{"id":31203,"date":"2024-01-03T11:35:01","date_gmt":"2024-01-03T16:35:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=31203"},"modified":"2024-01-03T11:35:01","modified_gmt":"2024-01-03T16:35:01","slug":"danica-mckellar-shares-how-she-embraced-christianity-the-holy-spirit-came-to-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2024\/01\/danica-mckellar-shares-how-she-embraced-christianity-the-holy-spirit-came-to-me.html","title":{"rendered":"Danica McKellar Shares How She Embraced Christianity: ‘The Holy Spirit Came to Me’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Kathy Hutchins\/Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Actress Danica McKellar has spent years in the public eye after breaking into the entertainment industry playing Winnie Cooper in the 1988 show \u201cThe Wonder Years.\u201d She\u2019s enjoyed a successful career as a performer and book author, taking her acting chops most recently to Great American Family.<\/p>\n

The actress, who stars in the new film \u201cA Royal Date for Christmas,\u201d has also been on a public and authentic faith journey over the past year and a half, embracing Christianity and sharing her experience. She said of her willingness to discuss her beliefs, \u201cI feel so blessed. People have said, \u2018Oh, you are so bold.\u2019 It doesn\u2019t feel like bold. It doesn\u2019t feel like it requires courage or anything. When you experience something that is so beautiful and so wonderful and so life-changing, you want everyone to feel that.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the roots of faith were set in her heart after fellow actress Candace Cameron Bure invited her to a Passion play in 2022, an experience that ended up being life-changing as the Gospel permeated her heart. McKellar said, \u201cIt just hit me. Everything hit me. The Holy Spirit came to me. It was like a wave of love and understanding hit me.\u201d Until then, McKellar said she had always had a \u201csense of God in some shape or form,\u201d but she said her ideas about Christianity were very colored by negativity and framings presented in the news.<\/p>\n

McKellar said of her faith, \u201cI\u2019d always thought of religion and Christianity as being restrictive and limiting somehow, but, instead, I feel the most amazing freedom. And I was like, I have to share this. I have to tell people the good news.\u201d Before becoming a Christian, she assumed believers were judgemental and had caused problems, with these preconceived notions clouding her vision. McKellar continued, \u201cI just didn\u2019t get to see this is the most miraculous, amazing, incredible gift in the whole wide world. I just want people to feel that they\u2019re not alone, that there\u2019s love for you at any time, and it\u2019s such a gift.\u201d<\/p>\n