5 Must do things when in South Beach, Miami..

1. The Palace

2. Ocean Drive

3. The Beach. Duh.

4. Shopping on Collins.

5. Walk down Lincoln.

What I learnt while not going to church.

I have not gone to church for 5 months!

-and before this "dry spell", as my friends & family knew, I was a "regular" church goer. You can decide what that means, because I'm not sure I know. 

I was/am considered as a "religious" person by my "non-chrisitian" friends. 

I was/am (probably) considered slightly "unruly" to some of my "Christian" friends. 

And! I am happy to be considered to be both. 

I often used to blog about my views on faith so I don't see why I should stop now. 

I left South Africa on the 30th of March. Traveled most of the time I've been away. Although I moved in to my Dad's place (based in England) I haven't spent enough time here to find a church that works for me or make a big group of friends, etc. 

-In the past 5 months I've met many people, majority of them not Christian. I loved that fact. And as humanly possible, I love them all! I met SUCH AMAZING people! With fantastic stories! And now most of them are really good friends of mine.
(NO INTOLERANCE AMONGST ANY OF US!)

-In the past 5 months I've taken part in what "religious" people refer to as "worldly" behaviour, i.e, drink, go to clubs, possible swear word or two? I've also been very happy to admit my mistakes. And I've met AWESOME people who've done the same. (NO HYPOCRISY AMONGST ANY OF US!) 

-In the past 5 months I've met LOVELY people with different morals and values to me, in no way was I tempted to look or treat them differently because of it. Neither were they going to treat me differently because I am a follower of Jesus.
(NO JUDGEMENT AMONGST ANYONE)

-In the past 5 months I met REAL people. Not to say prior to that the people I met weren't real. However, as I made a point of putting aside the make up and new outfit everyday, so did a bunch of other people do the same, it wasn't about what we looked like, or what family we came from, or what our religious background was, it was about having fun together, and treating everyone like family.
(NO ONE WAS SUPERFICIAL) 

Of course there are exceptions to the above points, there ALWAYS is, welcome to life! 

And in no way am I trying to blow my own trumpet by illustrating what some people may or may not do. 

This blog post is illustrating the "typical Christian stereotypes" BROKEN! 

Illustrating that a lot of Christians are NOT intolerant, hypocrites, judgemental, homophobic & superficial people. 

We are just people. With faith, hope and love. Like many other religions. 

Of course "judgement" swings both ways. The need to label people as "religious" or "unruly" is completely unnecessary and in no way the job of humans. We were designed to love each other, that's all. 

I love going to Church, my home church has incredible people and Sunday's there will be unforgettable.
I also love going out with friends, dancing, drinking wine & having fun even though they don't join me on Sundays. It doesn't really make a difference.

(all of this said, is my OPINION. So if you disagree, I respect that, and love it, how boring would life be if we all agreed on the same thing...)

This topic's fav quotes of mine: 

"Judging a person does NOT define who they are.. It defines who YOU are."  -unknown.