Challenging Normal

This is Paige and I just returned home from a much needed beach vacation and loved every minute of it. It was an especially great trip due to my beach buddy that went with me. We had a lot of interesting conversations about love, life, and relationships. She asked me some very poignant questions that I almost did not have the answer for. The conversations have challenged me to re-evaluate my own life to truly see my connection to God and others.

Are Christians accepting of others or are they just judging others according to their rules?

As I began to talk, I realized that Christians are like the seashells on the beach, each one different and beautiful. Some were very hard and indestructible, while other shells were broken and tossed to the side. All of the shells were being scattered on the beach; some were challenged by the tide while others were out of reach. Christianity means different things to different people; however, the central focus are loving relationships with God and with others. Just like the shells, no two people are alike, so how can we as Christians judge others. We are all different, but we are all here to serve His purpose for us. Do we turn others away by our attitude or by our lifestyle? What would a non-believer say about you?

Why are your religious convictions strong and where do they come from?

There was a time in my life that I believed in the same things my parents believed in and my grandparents, only because I was told to. Its like the story of the ham that has been told often. The lady cut the end of the ham off because her mother and grandmother did it that way. When challenged about this, her grandmother revealed she only cut the end of the ham because it did not fit into her pan. How often are we like this? We are not sure why we believe in the things that we hold dear. At the first question or challenge, we fold and break down.

All of these responses are my opinions, but I wanted to share them with you. Hopefully, these questions will prompt you to evaluate yourself and your beliefs. It's easy to only fellowship with like-minded people who believe the same way we do, but what happens when you step out of the box?