I remember telling her: "I don't want to be a Christian. I can't be a
Christian." I was very upset.
hi! welcome! If you are new, my name is Shawn and today's video is on how I
became a Christian. Christian! So serious. I don't know if this is going to be
a serious video or not. If you are new, I would love for you to subscribe by
hitting that red subscribe button down below. I post new videos every Tuesday
and Wednesday so ring the little bell so that you get notified when I post. But,
let's get into today's video. If you hear any babbling, baby girl - my seven-month-old,
she's sitting right over here. She may join me for this video like she does
sometimes. So here we go. Thank you a Nikki Schumacher for
suggesting that, for my birthday week, I talk about how I became a Christian- my
salvation story- and share that with you all. Nikki Shumaker is also a Christian
youtuber and you should definitely check out her channel. I will post a link to
her channel in the description box down below. You will love her cleaning videos
so I will send you to one of her cleaning videos which is one of the
reasons why I watch her. I love that she talks about- her slogan is-
"practically imperfect in every way". She talks about being a mom and how you
don't have to be perfect in being a mother. That kind of leads me into my
story. Let me get baby girl here. That leads me into talking about my story.
Growing up I've always thought that I had to be perfect to be a
Christian. I'm not quite sure where I got that from. I have a feeling it's from
growing up in the Southern Baptist tradition. I'm not knocking Southern
Baptists. I had a very positive experience growing up in the Southern
Baptist Church but looking back on it I think that my idea and my notion
as a child of having to be perfect all the time and in everything that I do came
from, not only my parents, but also from the church that I was raised in. The
whole concept of you can't sin in order to to be saved. I feel like
my salvation story has led me up to this YouTube moment and the reason that I do
YouTube. I'm just going to give you a little snippet here but the reason I do
YouTube is to walk along with other moms, like myself, who are Christian, who are
non-christian, but who are trying to raise their children in the Christian
faith. I feel like we need to do that together.
I feel like Christianity isn't an individual choice but is a community. It
takes a village to raise children. It takes a Christian village
to raise Christian kids. I feel like that is my main purpose on
YouTube. To come alongside you and help you raise your kids in the
Christian faith. Also to connect with you all because I'm not perfect in my
Christian faith and how I raise my kids. I don't know everything
so I'm also looking to connect with you all on how you raise your kids. That is
my purpose. We need to raise our kids together in the Christian faith. It takes
a community. It takes a village. It's a struggle. The mom struggle is real! So
whether you have a different salvation story from mine, you are welcome here in
this PrayerLights community. We will raise our tribe of Christians together!
Most importantly, we will be imperfect Christians together. We will be imperfect
Christian moms together trying to raise our kids imperfectly and love Christ
imperfectly. My grandpa was a Southern Baptist pastor.
He would call us kids out while we sat on the front row. He had no problem calling
his kids and grandkids out if we were misbehaving as
we sat on the front row and tell us "hey Shawn! sit down." there's that. As I
was growing up, my mom did an amazing job of making sure that we kids were in
church every Sunday. I'm not just talking about just on Sunday morning. We were in
church- I was in church- all day long. I don't know about my brother and sister.
We are seven and eight years apart. I was in church for Sunday school,
worship, and then I came back for choir practice -what else?- then we had
discipleship training they called it, and then we had another worship service on
Sunday night. Then I was back again on Wednesdays or Thursdays. Wednesdays for
Girls In Action and Acteens which were kind of mission programs that were
just for girls. Then I think I came for youth group later and
any special stuff in between. She's getting fussy. I had wonderful, excellent
Sunday School teachers. I remember they were so loving and encouraged me and my
Girls IN Action leaders encouraged me in missions. Everybody said "you know
Shawn's going to do something in the church." When I was in one Bible School, I was
probably 6 or 7 years old, the church had a tradition of asking for kids
if they want to be saved. Well, I didn't really understand what that meant but
everybody was getting up so I got up as well. I was probably 5 or 6 so I went up
with my friends but I did not accept Christ then because I did not understand
salvation. At that young age, I understood I did not understand what I
was doing. I was just following along with everybody else. I was not saved even
though there was the call to salvation at that point. By "salvation," for those
of you who aren't aware, it just means "being a follower of Christ, recognizing
that there are bad things in your life that only Christ can help you
with and help you through." There are a lot of "churchy" words that churches like
to use: salvation, redemption, repentance. I don't really
like using those words too much because I feel like they put us in a category.
