messages and texts are not SOCIAL ACTIVITIES. What happened to ice cream socials? Or those dances people in WWII attended which eventually led to their marital bliss? What a way to meet a soldier!

I want my family to work hard and love what they’ve earned. I want to see my hot sweaty husband plowing the fields while I bring him a nice cold pitcher of sun-ripened sweet tea! I want to ring a bell to summon my children when it’s dinner time. I want them to come home all dirty and tell me about the forts and mud pies they’ve created.

I mean obviously there’s a compromise between prairie-livin’ and urban trendiness. I just want a simple. honest. life. No big screens, no ipods, no distractions. Is that crazy? Maybe. I’ll leave you with this excerpt from Tim Mcgraw. I’m going to go mix my powdered lipton ice tea with filtered water and dream.

I’m gonna live where the green grass grows
Watch my corn pop up in rows
Everynight be tucked in close to you
Raise our kids where the good Lord’s blessed
Point our rocking chairs towards the west
And plan our dreams where the peaceful river flows
Where the green grass grows

And in the beginning...

This is my very first ever blog. I saw Julie & Julia so I feel like I’m an expert now. I suppose I’ll catch you up on my week so this will be a very random blog. OR maybe I could start off by making it lent themed! Not sure on the direction I’m going. Yet.

Monday I was depressed because it was the day my husband and I got back from vacation. I was relieved to find that our cat was still alive, our apartment was pristine, and there was only the faintest aroma of litterbox. We had teriyaki because I couldn’t bear the idea of slaving away over a hot stove in my utter miserable loneliness, plus I had to catch up on Oprah.

Fat Tuesday. Ben and I indulged ourselves in coca cola, doughnuts from Frost, rocky road ice cream, and a delicious home made jambalaya! We stayed up eating our junk and woke up sugar-hungover on Ash Wednesday, the day I found out that they will be tearing down the mansion which is said to have inspired one of the mansions in The Great Gatsby.

Thursday. I woke up to my little sister calling to talk about a gambling problem in the family. Just a note, don’t skip work to gamble! It’s just,… wrong.