Is there an attribute of God, His patience, kindness, justice, mercy, timing, or faithfulness — that you understand differently now than you did years ago?
I’d love to hear how others have seen their understanding of God mature over time.
@ellenvera I love your questions! So, I didn’t understand God at all as a child. In Sunday school we were taught to memorize verses, and sing songs about Jesus and bible stories. This year, a friend invited me to do a Bible-in-a-year reading plan with her, and what an eye opener! First, I was never taught that Jesus is all over the OT! That was mind-blowing to me. And God of the OT was all fire and brimstone, smiting people all willy nilly and basically being feared as opposed to loved, and being love. As I plodded along in the OT I began to see the same character of God, over and over - that He is faithful. No matter how much humans sin, God shows up, and comes through. He is faithful when we are not. He has been faithful to me all my life, even when I rejected Him and lived in sin. It just makes me think of His heart..that He would create everything, and everyone, knowing that we would reject Him, that we would walk away from Him, that we would sin, that we (humans) would crucify Him, and that we would continue this way, breaking His heart, yet He shows up. He comes through. He makes His presence known in ways that take your breath away.
So, I learned that God is faithful. That has changed my definition of “faithful” 
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I never beleived God answered prayers when I was growing up. In fact I had so much God wrath drilled into me I tried to end my life rather than wait for God’s inevitable torment.
Every day since my arrest God has been breaking me down and putting me right.
Because of all of you I know now that God answers prayers. I prayed for a family and got you.
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I would have to say almost ALL of God’s real character and the reality that He is still very much in charge. I grew up being forced by my Grandmother to go to “Hope Chapel” in Salisbury Mills, NY. Every Sunday. I learned how to say the Ten Commandments in order. I learned “Jesus loves me, this I know, cause the Bible tells me so.” Yeah, see, now you’re singing it. I was even in the Holiday plays and such.
However, I did not really learn the whole truth. I learned John 3:16
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
But I did not learn the rest.
“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
Most definitely not this.
“Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. John 3:16-18
I learned there is a bad place where bad people go, but not what Hell really is. Just love God, Jesus loves me, and all is good. It wasn’t until I met two “Christians,” one Southern Baptist, the other Presbyterian, when I was 21 years old.
It was a conflict that ended with me being saved. I went in a more “orderly fashion.” In time, I started to want to grow more, learn more, and had a meeting with the Pastor. He made a few statements that just did not sit well with me. “I do not believe in the supernatural stuff. The healings and miracles were just for a time. God does not still visit us like days of old. There is nothing more than God’s Word for Him to talk to us.” So I started a Spiritual Quest and learned about Catholicism, Judaism, Buddhism, Eastern Mysicism, and even found out that there really is a Jedi religion out there.
Then one day, I heard this. “Are you done?" Yes, Lord, I’m even more confused than before. “Then stop learning from the creation, and start learning from the Creator.” Now was this God? Was this the Hold Spirit? Was it just reason and logic voicing in my head? I do not know. I would like to think it was God, so that is what I did. That is what I continue to do. I can testify, I have indeed learned far more from God than I ever did from mankind.
Peter
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