I grew up Christian and consider myself a Christian. But there was substantial unlearning I had to do outside of church to see beyond the traditional constructs of the religion to form a personal and authentic relationship with God.

I think about my early Christian experience and how Hell was consistently presented to me almost as a scare tactic to encourage obedience and how that created a habit of hopeful repentance and not honest repentance.

I also think about how so much emphasis is placed on knowing about God at a young age instead of knowing God. I am grateful for the teachings which have been invaluable to my walk, but I could of greatly benefited from understanding more about building the relationship early on.