Ella Claire, do you mind telling me a little bit about yourself? Um, my name's Ella Claire and I'm a really big cat person. Okay, big cat person. What grade of school are you in? I'm in 8th grade.
Fun. Do you do any after-school activities, sports, or clubs? I just signed up for drama club and I'm doing dance and gymnastics. I love that. That's awesome.
That's super, super cool. Excited to sit down and chat with you a little bit, uh, and specifically about your decision to follow Jesus and choosing to get baptized. Whoop whoop! So tell me a little bit about what led to that choice. Well, I was on the way to CIY, and on the bus I was just like kind of in my own little world, and I could like hear something but not hear it.
It was— it's like really hard to explain, like really, really hard. I could like hear it but not hear it, but like a feeling hear it. Yeah. And then I was like, hey, this kind of like feels familiar, but like I've never really experienced it before. But like it also felt familiar at the same time.
So it's like really hard to explain. I just kind of like knew who it was, the big man upstairs. And then I just like really like locked in during like services and taking notes and worship time and like all the things. And then, yeah, by the time I got home, I was like, hey, Mom, I kind of want to have a little pool party, if you would say. I love that.
That. That's so fun. Also, just how cool is it that God was like, hey, I'm gonna like preface this before you get to see it. DIY and like really just lean in for the people. Yeah, that's super, super fun.
That's awesome. I love that. You got baptized 2-ish months ago, right? Kind of around there. I think so.
How would you say your life looks a little different since the baptism? Before, everything just felt like really gray and just repetitive, and it was like, okay, I'm gonna get up, go to school, have breakfast, go to my classes, have lunch, go home, study, go to bed. And then it's just like that over and over and over and over and over. And now it's like, okay, we're gonna get up, pick out a cute outfit, and then we're gonna go and like look at some stuff that like God made because he's like super duper awesome. Like the sky and the trees and the grass and animals, stuff like that.
And then I just like started paying attention to like finer details and stuff. Like patterns on leaves. I started doing a little bit more photography of like flowers and stuff and like of the sky because I love the sky. I've just like paid more attention to stuff. I always used to feel like really lonely a lot, but now it just kind of feels like somebody's with me.
Ahem. Oh, that's so beautiful. Nothing like being in creation and seeing what God has made, right? That's so awesome. That's great.
Yeah. Who would you say is the biggest spiritual influence in your life? My mother. And why your mother? She's just like super duper awesome and I love her so much.
And she was always just like, like, I want you to find your faith, but like I also don't want to like force you. Like, you know what I mean? She was always just like, go at your own pace and then like I'm sure you'll find it eventually. And I have. Well, one of my teachers said whenever I was talking to them about it, They were like the 3-chair rule, I think what it's called.
So like there's my mom's mom, my mom, and then me. My mom's mom is like the first like Christian. Mm-hmm. Gotcha. And then she tells my mom, and then my mom's like, okay.
And then my mom's with a Christian, and then my mom shows me how to be a Christian. And then the third chair, which is me, is like the most likely to drift away. But because of like my like super cool experience at CIY this year, I put myself in the third chair. So now I'm like super duper Christian. I love that.
That's like multi-generational. Yeah. Oh, that's so beautiful. Thanks for sharing that, Ella Claire. So yeah, I like put myself in the first chair.
Yeah, that's great. If you had to describe a way to pray for other people who may— who were in the same season as you kind of before you made this decision, before you made this decision, what would that prayer be for them? Just to like try it out. Just like don't like look at the norms. Just like look at like the finer details and things.
And then like if you like really super duper pay attention to like the Bible and scripture and stuff like that, it like— there's stuff in there that still happens like a whole bunch of bunch of bunch of years ago, like now, than when it was originally created. And like it's still like happening. And like if you really pay attention, you can like see those little clues. We can live life to the fullest if we can like just follow these rules, but like while still being a good person. We can like be a good person, follow Jesus, and live life to the fullest.
It's a win-win-win. It is, yeah, because the Bible is living and active, right? Yeah. And it's cool that things that happened literal centuries ago, we can still see different things that are happening now. Awesome.
Well, thank you so much for sitting down and chatting with me today. Thank you for having me. Of course.
