I wouldn't say xW is against my taking the boys to church. She has always tried to maintain she has been ever in God's good graces, that she is duly saved and unceasingly devout. However, in recent years she has adopted more "open-minded" qualifications to her faith, undoubtedly influenced by her faithless mother. The xMIL has long maintained that God doesn't really require His followers to have to worship in a particular building or even on a particular day of the week. In her thinking, it is enough to merely enjoy Nature.
It's partly true, I'd say - you really do not need a physical church to honor the Sabbath, but I gather xMIL doesn't really commune with God even in the midst of His creation. Or anywhere for that matter. It's all just an excuse, of course. A cover story. But she's a "big girl" and it's her life, her conscience, her soul.
Ever since the bomb xW has started adopting some of this very mind-set of her mother's that she herself pooh-poohed most of the prior years I've known her. "Godless", xW had described her mother's views, with an understandable mixture of sadness, concern, compassion and disproval. For my former W to now hold to such views shows me just how far she has truly fallen.
xW is a "big girl" too. So she's certainly responsible for her own self. My only concern is where she tries to subtly or not-so-subtly influence our S's to stray. Such as the words S9 parroted at me this week.
No, their mother doesn't overtly oppose our S's going to church. But it most definitely makes her uncomfortable now. I keep praying for her, and even her own mother, but I have learned that my prayers may not always be answered in the way I would hope or in the time that I would hope. The key is to continue to pray all the same even when it might seem hopeless, because one just never knows...
