Has there ever been a moment in your life where you made a life-changing decision without thinking twice about it? About six months ago, one of the choices I made was deciding to blindly follow God without anything holding me back. I feel like I have grown in my faith, relationships, and as a person. This type of devotion has brought me so much joy, yet so much pain.

Briefly, I wanted to take some time to talk about how this has been one of the hardest times in my life. Why is it that everything can seem to be going so well, and also feel like everything is falling apart at the same time? No one told me that following God was going to be easy, but I did not expect it to be this hard.

I hope that through my own personal experience, I am able to shed some light on what it is like to follow God without question. I did not have someone to give me advice once I decided to embark on this journey, and I would have loved a heads up.

If I could give any advice at all, I would start with accepting the things that you cannot change. Being strong in your faith comes at a price. For me, I have lost friends, and other people I care about because we cannot see eye to eye on things anymore. That is a hard pill to swallow because it is never easy to feel like you are walking this path alone. Everyone has their own unique and individual relationship with God, and it is such a wonderful thing.

Although you may lose some people on the way, God is so good. He knows exactly what you need. The people who leave your life were only meant to serve as a learning experience, and not as a permanent part of your life. Once you set your path straight, you will quickly realize who will stick around and continue to bring you up, and the toxic people who will fade away.

Honestly, stay true to yourself, and trust that God is setting you up to succeed. Following without any guidance from anyone else seems hard, but trusting that He is in control is what you need to take comfort in. You are going to face so much criticism for not wanting to get caught up in what you think is not right, and it is going to be difficult to push past that.

When the journey with your faith gets too hard for you to handle, kneel. Pray, pray, pray. Ask God to help you find others like you to do life together with. When you have people surrounding you that are struggling with you, you will feel so much more motivated to continue down this road.

Also, find a church that feels like a second home. For me, I found my forever church when I was in sixth grade. Whenever I am feeling weak or unworthy, I make sure to go to church or even watch a service online. Finding that connection with a place of faith makes life a little easier as well.

Good luck, and continue to keep the faith.