Are you a good Christian?

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Here in WA, the North Unit CLP is currently underway.  As of this writing, we have just finished our 2nd day of the CLP.  I was privileged to do the sharing after Talks 2 and 3 - and if you were there, I would like to say thank you for listening.  Here’s a snippet of my sharing.

For a start, my husband and I graduated from the CLP only 2 years ago, and just like most of us members, we were invited by friends to join the CFCA community.  We have known about CFC for a long time though my sister used to be active in YFC way back in the late 90s/ early 2000, my mom - HOLD, my mom-in-law still attends CFC HH; and my husband was, at some point when he was at Uni, been invited to join SFC.  It was only when we were approached as a couple to join CFCA that we decided to attend the CLP, 11 years after getting married.

One of the talks that resonated with me during our first ever CLP was Talk 3 - “What it means to be a Christian”.  Prior to that talk, if anyone asks me if I am a good Christian, I would be able to answer that with a resounding YES!  I can speak for my husband and I that we know right versus wrong, and so we are doing the good things and avoiding the bad.  We tick boxes of do’s and don’ts.  We teach our kids about God.  We pray with them, we pray for them, we teach them how to pray.  Our children attended a daycare run by a Christian school.  We were living very busy lives and at the same time were taking turns taking care of two small kids while also working full time - I, during the week; my husband on weekends and occasional weeknights.  However, our church life was non-existent.  I couldn’t bring myself to bring two small kids to church on a weekend by myself, as it would be too much hard work to stop any of my kids if they start running or crying during the Holy Mass.  During the 3 years that we were living in regional QLD, we have only ever been to the local Catholic church once, and that was during our youngest daughter’s baptism.

So even before we moved back to WA, we knew that had to change - we needed to do more.  It started with attending the weekly mass.  It was during the time we were attending CLP that, during one of the church homilies, the priest reminded us that with everything that God has given us in our lives, surely He deserves to have more than an hour a week of our time.    So the invitation to join the CLP came at a time when we were ready to take one more step.  The transition was made easier as God surrounded us with people who were of the same faith - people who attended mass regularly.  Since joining the CFCA community, we have been surrounded by more people who were doing more than just attending weekly masses - they were also serving and giving back to God.

In the past 2-and-so years here in WA, my family and I have started attending mass regularly - and it is an awe to see and witness our kids, the same kids who I initially were worried about bringing to church alone, acknowledge that our weekend routine includes attending mass.  Our kids are excited to attend Children’s Liturgy during Sunday mass.  We look forward to our HH meetings, and our kids are also excited to go (most probably because they have uninterrupted playtime).  We also now have conversations about the bible at home - admittedly it’s usually initiated by the kids telling us what they learned at school that day.  Their prayers have now evolved from “thank You for giving us ice cream” to “thank You for giving us our family and friends”.  And so now, we might still be ticking boxes - but not because we have to, but because we love to.

If anyone asks me now if I am a good Christian - I probably would think of what we have so far changed in our lives.  I won’t have a straight yes-or-no answer, and I might just say “I hope so.”.  I hope to still be a better Christian.  We hope to be better Christian parents and raise our kids to be better Christians than we currently are. From: Michelle Dukha (WA)