As the years pass by, with the help of God’s word through church service and Sunday School, I’ve changed my attitude towards doing activities on Sunday mornings. I would use that time to attend church and learn about God’s word. If I had to participate in any activities on Sundays, I would only do so after church and I would completely leave my Sunday morning for God. I have also recognised that I am a sinner and have accepted Jesus as my Lord and Saviour. Through the years of attending Church, my priorities on Sundays have changed drastically from not wanting to go to church to enjoy Sunday activities. I now ensure that I dedicate my Sunday mornings to God and learning God’s Word. As my priorities and values has changed for the better, one phrase that has always stuck with me is that “From the seven days in the week, we have six days to do whatever we want, therefore, we should not use the Lord’s rest day to do what could’ve been done on the other six days of the week. It should not be so hard to even give half a Sunday to God.”
According to my mother, she always reminded us that being a Christian and growing up as one was never an easy journey to begin with. Since I grew up in a Christian family, I had to attend a Christian kindergarten that was also the same kindergarten that Jerry attended too. Ever since I attended a Christian kindergarten, I was constantly grounded in Christian values. I accepted Jesus when I was a child, and I had to live a completely different life as compared to my peers. During weekdays, I would be in school (kindergarten) studying and learning God’s word. On Sunday, my peers were staying at home watching TV or even going out for sports courses while I had to follow my parents to church to attend Sunday service. Out of the seven days in the week, six days were already used to learn about God’s word. That leaves Saturday as my only day to enjoy and do whatever I am pleased with such as going down the block to play, going out, or even staying at home to watch TV. Because of that, I felt annoyed that I couldn’t do what normal kids around my age do during the weekends. If I wanted to go for a football trial or training, it would usually be on a Sunday morning. If I wanted to watch my favourite cartoon series on the TV, it would usually be on a Sunday morning too. This made me hesitant to go to church as I would prefer to go for my football trainings or stay at home and watch my favorite cartoon series. From what I was feeling, I didn’t dare to tell my parents what I felt. I controlled my emotions. Instead, I asked them a simple question, “Why are all these football trainings and my favourite cartoon always on a Sunday morning? I really want to go to my training or watch my favorite cartoon.” My mother would follow up by replying, “Because the devil is trying to find ways (such as having my favourite cartoon being shown on a Sunday morning) to tempt you from not going to church and learning God‘s word.” From her response, I didn’t dare to say anything to let her know that I was irritated and that I really wanted to go for my training or stay home and watch my favourite cartoon show. Instead, I would just keep silent and do absolutely nothing about it. It was not because I wanted to, but because I really could not do anything about it—as a small kid with no resources to make anything work according to the way that I desired.