From Religion to Relationship
By Francesca Mongini
In 1974 I was a young woman 28 years old. I was married and
a mother of a three years old baby girl with another little girl on the way. At
that time my greatest desire was to find internal peace.
Our marriage was going through a period of
crisis. My husband and I could not communicate constructively with one another
and we didn’t know how to overcome the reciprocal misunderstandings.
After our first daughter’s
birthday, my nervous system, already fragile, grew worse. The uneasiness and the
dissatisfaction were mounting. My adolescence and my youth were marked by many
painful events that culminated – at the age of 20 - with a very dangerous heart
surgery.
All of the above hardened my character while at
the same time I felt very insecure. Deep inside I was timid, but I learned how
to mask my lack of confidence with aggressiveness. This caused many problems,
especially in my interpersonal relationships. I didn’t not like who I was and I
often experienced feeling of hate toward myself. I admired people who were
seemingly peaceful and sure of themselves. I wanted to change but I didn’t know
how.
Then came the time when I started noticing a
positive change in my husband’s. “What’s going on?” I asked him. He told me
that he was reading the Bible and that he had been attending meetings at an
Evangelical Christian Community. As a result, he had come to the understanding
that Jesus desires to transform those that accept Him as personal Savior. I
became curious to know more about the person and the divinity of Jesus Christ.
Up to the point I had been simply a religious person
bound to rituals and traditions. I would sometime go to Church and recite
prayers that I had memorized without understanding the meaning of them, so there
were no results.
It didn’t take me very long to decide to attend
those meetings with my husband. I started reading the Bible, concentrating
especially on the gospels. I became aware that I needed to change my lifestyle,
my thinking patterns and my usual actions. These changes, however, can only
come by the renewing of the heart and mind. The only thing required of me was
to have the desire and the will to change. The rest would come with the help of
the Lord and through the power of the Holy Spirit. I learned to abandon myself
everyday to Jesus, whom I had accepted as my personal Savior and Lord, hoping
that each day would be better than the preceding one.
It is hard to recount the events of many years
of joys and pains, but today – 32 years later – I can testify that my greatest
wealth has come in knowing the Lord. My Jesus gives me courage and strength and
– when I need it – correction. Being disciplined by the Lord can be painful but
I know that he loves me and that He desires what’s best for me so I accept with
reverence all of His actions toward me. In the book of Proverbs, chapter 3
verses 11 and 12, it is written: “My son, do not despise the chastening of
the LORD, nor detest His correction; For whom the LORD loves He corrects, just
as a father the son in whom he delights.”
In closing, I want to affirm that my family has
been greatly blessed. During difficult moments the Lord has sustained us and He
has kept our union steady.
With time I have learned to rest in His
promises. In Jeremiah 29:11-12 God says: “For I know the thoughts that I
think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you
a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I
will listen to you.”
This promise is for everybody. I
have appropriate it for myself by faith and it has brought blessings to me. I
therefore encourage those that will read this testimony to do the same.
May God bless all of us.
Francesca Mongini | 
