I'm in college. I'm constantly messing up and pushing my limits. I don't read my bible like I should. I attend church on holidays and hopefully when I return home for weekends. I never speak up when asked my opinion on a bible study topic or read my devotional every morning. I know how much I don't deserve God's love. How sometimes it's hard to even ask him for advice or for prayers that seem so tiny compared to everyone else. Sometimes it's like you take breaks from God and when you're back you wonder how he could even still love you while you haven't spoken to him or thought about him in weeks.

This is for all the people who struggle to have that (eat, breathe, sleep) kind of relationship with God and get judged for it.

What I've learned is sometimes we sin. Sometimes we run the opposite direction from what we know is right. Sometimes we push our limits. Sometimes we beg for God's forgiveness. Sometimes we question why He takes the things we love the most and forgets some of our strongest prayers.

Growing up being a Christian, we have always been told that we must be picture perfect and read the Bible every day, always pray before every meal and never forget to say "Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take."

Though, as I've gotten older it seems to get harder and harder. Without a doubt, I believe I love God and have a relationship with him. What we as a community have to understand is that everyone has a different relationship. Just because someone goes to a Bible study on Wednesday nights and never misses a church sermon, doesn't mean that their relationship means more than someone who may drink on Saturday nights and oversleep on Sunday mornings. It's just like in a romantic relationship, some people when they are angry like to take time to get over it on their own and some like to lash out and apologize later. Everyone reacts and loves differently. Both could end up with similar results of either breaking up or coming out stronger. So why do we assume that the girl who comes to church only when she has had a bad week deserves God's love less than the family of four that shows up each week like clockwork?

We shouldn't. We are all on different paths with our faith and we're always wanting his love, that's what should matter.

"Yes, I am a Christian. Yes, I can be the biggest hypocrite ever. I backslide, I stumble, I fall. I stray onto the wrong path, but God is working in me. I may be a mess, but I'm His mess. He is slowly straightening me out and the day will come when I will be by His side, His work in me completed."

How wonderful it is to have someone that forgives you no matter how badly you run off course. To have someone to place all your worries and hopes in and know that he will make them right. Every broken heart, every wrong turn, every friendship you make, he does that. He knows us better than ourselves. I cannot even fathom a love that strong.

So instead of people always judging the "imperfect" Christians, why aren't they encouraged to keep doing their best and not lose their relationship they have built.

"Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling." -- 1 Peter 4:8-9