Most people are born into a family that either has a strong faith base, or a family who may believe in whatever religious traditions were handed down to them by their parents. Then there are those few who are lucky enough to be born into a family who has no religious belief system and encourages that child to seek out his, or her, own spiritual truth.
Having a Christian Family
Although I was born into a Christian household, my parents were not what I would consider being strict in their religious convictions. I was taught to believe in God and that Jesus was our Savior. Beyond that, it was common for me to ask questions and be told not to question the word of God. This was very frustrating for me as a child. I was an adult by the time that I realized no one questioned the word of God because they didn’t have any answers beyond what they had been taught themselves.
Leaving Christianity
It wasn’t until I had left Christianity that I came to the conclusion that religion is, indeed a crutch. God, or any other deity for that matter, is a man-made concept, created in order for people to feel better about dealing with situations they feel are out of their control. It is not logical to ask a “god” to forgive you for your “sins”. As individuals, we are responsible for our own choices in life, whether they be good or bad. Whatever comes to our decisions, we must deal with the consequences. 
Just as we are taught from birth to believe in a particular spiritual path, we are also programmed to depend on a deity when times get tough, or when we find ourselves in a sticky situation. By allowing ourselves to depend on a “god” to save us, we are relinquishing our own right to save ourselves. We simply say a prayer and wait for God to fix our screw-ups. We are not taught how to make proper choices, or how to help ourselves when we made bad choices. For us, God is always there with his arms wide open when we need him. How unfortunate for us that we have come to a place where we cannot save ourselves!
Acknowledge our Character
The best thing we can do is acknowledge, first off, that we are human and we are going to make mistakes. In other words, make peace with ourselves. It isn’t going to matter how much we pray and ask for forgiveness if we do not love and trust ourselves!
The next step is to realize that we are in complete control of our lives. We need to make our own choices and take responsibility for those choices. If we mess up, then we are aware there may be consequences and can better prepare ourselves for whatever means we may need to take in order to straighten things out. Every choice we make is a learning experience, and every time we help ourselves, we are stronger.
If we allow ourselves to continue using religion as a crutch, we are only headed for future failure, and blindfolded!
