I hope you all are having a fabulous day! It's a great day to be alive, isn't it?
I felt the need to set the record straight on a few things...
* I never left or forsook Yahweh. There was a time earlier this year where I was struggling with my belief in Him, but I never denied Him. Almost did, but I didn't.
* I am still a Believer!
* I had to close my blog down in September because anonymous people were reading my postings back to the Bishop of the Mennonite church I was going to join. Why didn't you come to me first? Nobody likes a tattle tale. Seriously man... not cool. I forgive you, whomever you are.
* I still cover my head about 95% of the time. Sometimes though a girl likes to wear her hair down and when that mood strikes me, down it goes. And I refuse to feel ashamed & guilty about that.
* I still dress modestly, albeit it's not in cape dresses (nothing wrong with cape dresses, I still have all mine and love them!). I also enjoy wearing funky colored knee-hi socks, crazy color nailpolish, a colorful bracelet or 2, and glitter! It's all about the glitter baby!!! I love to sparkle & shine!
* To some it looks like I went back towards the world. Well, that's your opinion and everyone is entitled to one. :) I am just being who Yahweh created me to be. He created color and beauty for a reason. I LOVE who I am in Yahweh, glitter and all and I am not sorry if you cannot accept me because I am no longer Plain. You really need to pray about that because it's very shallow reasoning not to love & care for somebody. It's NOT about the outward appearance!
* Yahweh is NOT to be put in a box (rules, doctrines, dogmas, dos & don't's). Denominations have Him in one. Time for you to break free from that and experience Him in a REAL way like you never have before. I guarantee you it will change your life.
* I am taking a very long, extended break from churches. The past 10 years of my walk with GOD have being in various denominations have completely messed my mind up. I'm not going back down that road again. Right now, it's me and Yahweh, and I do meet with other Believers weekly in a very unformal setting. But who cares where it's at? The Bible states 'where 2 or 3 are gathered in my name, there will I be'. If you are sitting at Jamba Juice doing shots of wheatgrass and talking about YHWH, He is there! He is NOT limited to just a church building!
* And most of all, I just want you to know...YOU ARE LOVED! :)
~ Dawn
I felt the need to set the record straight on a few things...
* I never left or forsook Yahweh. There was a time earlier this year where I was struggling with my belief in Him, but I never denied Him. Almost did, but I didn't.
* I am still a Believer!
* I had to close my blog down in September because anonymous people were reading my postings back to the Bishop of the Mennonite church I was going to join. Why didn't you come to me first? Nobody likes a tattle tale. Seriously man... not cool. I forgive you, whomever you are.
* I still cover my head about 95% of the time. Sometimes though a girl likes to wear her hair down and when that mood strikes me, down it goes. And I refuse to feel ashamed & guilty about that.
* I still dress modestly, albeit it's not in cape dresses (nothing wrong with cape dresses, I still have all mine and love them!). I also enjoy wearing funky colored knee-hi socks, crazy color nailpolish, a colorful bracelet or 2, and glitter! It's all about the glitter baby!!! I love to sparkle & shine!
* To some it looks like I went back towards the world. Well, that's your opinion and everyone is entitled to one. :) I am just being who Yahweh created me to be. He created color and beauty for a reason. I LOVE who I am in Yahweh, glitter and all and I am not sorry if you cannot accept me because I am no longer Plain. You really need to pray about that because it's very shallow reasoning not to love & care for somebody. It's NOT about the outward appearance!
* Yahweh is NOT to be put in a box (rules, doctrines, dogmas, dos & don't's). Denominations have Him in one. Time for you to break free from that and experience Him in a REAL way like you never have before. I guarantee you it will change your life.
* I am taking a very long, extended break from churches. The past 10 years of my walk with GOD have being in various denominations have completely messed my mind up. I'm not going back down that road again. Right now, it's me and Yahweh, and I do meet with other Believers weekly in a very unformal setting. But who cares where it's at? The Bible states 'where 2 or 3 are gathered in my name, there will I be'. If you are sitting at Jamba Juice doing shots of wheatgrass and talking about YHWH, He is there! He is NOT limited to just a church building!
