The shower is hot today,and all the knots in my body are getting worked out fairly well.That's not always the case.Sometimes there is no hot water at all, and sometime knots don't respond well to it when there is.
I guess I could call Angie. One of the girls that I jam with says I should.She says Angie is just old fashioned and thinks women should not call men.that just sounds silly to me, but it's been said I don't know a lot about that kind of thing.I'm not sure I would disagree.
What has been really hard is trying to figure out how well Angie and I are actually suited for one another. In Christianity, there is the concept of being unequally yolked with a non-believer. That, we are not supposed to do, and the reasons seem rather obvious. Relationships are really hard at the best of times.with a different value system it's nearly impossible. with marriage,and children, even more so.But,of course, there would be no children, and, I know not everyone will agree with this, but as a protestant, I am not unevenly yolked with a Catholic, because the foundations of Christian belief are present within Catholicism. And,so are a bunch of other things.
In thinking about this, and I have thought about it rather hard,I often refer to religion as I knew of it growing up.That is, I consider how Christianity worked in my own family. My mother was a church going woman.My father rarely attended church.For a while,he would come along with us,but I think that was largely a response to my insistence at the time that if church was so necessary,then he should also attend, which he never did.And if he did not, I shouldn't have to either. I was ,by about the age of ten or eleven developing a bit of an attitude toward church.But that's another story.It's got nothing to do with Angie and I,not really.
I'm sure my father has given up on God.He could pass at any time, and if he did, he would be lost.What I don't understand, but am very grateful for is that my mother has never given up on her husband.She's his caregiver, and though I've not been home in a long time to see how this situation is being lived out, I'm imagining a rather difficult man.My mother must be tired, given all she's doing for him, and for as long as she's been doing it. She's always running around, all over New Brunswick looking after my sisters kids too.I wonder how long that can go on?
The other thing that concerns me about my mother is the state of her own faith.Because, you see, it seems that she did marry my father knowing that she ought not to have, given the command to not marry an unbeliever. Still, I think God's grace covers that, and I don't believe that He would have had her give up on my father once the marriage was undertaken.And to her credit, she has been faithful and put her husband and family first since they were married.
Still, there are other things that I wonder about.Like why I never actually heard how you attain salvation from my mother, or ,for that matter, my father.I never heard the part about being born again until I was out in the world for a long while. And that makes me question just what it is my mother believes.Maybe someday I'll get a chance to sit down and talk with her about that.The other things are a little less of a concern to me.Like why there was never a Bible in our house.Or why we never went to church all summer long when we were at the summer cottage.Because it would still seem important.And it should have seemed important to her. In a way though, that makes sense.It's just that my mother never really said anything about that lapse in attendance.It seems a bit like a matter of convenience.Still, I do that too. According to my pastor back in Edmonton,It's more important to get church inside of me than it is to get me inside of the church.That's what he always said when I missed a Sunday, so I wonder if someone might have told my mother the same thing.I guess it's true, but ideally I know I have the need to surround myself with other Christian people.
At times I wonder if my mother really understands Christianity. Could it be that she is really not saved at all? I'll have to talk with her about that someday. For right now, I choose to believe that her Christian witness is seen in the way she treats others.Truly,she never has a bad thing to say about anyone, treats everyone right as far as she is able,I've never heard anyone say a bad thing about her either. But salvation is not about works.That's not what gets you to Heaven. Still, I believe that good works proceed out of a relationship with God, so thus, I choose to believe my mother is saved.Really,though, Salvation is in the hands of God, so nobody knows about the condition of another's soul.
I guess I could call Angie. One of the girls that I jam with says I should.She says Angie is just old fashioned and thinks women should not call men.that just sounds silly to me, but it's been said I don't know a lot about that kind of thing.I'm not sure I would disagree.
What has been really hard is trying to figure out how well Angie and I are actually suited for one another. In Christianity, there is the concept of being unequally yolked with a non-believer. That, we are not supposed to do, and the reasons seem rather obvious. Relationships are really hard at the best of times.with a different value system it's nearly impossible. with marriage,and children, even more so.But,of course, there would be no children, and, I know not everyone will agree with this, but as a protestant, I am not unevenly yolked with a Catholic, because the foundations of Christian belief are present within Catholicism. And,so are a bunch of other things.
In thinking about this, and I have thought about it rather hard,I often refer to religion as I knew of it growing up.That is, I consider how Christianity worked in my own family. My mother was a church going woman.My father rarely attended church.For a while,he would come along with us,but I think that was largely a response to my insistence at the time that if church was so necessary,then he should also attend, which he never did.And if he did not, I shouldn't have to either. I was ,by about the age of ten or eleven developing a bit of an attitude toward church.But that's another story.It's got nothing to do with Angie and I,not really.
I'm sure my father has given up on God.He could pass at any time, and if he did, he would be lost.What I don't understand, but am very grateful for is that my mother has never given up on her husband.She's his caregiver, and though I've not been home in a long time to see how this situation is being lived out, I'm imagining a rather difficult man.My mother must be tired, given all she's doing for him, and for as long as she's been doing it. She's always running around, all over New Brunswick looking after my sisters kids too.I wonder how long that can go on?
The other thing that concerns me about my mother is the state of her own faith.Because, you see, it seems that she did marry my father knowing that she ought not to have, given the command to not marry an unbeliever. Still, I think God's grace covers that, and I don't believe that He would have had her give up on my father once the marriage was undertaken.And to her credit, she has been faithful and put her husband and family first since they were married.
Still, there are other things that I wonder about.Like why I never actually heard how you attain salvation from my mother, or ,for that matter, my father.I never heard the part about being born again until I was out in the world for a long while. And that makes me question just what it is my mother believes.Maybe someday I'll get a chance to sit down and talk with her about that.The other things are a little less of a concern to me.Like why there was never a Bible in our house.Or why we never went to church all summer long when we were at the summer cottage.Because it would still seem important.And it should have seemed important to her. In a way though, that makes sense.It's just that my mother never really said anything about that lapse in attendance.It seems a bit like a matter of convenience.Still, I do that too. According to my pastor back in Edmonton,It's more important to get church inside of me than it is to get me inside of the church.That's what he always said when I missed a Sunday, so I wonder if someone might have told my mother the same thing.I guess it's true, but ideally I know I have the need to surround myself with other Christian people.
At times I wonder if my mother really understands Christianity. Could it be that she is really not saved at all? I'll have to talk with her about that someday. For right now, I choose to believe that her Christian witness is seen in the way she treats others.Truly,she never has a bad thing to say about anyone, treats everyone right as far as she is able,I've never heard anyone say a bad thing about her either. But salvation is not about works.That's not what gets you to Heaven. Still, I believe that good works proceed out of a relationship with God, so thus, I choose to believe my mother is saved.Really,though, Salvation is in the hands of God, so nobody knows about the condition of another's soul.
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