Growing Up Amish

My eldest son attended & graduated from Allegheny College in Meadville, PA. On his 21st birthday, his college pals took him to the local strip joint. (A pretty normal celebration for the English!) He was extremely surprised to see that more than half of the gents in attendance were [apparently] Amish, as evidenced by their dress and the horse-drawn carriages in the parking lot. Again, what’s up with this?

Believe it or not this does not surprise me at all.  We have to remember that the Amish people are human beings with all the same feelings/urges as any of us.  Some people choose to believe that a strip joint is not the moral thing to do and others see it as an entertainment.  That same type of thinking is excercised amongst all Amish communities.

As sad as this may seem to some readers, some Amish children grow up thinking that if they only continue to appear Amish and go through the motions of attending church and living without modern conveniences, that is all they are required to do for a chance of a spot in Heaven (I was taught that Salvation is not a Promise).

Can you imagine living your life knowing that some things you are doing are not morally correct but because you keep living the lifestyle that you were born into you get a free pass.  I lived with that thought process for the first 24 years of my life.  In my community we had a few of those free-pass thinking people.  Example…..One of the ministers participates in punishing members for having a cell phone but this man has one himself and uses it everyday.  Another example…..I absolutely hated how people gossiped about me but I also participated in gossip about other community members all the time during the years I lived there.

As the years went by I disliked who I had become more and more, therefore making one of the toughest decisions in my life…..leaving everything I had ever known to be right in search for a life of purpose, peace at heart, and to develop Faith in the God I knew existed but did not believe in.  God kept the little flame within me alive wanting more and a better understanding as to why I was put on this earth.

The desires that God put in my Heart were greater than the circumstances I was born into, but complete transformation was necessary to survive where God was leading me.  Basically I killed the old Anna and Re-invented the new me.

A complete Transformation was God’s plan for me.

When I walked away from my community for good it was not easy.  I had to re-invent not only my way of surviving but also transform my way of thinking.  Transforming my thought processes was one of the most challenging things I ever did.  Even today I sometimes am challenged to stop my past way of thinking and do what my morals are today.  Awareness that my thought process was keeping me down was enough for me to go forward and begin the transforming process with full force.  The road was not easy but faith grew very quickly and I was determined to follow my heart. 

Do you feel stuck in a rut and cannot move forward?  Is something in your life holding you back?

Re-invent yourself for a complete transformation to overcome your problem.  If you continue to do what you have always done then you will continue to always get what you have always gotten….right!  That is so true.  I have experienced this very thing so many times but as soon as I made myself aware of the fact then I could begin working towards what I really wanted.

More to come on my jouney of Transformation…….coming soon!