* And most of all, I just want you to know...YOU ARE LOVED! :)
~ Dawn
9 comments:
I Love this post. I have had similar things happen to me as well and it just isn't right either. Makes me not want anything to do with traditional churches. But I have to let those things at Jesus feet!
www.heidisvarietystore.com
I wholeheartedly agree, Dawn!! Im just like you in so many ways it' uncanny!! I"m in a traditional church now but have had one very strange year myself regarding faith. Keep putting all your faith and trust in God. Love ya!!
I understand your reasoning. I have struggled w/ my own walk. But that's the definitionof the name Israel. That's who we are.
I've experienced difficulties w/ denominational issues and prejudices. Sometimes we have to just have to take a step away. I completely agree with you. We are with God when we are together. The setting matters not!
Love ya sister!
Darelina
I've had a similar transition as well. I found myself caught up in what I now see as "taking things too far" in the strictness direction. And these things were not supported by the Bible or even the early church documents, back when the early Christians were trying to come to grips with and understand the Christian faith.
It really didn't help that there was nothing available to guide us Catholic women. I guess everyone assumed we would understand our role as Christians through osmosis or something? Tie the bible to my head for a year and I would magically "get it"??
But then several things happened: a wonderful series of three books for Catholic women came out and I found so much *balance* within those pages. Everything that she wrote was in line with the Bible, nothing was over done or taken to any extreme. And above all, it wasn't liberal!! Each book came with DVDs containing seminars and that really helped. I also discovered Elizabeth George's, "A woman after God's own heart", both the book and the DVD set. Another balanced approach with regards to us women and the Christian faith and our role as Christians.
The other things, I'll write about in a new comment as I am going to run into the limit for comments lol To Be Continued...
...Another thing that made a huge shift in my approach to the faith came from two very different men. A Mennonite and one of our priests.
The Mennonite man told me and Erlend that everything we do, we should do out of *love* for God. And this began my journey towards understanding the vocation of love in the life of a Christian, and how to approach God as my Father. This amazing insight took away that need to "perform" in order to earn God's approval: the way I dressed or did this or did that. Instead of following rules imposed on me by men, I began to respond out of love rather then mis-placed performance based fear.
And then our priest said something to us that further opened my eyes: Everyone is at a different place on the path to God. And we need to respect that. So if someone shows up to church in a mini-skirt or drunk or in jeans or whatever... we shouldn't automatically be scandalized and angry. Even if we never say anything out loud we can still get filled with pride and grumbling and totally miss the entire point: Love. This was a real eye opener and showed me why the Bible does not prescribe a specific style of dress or pants or hat or head covering, or a rigid code of rules and regulations before one can belong to the community of fellow believers... why there is room for people at any part of The Walk to come together with fellow believers: God knew, and He knows, that faith is a journey that requires a LOT of growing room, a lot of room for making mistakes and starting over, a lot of room to be human. And this is something that rigid rules and regs do not allow, and it can stifle and even kill a person's faith and send them reeling back into the world in order to escape the oppression of men, mistakenly seen by them as the oppression of God.
Finally, I just want to say that I love belonging to a church. But it took a long time to find the church.
I love the fellowship and the historical connection to generations of believers. I love the access to learned guidence that I can reach out to in times of darkness and pain.
Yeah, fellow church members can be a real pain in the neck but over these past five years I have learned so much more about loving God and seeing how some of the most annoying and aggressive people are usually those suffering from some kind of torment in their hearts. Doesn't mean I have to let them walk all over me but at the same time, Christ did say that there would be wolves amongst His sheep, weeds in His garden. Who am I to try and escape what even Christ knew was going to be the reality? That has really helped me to calm down. :-)
Agreeed Sister Dawn!!! Man made traditions ruin a pure relationship with Yahweh. Love you sister!!
~Victoria
I still love my sister! You have to find who YOU are! Everyone's walk is different.
HUGS
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