The story behind my beliefs.... well, I was raised as one of Jehovah's Witnesses. My parents were Witnesses before I was born, so it is all I've ever known. For me, it was hard being brought up differently to the other kids at school (ie, no Christmas, Easter, birthdays, etc). When I was 14, I just wanted to fit in and be like my friends, so I didn't want to be a part of the religion any more. I stopped going to the congregation meetings (which are 3 times a week) and I snuck around behind my mum's back to do things I thought I wanted to do, to fit in like everyone else. But when I was 20, I realised that my life was going nowhere. I had always avoided thinking about my future because I had no hope, and I was scared about what lay ahead for me. So, I started studying the Bible again, with my grandma, and went back to the congregation meetings. I was making pretty good progress to begin with, but something disrupted it, and after that, I was at a kind of stand-still. Only recently did I decide to make an effort to get really spiritual again. Over the past few months, I have been getting more involved in the congregation meetings, and studying the Bible deeper and more regularly. I'm very proud to say that next Saturday, August 23, I will be getting baptised as one of Jehovah's Witnesses.
This is different to getting baptised or christened in other religions; our baptism is a symbol of the personal dedication each one makes to do God's will forever. We disown ourselves and give our lives to God, so whatever he asks of us, we do. The baptism is a symbol of the dedication, in that going under the water represents dying to our former way of life, and coming up from the water represents being made alive to put the doing of God's will first in our lives.