I wanted to share our testimonies in honor of Faith and Family Day coming up this Sunday. I don't get to see sweet Husband share his so I thought I'd just Word vomit both of ours in our living room. To me a testimony is that DIVINE MOMENT you excepted Christ into your heart and became a Christ follower and from that day forward you were changed and perfect and ya know all that Church stuff. So I didn't really think I had a testimony. Or it is some crazy story that you were on drugs and saw God in your dreams and went to rehab and found God. I always wanted a cool story like that. But this what we have to offer:
I was born into a Christian home and so was Robbie but both very different from each other. I was raised by the most amazing mother in the entire universe. She was a single mom and my grandma was a huge part in raising me. I basically had all the qualifications to be one of those girls sloring it up and have "daddy issues" but I wasn't big on following the norm so I decided to get over the sob story of life and focus only on the positive. I actually didn't even know not having a Father as an active part of my daily life was weird until about middle school. My mom had all those kids books that taught you- Every family looks different. Which was extremely true for me because Mother is white and I am mixed/ biracial or whatever you like to call it. So I didn't exactly look just like her. I went to a mostly white private Christian school. Believe it or not, I never noticed a difference in my skin color and everyone elses until some punk kid pointed it out. I guess you could say I have been clueless most of my life.
Middle school was tough. Who's wasn't? But all of the sudden all my differences seemed like a big deal and I just wanted someone to relate to me. The only person I found was God. Mother told me, God could look however I wanted him to and be whoever I wanted him to be. And so... He was. He was a best Friend. I was his side kick. And together we could change the world.
God was real to me and tangible and my faith was never determined by Churchy definitions. Mother never let them be. Don't get me wrong I was in Church every Sunday and at a Christian school five days a week so I know my fair share of... the entire Bible. But I knew how to interpret what teachers taught me into what I knew they meant to teach me. For example if the teacher said, "The bible says don't tattoo your body. Your body is a temple" What they really meant was God tattooed your name on the palm of his hands so I should return the favor. I was an excellent student! :)
So I have walked hand in hand with God since I was young. I never really went off the beaten path except for a minor misjudgement in my decisions with eating. Thought I wanted to be a runway model and we all know how that goes. Not eating is NEVER a good decision but that is a whole other story. So middle school passed. I was relatively, shockingly confident simply because I lived life in a daze. I think I still do.
High school.. When I met the man of my dreams. Robbie Ross. Meeting Robbie shaped my faith even deeper. We had completely different views on just about every hot topic there was to talk about. Drinking. Spanking your kids. Who exactly God was to each of us. And of course at the age of 14, I thought we needed to hash all of our beliefs out before we got TOO serious. If you can imagine- our poor parents.
My mom has a somewhat lax view on the world, I guess you could say. I just think its normal. Drinking wasn't bad unless you abused it. Social media wasn't bad unless you used it to do bad things. Basically anything can become bad or Satanic if you let it. I was raised to talk to her about everything. She was very open with me. I wasn't spanked as a child and here's why. Mother had very interesting punishment techniques and I learned lessons very fast. I painted my nails on the top of her car once and was grounded from nail polish for a year.... A YEAR! I didn't put my clothes away after school one time or two and was not allowed to wear anything but my uniform from school for what seemed like a decade. I mean, the things I endured as a child was just obscene. She could write a book on punishing strategies that would rock your world. I was and still am a very sensitive person. Mother says, "Some people are literally born with more heart and heart ache than others". And that I agree. I never lied to her. Well, I did once about talking on the phone to a boy. Ya, only once.
Robbie was parented, from my perspective of what he's told me like this- Alcohol- Why go there? Social Media can lead to dangerous things children don't need to experience. TV- whats that? (slightly kidding) Spanking- whip the fire out of em til they learn a lesson:) Neither are right or wrong... Just different.
So all through high school Robbie and I argued about most things until we both grew up and realized we needed to figure out ourselves and our faith first and that will shape the rest of our decision making. Being the independent, self aware person I was I had soul searched by the time I was two but Robbie on the other hand didn't quite know what he believed. He loved Jesus. Oh, he loves Jesus so much but there were so many things he didn't have "opinions" on that I needed him to. By the time college (for me) and baseball (for him) rolled around we both knew he needed to become a man, lead our relationship, and start figuring out what exactly he believed.
He grew up fast his first year of baseball. It was undeniable. He was leading us down a path that made sense to us both. And that was simply for each of us to Love God and Love People every second of everyday.Why bother trying to figure out how we would raise our kids until we actually had them? DUH! I was a control freak of nature and he didn't think passed lunch time so somehow we balanced each other out. At this point we were in the real world experiencing real things and it blew our minds. We had each other to lean on. And together we could conquer the world.
Robbie interrupts me now wanting to share word for word his coming to Christ moment. "About the 4th grade I became interested in the Bigger picture of becoming a Christian. But 8th grade, he says was when he wanted to completely live a life for Him and the feeling of not being alone". (AH! we do have something in common)"I found that God was always there whenever I need him... with whatever emotion I was feeling. Baseball and God have always been important in my life. I always knew God called me to share my faith threw baseball. I like to just be an example by my actions and not preach down peoples throats. Once I accepted Christ into baseball I became a better athlete. There wasn't as much pressure because I wasn't playing for just myself. I knew God had a plan for me to use baseball as my ministry. My heart has always been there in baseball and ya know then He put Brittany in my life. Britt, You give me stability and encourage me in the tough times". He exists the room, on that note with a bowl of chips.
We have for sure made our fair share of bad decisions and we are okay with that. I believe that is where Christians have got it all wrong. For some reason we are fooled to believe we have to be perfect. Hide our flaws. We especially believe we have to interpret the Bible correctly and we spend so much time debating what that book actually means. What Robbie and I have come to realize is this: The bible is an amazing tool to be used by Christians to bring us closer together not to argue about whether you are going to hell if you are gay or drink too much on weekends. But Jesus also gave us a heart, and a mind, and a soul. And so many other tools to teach us on this journey of life. The main thing our hearts and minds and souls and even that dag gum Bible has taught us is to love God and love people. So when people ask us what our beliefs are on drinking, cursing, smoking weed, rap music and all of that Hot Topic Churchy Stupid crap, we say this: Stop Judging People and Start Loving Them. That is the only way we know how to live our lives. It is what brings us together.
Christians, I urge you to stop telling people your opinions on these things. It only comes across as judgey and annoying.
To anyone who doesn't believe in a Divine Power. That is okay. We can all still love each other and I am sorry about the idiot that gave you a false idea of who God is.
Robbie and I are living out a testimony everyday. We just want to radically love people in a world that makes that very thing tough.
Love God. Love People.
xox
HE>i
Such a great testimony! If only more people would get out and share theirs!
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