Growing up in the church
September 10, 2012 | By: Cristiane Cardoso | Posted in: Behavior, Uncategorized, Work of God
I always felt sad when we moved from place to place, but can you blame me after changing schools every year? But one day it was too much! My mother always tried to cheer us up with every move. She would give us the first letter of the place we were going to so we could guess where. But when she did it this particular time, I couldn’t take it. I went out of the room to cry. We had just arrived where we were, and I had quickly gotten used to it already. I had made friends, and felt like I had come home.
I complained with God that day. What kind of life is this? – I thought inside myself. I even wanted to know God, but this wouldn’t work. When I finally got used to a place, we would soon leave to go to another place. The moves made me insecure, shy and tense. Just thinking about having to face everything all over again, in a new place, simply terrified me. My parents would tell be to be nice to others… But I simply couldn’t. I didn’t know the people around me, and I seriously felt it was a waste of time because pretty soon we would move and I wouldn’t see them again.
When I got to a new school (which happened more than 20 times – literally,) I was already prepared. No way would I tell them I was from The UCKG! I had no hope of making friends, but I tried my best to not make enemies. Which is basically an impossible task being a Bishop’s daughter in The Universal Church, in Brazil. When someone asked me about my religion, I told them I was Christian; but I didn’t mention what church I attended.
I remember, one day when we were doing an assignment in Geography class, my group insisted on knowing what church I attended… I was so embarrassed that I lied and said the Baptist church. I did it as self-defense from criticism. I had no choice – at least that’s what I told myself. But deep inside I felt the pain from how weak I was being. My God, how can I not assume the church I go to?
I felt lost in school, I felt lost in church, and I had no clue of who I truly was. I was one thing at school, then another in church; but inside I felt the pain of being neither of the world nor of God.
Cristiane Cardoso
Author of the books "Better than a new pair of shoes", "V woman" and "Casamento Blindado" (Bulletproof Marriage). Founder of "Godllywood" and "Rahab Project". Presenter of "The Love School" at Rede Record.
Indeed is not easy to grow up in the church, When people around you don’t know where you really from ,they treat you normal but once they realise that you are from Uckg they automatically start to treat you like an Allian from Space. I have learned to excel and be really different from them inorder to fish them to God. We are the light of the world,so let’s enjoy the honour of growing up in the house of God. Thank you Mrs Aline.
Dear Mrs. Aline
It’s true that the pain of not knowing who you are is unbearable to the piont that you will do anything to find out and most of the time you end being completely destroyed.
Thank you for your post.
Hi Mrs Aline…
This means a lot to me..If I am shy about God, He will never be able to do what I want and many times the white lies about our religion blinds not to see and experience the great plans that God has for us.
Hi Mrs Aline.
Thank you for your testimony it has got me thinking deeply.
Thank you so much.
Wow , i remember when my friends would ask me to hang out friday nights but i couldnt because i wanted to be in church and i would lie and say i was going out with my family . when i would go into church i would feel bad about that. Today im glad i can be proud of who i Serve and what He has done to my life
It was really interesting and helpful. It made me think it really is true that it not enough to be in the church and believe in God but that we must have a relationship with Him be born of God in order to do His will and overcome the things of this world.
I can really relate to what you are saying because my father is a military man and in the army you get moved a lot, so as I grew up I went through the same in my country in Cameroon which is where I am from, I felt sad and empty and I had to make friends all over again which I became used too. Well this only change when I came here to leave with my mum at the age of 15 and came to know the universal church at the age of 19 and started walking in the faith until today. Is amazing how God works.
Thanks for sharing.
Mrs Cris i relate to almost all the stories here,because i also used to be two-faced i was one person in the church and another outside the church.And i was even afraid for people to know that am a christian.But i thank God i grew up in the church because it saved me from lot of things and i’ve learnt alot at a young age nd am still learning today
Thank You for sharing Mrs.Cris
I used to hide once in my life because of how the church was persecuted.I was young and wanted to be liked by others.
Until I knew Jesus,until I had my own personal experience with Him.Now I am not ashamed at all.It does not matter what anyone says I know were I found Jesus.Instead they now[people] want to know more about the church.And I invite them.
In faith…
I thank you Mrs. for your openness and honesty in writing to us a personal experience that could make you appear so vulnerable like all of us. Once in our lives, we have been confronted by a situation that deprived us of ourselves, so that we hide our real identity in a make-believe in order to escape from something we don’t understand. But in trying to escape it, we find out that we just don’t belong anywhere else other than in God’s arms. We are His, and in Him we find our identity. Being strangers in this world, we get attracted to the many things around us and most often we forget who we really are. But praise God, He uses this exact failure so we may know ourselves better . Thank you for the lesson.
Dear Mrs. Aline,
Your testimony is very strong and i believe through our testimony will help so many people to analize their lives. Coming to church or attending the service is not enough.
How many times they felt the same way as u do like before lost.
Looking forward for the continuation of your testimony. Kisses