Like the saints

We come from a very religious culture where, since birth, our religious customs and traditions are instilled in us. Many times, our culture shows a punishing and cruel God: “If you misbehave, God will punish you…” “If you do such and such, you will go to hell…” And so we grow up.

We are fully aware that every action brings a reaction, and when we start thinking that we should go to church, pray, go to Bible school, etc, we might think that if we don’t, God will punish us. The truth is God is not a punishing God. We need to get rid of these erroneous perceptions.

We don't go to church out of a fear of being punished for everything we’ve done wrong and although we have confession, some consider it to be a way for God to know just how much we have failed him through our behavior.

If you grow closer to the youth groups in our church, you will learn that many of these beliefs of a vengeful God, who punishes, ended at the cross with Jesus. Now the pact that the Lord offers us is that we too are the children of God and He so loved the world that he gave us his own son.

Let's come into contact with God and serve our neighbor. Through participation in youth groups, you will have the opportunity to learn that God does not punish but gives us many opportunities for confession and forgiveness.

Of course we are human and even the greatest saints felt temptations and failed, but they continued struggling and with faith they achieved their goals and were able to attain perfection.

Even if we fall over and over again and we feel that the way of holiness is not for us, we must continue to move forward. Remember when you learned to ride a bike, you fell but got back up, and continued because you wanted to do it. In this same manner, we must continue forward, never losing the hope that one day we will achieve what we set out to do.

Let us not wait any longer and go out to encounter God in our community.
May God bless you always.