"Um..my family isn't Christian. I'm the only one." "What about your parents?" Parent. One. Singular. "Where's your dad?" Somewhere in Florida, I don't know.... "Oh, she had a child at a young age...that kid is going to have a kid at a young age...and the cycle is just going to continue." "People who don't have money are lazy." "Everyone was telling me that I should get an abortion and I should have listened to them. You're lucky I went through with my pregnancy." "You don't have a boyfriend...you must like girls." "You're beautiful...on the inside."

****I truly hope this doesn't sound like complaining because that is definitely not what I intend to do. My intentions are to show people that they need to be careful what they say because it can stick with someone for a long time. If you would like any of these sentences explained, I will be more than willing to explain if you ask. I just don't want this blog to be longer than anyone's attention span.****

These are all things that I have responded to over and over to people or things that people have said to me/about others that have really hurt me. Most of this was not recent but have stuck with me. I don't know if people realize that the words they say, even out of anger, have power over people. I don't know if people realize that they shouldn't assume things just because people don't meet their typical expectations. Not everybody is a conventional, run of the mill, got saved when they were 4, Godly parents, grew up in church all of their life Christian. We have to realize that everyone comes from a different environment, a different background, has different aspiration and goals than everyone else. Some people have had things handed over to them. Others have learned from hardship. Others have learned from other peoples' mistakes.

I chose to follow God on my own, without any parental influence. I know my mom loves me but she could probably care less whether or not I go to church. At first, I believed in God, I went to church...but I was taught that there is nothing more to God than the initial salvation encounter. Maybe they taught something else but that's what I thought. You get saved and that's it, you can do whatever you want. I had friends that told me there was something more worth living for. But there was nothing more, why should I believe them? God was just somebody we sang hymns to and read about in the King James Bible...we followed a set of rules...some people, the rules were more enforced on than others. I started to believe my friends that told me there was something more and went to their church with them. I thought it was a cult at first. (I still go to that church when I'm home, 7 years later.) I kept going back. I didn't know why, but I kept going back. I eventually got into it...then something happened one day, so I tried to run away. I don't remember what it was but I remember that it happened. I decided that I would just go to church and go through the motions but not put my heart into it. That was my way of running away without anyone questioning me. My friend handed me a letter a couple of days later, the first line: "I AM MORE THAN JUST CHURCH." I knew what I was getting into was real after that. I never tried to run away again.

But truly, people have hurt me even in the church. I go to a private Christian college. We're all at different places in our walk with God but sometimes people just assume little things like I have two parents. Sometimes it hurts. I wish people wouldn't just assume before getting to know people. I wish they wouldn't just say things without thinking that maybe, just maybe it might hurt the other person.