I grew up with a Catholic identity attached to me. I was baptized and confirmed Catholic. I attended Catholic schools, from preschool all the way to high school, and even now, I'm attending a Catholic University for undergrad. I am not a strict Catholic by any means, but my faith is unwavering. When I was younger, I prayed to God that I would accomplish great things in life, find a career that I loved, travel a ton, and find a guy that was smart, kind, and loved God.

Well, flash forward to today, God has answered my prayers of bringing an amazing guy into my life, who is insanely smart, kind, funny, and down-to-earth.... but, he's not religious. I didn't find this out until about six months into our relationship. By then, I had completely fallen for him, and essentially thought that he was the greatest thing since sliced bread (still do, actually), so it definitely came as a slap to the face when he uttered the words: "Well, I'm not sure if I believe in God." [*insert face plant*]

I remember going home that night, thinking, ok God what the heck are you doing here? He's literally so wonderful, but he doesn't love You....he doesn't know You. How am I supposed to handle this? I felt that there were only 2 options: 1) Break up with him or 2) Help him find God! And since clearly #1 was the absolute last thing I wanted to do, I went for option #2: "Operation Help Bae Find God!"

Well, let's just say it might have been completely obvious to my boyfriend that I was basically trying to force my religion on him. I mean, literally my musical tastes went from The Weekend to playing nothing but christian rock music in the car together. I've had friends that didn't believe in God, but having a boyfriend that bordered the edge of disbelief was hard.

I finally came clean, and told him, I just didn't know how to be in a relationship with someone who didn't believe in God. I mean I just didn't see how it was supposed to work. For me, I always think of the future and of all of the "what ifs". So, I confessed that, hypothetically, if we were to get married in the future, was I supposed to forfeit my dream of getting married in the Catholic church?; was I supposed to attend Sunday mass alone?; was I supposed to just keep God "to myself"? All of these questions plagued my mind, and I just didn't have any answers because I loved God more than anything, but quite honestly, I was falling in love with my boyfriend too.

It was in this moment that my boyfriend uttered the truest of words, "We aren't always going to be on the same page, but that doesn't mean it has to affect or change us as a couple". I would have to be insanely naive to believe that every single person in the entire world was faithful to God. I mean, a good portion of my friends aren't religious at all. It was in that moment that I realized God wouldn't want me to discriminate against ANYONE, and that includes people who don't believe in him. If my mom decided she didn't believe in God anymore, am I supposed to deny her as my mother? If one of my best friends stopped believing in God, am I supposed to forget all of the amazing memories we have, and unfriend them? The answer is NO!

Just because someone doesn't have faith in God, does NOT make them a bad person. I always knew this, but finally I was comfortable enough to accept this. For me, I will always pray that those who do not believe in God can one day find him and feel his everlasting love, but if they don't, who am I to make them? The only thing I can do is remain unwavering in my faith and work on my own spiritual growth, and of course if ever anyone is seeking ways to know Christ, I can always be there to lend them a helping hand and hopefully inspire them to find that special connection with God.

And while it is awesome when couples are able to worship together, pray together, and enjoy the presence of God together, sometimes that doesn't always happen for couples. You cannot control who you fall in love with. That's the beauty of life, it doesn't always turn out the way you plan. But when life throws you some big surprises, you just have to roll with it. And, I am a firm believer that God wants all of us to be happy, no matter who you are or what you believe.