I’ve grown up in a family with two parents who love the Lord. I’ve been attending church ever since I was little. From a young age, I knew about God and knew that He sent His Son to die for our sins. Every Sunday I would wake up, get dressed, grab my Bible and get in the car to head to church. On Sunday night, my family would attend AWANA at our church. There, I spent time trying to memorize Bible verses and then reciting them to a leader. In the summer, my parents would always sign me up for VBS. I remember the leader of my VBS group said that before you accept Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, you have to do the ABC’s. You have to ADMIT that you’re a sinner, BELIEVE that God sent His Son to die for your sins and CONFESS and turn away from your sins.
I began to better understand His Word and the importance of accepting Him into my life. I talked to my parents, and accepted Christ as my Savior. At my church, people would sign up for a class after they’ve accepted Jesus into their life and were ready for the next step: baptism. So that’s what I did. We would meet once a week for a few weeks. When I was six years old, on July 22, 2007, I was baptized.
After I was baptized, I would read the Bible during Sunday School and during AWANA, but not much at home. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I realized in order to continue growing in my faith, I have to spend time with God every day.
The church I grew up in kept getting smaller and smaller. Soon, I was the only girl in eighth grade at the church. On good days, the youth group would have around eleven kids. My parents decided to start searching for a new church home. We found the church we currently attend at the beginning of my freshman year in high school. This church had a lot more attenders. There were so many more opportunities at the new church, which I believe helped me grow in my faith.
Last year, my mom got the Daily Walk Bible-a Bible that has a few chapters to read every day for 365 days. The goal is to read the entire Bible, and she did it. At the beginning of this year, I decided that I would try to read the entire Bible, which I am still in the process of.
– Janelle 🙂