But, anyways, that's a whole other story. Fast-forward to I'm probably 9 or 10
years old, I remember standing in my room by my dresser. My mother asking me why I
didn't want to be a Christian. I remember telling her: "I don't want to be
a Christian. I can't be a Christian." I was very upset about it. Mom asked me why and
I said something "because I have to be perfect and I can't be perfect. I'm not a
good girl. I can't be perfect." I remember my mom
saying to me: "you don't have to be perfect to be a Christian. you just have
to try to be perfect. you just have to try to be perfect." I'm not sure, mom, if I
got the words correct but that's how I remember it.
You probably said some variation of that. That triggered something in me. oh ok
so I don't have to do everything perfectly.
I can still mess up at times. ok. I can do that. Then mom asked me: "you know what
do you believe in Jesus Christ?" and I said "yes." "and do you believe that Christ died
for the bad things that we do and then God rose Christ again and Christ is
still alive and Christ will come back again the end times?"
and I said "yeah I believe all those things." okay so I am a Christian. I still
didn't get saved. I still didn't make the public decision because, in the Baptist
Church that I was a part of, you had to make a public affirmation of faith.
Meaning, you had to say to the entire congregation that you were Christian. It
was a big deal and that scared me. I was a very shy kid. I didn't like to talk in
front of public. Majorly got the sweats. I'd start sweating everywhere.
Fast-forward to when I was 14. I decided to become a Christian. I remember
walking down the church aisle to "I had to follow Jesus." I sweated so much you
guys. Everybody was standing up. They always did an altar call at the end of
the worship service where they play the music like either "victory in Jesus" or
"I have decided to follow Jesus" or some kind of emotional hymn. Then they
invited people to walk forward and proclaim Christ as their own. Proclaiming
I am Christian so I did that. I felt God giving me the courage to walk
down that aisle. That's how I became a Christian. I didn't really understand
everything to be a Christian. I believe that Christianity is a journey. Yes, you
can make a public affirmation of faith. I like that aspect in the Baptist Church.
It's a lifelong journey and we're constantly learning how to be a
Christian. I don't understand everything about my own salvation now and so I'm
not going to judge anybody else on their walk through life and walk with
Christ. So that is my story of how I became a Christian. If you would like to
hear my story of my call into ministry- because if you didn't know I
have been a children's minister for 13 years now.
I'm not ordained. Now, I have a call to youtube. If you'd like to hear
my call story into ministry then let me know in the comment section down below
and I will make that video for you. Come back next week because I'm going to be
talking about what it's like to be a woman in ministry and my struggle as a
woman in ministry. I'll give you a little bit of a story of my struggle as
a woman in the ministry. If you're interested in that video, come back next
week. Tomorrow is my birthday, so make sure you watch video tomorrow. It's a fun
video. It's going to be my birthday game suggestions. No, I'm not going to tell you
how old. I am- no seriously- I'm going to be 38. Honestly, it's not that big a deal.
It feels just like 37. 40 will be the big deal. I think I can handle 38. So let's
grow our tribe of Christian children together, imperfectly,
and love Christ, imperfectly. Don't forget to check out Nikki Schumacher officials
YouTube channel for a lot of other imperfect ways to raise kids. Again I will
have one of her videos linked in the description box down below. Thanks Nikki
for asking me to tell my salvation story on video. I will see you guys in
tomorrow's video. Thanks for watching! The struggle. The struggle is real.
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