Some say that your teen years are for finding yourself; figuring out who you are and “your place in this world”. For others, this “finding yourself” stage can last their whole life. Now I’m not saying I have myself totally figured out because I haven't, but I am 21 years old and I’d like to say, I’m not afraid to take a stand to say I’m a child of God.

For many people, especially teens, it’s hard to make that stand. I’m going to be 110% honest. It took me until my sophomore year of college to not only tell myself that I’m a child of God, but also to let it be publicly known that I’m a child of God. It’s not easy standing up for someone/something that’s maybe “not so popular”. Even one of Jesus’ disciples, Peter, who said he would never deny God, had a hard time with that. When Peter felt threatened to be associated with Jesus, he denied Jesus not once but three times when it was most important for him not to.

I’m surrounded by tons of unconditionally-loving friends and family; some of them having a really strong faith and others not so much and everywhere in between. We are all in different walks in our lives with our relationship with God and some haven’t found that relationship yet. That’s okay! I equally love them all so much! Being surrounded by people of strong faith and people of not so strong faith during my teen years made it hard for me to take that stand and be open with my relationship with God. It’s not that I was ashamed of Jesus, because I wasn’t but faith just wasn’t a “hot topic”. Teens spend their teenage lives playing video games and sports or listening to music and hanging out with friends. Not a lot of teens go to hangout with a group of friends and talk about God. That’s kind of the reason why I struggled with being open and confident with my relationship with God.

As I entered my sophomore year of college, I began to settle down and find my group of really close friends. One Thursday night, one of my friends, Emily invited me to Delight (a women’s devotional group at Hanover College). Now that week was probably the most hectic week of my life. I had soccer workouts, a ton of homework, couple of quizzes and exams to study for. I turned to Emily and told her I was swamped and I didn’t know if I had time to go. She said, “Come on! It’ll be a good and a much needed break.” She was right, I definitely needed a little break; so I went. That evening’s devotion topic was “labels”. We went around the room talking about our label(s) and how do people around campus view us. One young lady labeled herself as “a child of God”. This made me reevaluate myself. I wanted to be seen as a child of God. I wanted to be that confident in my faith. I wanted it to be known that God is my pride and joy.

This was life changing for me. Ever since I make it an effort to spread the word of God and show off my label. It was hard to do at first and sometimes it still is. Every now and then I feel like I'm annoying people. I feel like people would rather just talk about sports, the Kardashians or what’s for lunch. But Jesus wasn’t ashamed to be God’s son. Jesus didn’t deny God for one second. In fact, when Jesus’ disciples denied Him, He didn’t curse them or retaliate against them. He prayed for them. He asked God to forgive them. He even asked God to forgive those crucifying Him. I know that couldn’t have been easy; He wasn’t the most popular and well-liked guy around. He knew the public wasn’t going to believe Him unless He proved Himself as God’s son, but He still stood His ground. He didn’t deny God under any circumstance.

Yes, sometimes it’s hard. Yes, sometimes it’s not the most popular thing to do. But I can tell you right now that I’m not afraid to take a stand. When it does get hard and when it’s "not popular", I remind myself that I don’t have anything to hide. Jesus died for us on the cross and that’s something worth showing my love for. I pray for those who haven’t found Jesus. I pray for those who have found Jesus but are afraid of showing off that label as “a child of God”. Spreading the word of God can be hard and intimidating at times, but I encourage you to do so when you can. I also encourage you to pray about it and try to find a devotional/spiritual group to become a part of. Show off that label!

I’m not afraid to take a stand. This one’s for You, God.