WAW Using God II

[25yearsmlc]

It's OK - knitted is pretty passionate about my situation; I take no offense at all. Often she raises some good points.

To address your concerns knitted, my kids are NOT being given the choice of which church to attend. They ARE being given the choice of whether or not they would like to attend my W's church IN ADDITION to their catholic obligation. What got me so upset on Sunday was that my W was going to take the kids to her church and keep them so that they would miss Sunday mass.

The catholic upbringing is non-negotiable in my mind. If my kids want to choose their own faith when they are 18, so be it, just like you say, knitted. But they do not have a choice until then.

However there is nothing in the catholic doctrine that prevents children from learning about their non-catholic parent's denomination. As long as they uphold their catholic obligations. I don't have a problem with it. As I've said many times, not a single leader or influential person from my W's church who knows about our situation condones my W's behavior.

Plus the Catholic church teaches us to question and use reason so we challenge our convictions for without such challenges, how can we hold to the convictions? Unlike some faiths, we've had theologians for over 2000 years debating issues so there is NO problem with them being exposed to other forms of Christianity, in addition to Catholicism. My priest married h and I in the Church but h was Orthodox Christian (same thing really except not to my MIL ...God bless her) SO ANYHOW, the priest asked us if we were going to "expose our children to the Catholic faith" and we both said yes.

But Pigskin, although you were more adamant on that issue at the time of your m (and one reason I wasn't is b/c of how similar my faith and H's are) it's still not a legally binding agreement. It's like a VOW...THAT SOME PEOPLE BREAK...but you know this...you won't win in court on it, so why force her to NOT take them anywhere? Besides, as you said, her own pastor knows the score...she's a fool. But what's wrong with taking the kids at a different time?
And don't be fooled too much about what they say they want at this age. Though I do wish the Catholic church closest to me was more "fun" 1) there are such things as children's services at many parishes' and 2) my son told me recently that he prefers the rituals to the more "fun" services so you never know what they'll prefer later.

I think you are modelling the message of God's son, which is forgiveness. Not of her actions so much as just moving forward. I heard the other day a GREAT definition of someone who won't forgive b/c they think the other person does not deserve forgiveness (and who hasn't been there???? WE all have)
But the analogy was this

[u]"Refusing to forgive someone, especially to punish them, is like lighting yourself on fire and hoping the smoke hurts their eyes..."
[/u]
Amen. You get it. Carry on...
J

I'm just trying to lead by example. Showing her that even though she infuriated me on Sunday, I still am willing to treat her with kindness.

And you are leading by example and that does far more good than quoting scripture to "win" an argument...far far more..Knitted, I highly recommend you read "Blue Like Jazz" b/c even though I didn't agree with all of it, it helps me communicate my faith and beliefs in a way that does not offend and I don't think you mean to offend. But if you want to persuade, follow Pigskin's lead OR check out the book or both...good luck to you too.