I'm Gonna Write A Blog?!

 Hello! 

   I've always enjoyed typing, yet I've never been able to finish a novel. And approximately half an hour ago, I became inspired by the "Little Faith Blog", which you should check out.  So when I stumbled upon Jenny's Little Faith Blog, I realized there was a perfect solution to my need to write; blogging. 

    Acadia, you can't just decide to write a blog out of nowhere! What will this even be about?

    Very good question, reader. After pondering a couple hobbies, I realized there was only one thing I could truly talk about for hours on end, and that was God. Or His Word. I plan on doing so here! Before I can mention the little details, I have a story.

Why Jesus?

    I went into a public high school after being home-schooled for middle school, which as one can imagine, was a bit of a shock. I had grown up in public school, and I had non-christian friends, so I knew what to expect, but some things still were hard to get used to. (I will make some posts about these other things in the future!) 

    The first thing I noticed was what I was allowed to talk about and not allowed to talk about. Just to be safe, I rarely talked about Jesus. Multiple girls had told me in the first month that they liked me, because, "You're the kinda Christian that doesn't shove it down my throat," or "You don't force your religion." Initially, I counted that as a win. I was supposed to be showing love, and they were already accepting it. 

    Still, don't talk about Jesus all the time? That seemed like an odd rule. 

    On the contrary, I definitely was expected to talk about annoying homework, boys, grumpy teachers, and the mistakes other girls made.

    By the end of the first semester of freshman year, I had discovered as much as I loved the girls I became friends with, I had denied Jesus in every conversation. My Creator, Father, and Friend who should be the center of life became the outer edge of my life. I pushed Him there by ignoring plenty of opportunities to point to Him, and instead letting people live unaware of who He was. Sure, people knew His name, but that didn't mean those people knew Him.

    Why Jesus? 

    Why was He one of the few things I was "not allowed" to talk about according to high school social rules? 

    Well, Christianity has been portrayed as serious, overly traditional, and annoying to the secular world, particularly a religion that adults began to follow after they settled down and were done with "having fun". If I tried to share the Truth, I would be forcing a "boring" belief system on teens whose sole purpose (or their idea of purpose) was to have fun and live life to its fullest.

    The last thing on their minds was to get serious about some strict religion.

    Long story short, I avoided spreading the gospel (for the most part) freshman year. Maybe it was towards the middle of being a freshman in high-school, or the end, or maybe it was the summer leading up to my sophomore year, but the Holy Spirit reminded me that I didn't have to be afraid of what people would think. I could chat about the Bible all day if I wanted to, and I could spread the Gospel to people in the hallway if I wanted to.

    It was about God, not my "accepted list of topics" in the teenage social rule book.

    "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek."    Romans 1:16

This Blog  

    As implied in the story above, my freshman year looked different compared to my sophomore year. The past school year had countless debates, deep discussions, conversations, lunch chats, and one-liners in hall that included God (or Christianity/the Church) in them. I'm beyond glad I got judge-y remarks to my face from "talking too much" about these things. 

    Hopefully I can capture some of those stories, and topics to come that are about God, the Bible, the Church, and how to talk about those things to non-Christians. 
    I also intend on writing about other subjects, like prayer, relationships, girlhood, becoming a godly young lady, and more in this blog.

    Oh my goodness! Look at that! I've already written my first-ever blog post, whaaaaat? I'm so excited. There is much more to come, so thank you so much for reading. Have a lovely morning/day/evening, and I encourage you to talk about God to others soon.

- Acadia Thimlar    :)