Christian

This name is associated with incredible negativity: mocking, criticism, hate. I believe this is because many self-proclaimed Christians aren't living the life Christ intended.

True Christianity - really living life by the example Jesus gave us - is love and sacrifice. It is a God who created us, loving and sacrificing for us, showing us our faults and helping us through them. (My husband summed up a blog post with this: "This is not a picture of an iron fist, but a pierced hand.") It is about loving and accepting people, even if you don't understand or agree with them. It is about sacrificing your time, money, and comfort to help others. It is about being bold in your beliefs, not pompous in your personal judgement.

By bold, I mean that I do believe what the Bible teaches. I am a hypocrite if I pick and choose what in the Bible I want to believe, and what I want to live out.

I am a Christian. I try every second to live my life with the kind of love God wants me to have. I am not perfect and could never claim to be. Nor do I believe others are beneath me. I am excited in my faith and about my faith and I am sorry for what we as people do every day to darken the light Christ has given us. But I haven't given up on "the Church" because I recognize that Christ is God and people are humans. We are supposed to be reflections of God, but the reflection is dim.