My Road to Conversion-an Answer to Prayer

Before I begin my story, I think that I should talk a little bit about the history of the Lutheran church. During the 16th century, a Catholic monk named Martin Luther protested against what he felt were the corrupt practices of the Catholic Church. He was excommunicated for his ideas. He is known as the father of the Reformation and is credited with starting the Protestant movement. It wasn't Luther's intent to form his own religion; it was his intent to bring the practices of the Catholic closer to what Luther interpreted the Bible said they should be.

With this history it is easy to see why there might be both a rift between these two religious beliefs and similarities between them. It is in this atmosphere that the story of my conversion begins.

I was raised in the Lutheran Church. I took my confirmation vows (the promise that I would remain Lutheran) seriously. I met, fell in love and married a Catholic man. I made it clear to him that I would never convert but that I didn't object to having our children raised in his faith. I remained true to my word until our tenth year of marriage. It was year that my oldest son would be taking his first communion. I realized at this time that I knew little about the faith that I had adopted for my children. The only information I had was the history of how my religion had begun. So I decided to visit with our parish priest just to become more knowledgeable so I could help with my son's religious education. It was through these lessons that I began to question whether or not I should convert. I learned about the Catholic stance on the respect of life from cradle to death. This ideology ran to closer to my own. The lessons confused me. They shook up what I had come to believe about the Catholic faith and what I knew about my own church.

The next step on my road to conversion was simply to do as I had always done when I had a problem or a decision to make- I turned it over to God in prayer and his answer came in a series of what seem to me to be miracles.

My family had been so impoverished that my husband would comb the streets during heavy trash pick-up days in search of things that he could repair and then resell at garage sales. Our children had little when came to presents at Christmas. I had been so depressed that they couldn't experience the magic of Christmas that my parents had shown me. For Thanksgiving, we would be lucky to serve turkey TV dinners. But after my prayer, things had changed. We ended up with 3 turkeys for Thanksgiving ( we shared two of them with other people in our financial position) We were given a huge Christmas tree and the kids had so many presents that they were still opening them 3 days after Christmas. I took this as a sign that it was time for to me to convert and I did that Christmas season.

Although my parents had a little difficulty understanding my decision and my sister believes that I am still a Lutheran at heart. I do not regret my choice. I have gained a lot following this new the path-the path I believe that God set me on. What I believe now about religious choices is that it doesn't really matter what religion you take up. What matters most is the true gift from God -the gift of faith. I think that one should align oneself with the religion that most reflects one's own ideas.