This September I will be married to my husband for two years and I can honestly say that my life has been better for it. We have blended our two families, yet it has been the spiritual that drew us together closer. When we were married our spiritual growth became wrapped up in the pagan community. Barry was studying Buddhism and believed that the way of science only proved that there was a God. I grew up in the church with the belief that Jesus was the son of God, all religions were valid and nature was the evidence that God existed. If I have to be perfectly honest with myself I have to admit that I have fun with the bonfires, drumming and dancing under the moonlight. The mystic, hippie and we tolerate everyone crap only last for so long because once we embedded ourselves within the community we began to notice that not all things are not what they seemed.
Barry and I love our family and country. When we began to let our guard down the “Everyone is Welcome” sign began to look a lot like “You are Welcomed but only if you believe and think like us”. This isn’t me because there is no filter in my brain because if I think it the spoken word has made its way to those who have chosen to listen. Yes, in hindsight I should be more sensitive to others, but I had already read the “Everyone is Welcome” sign which gives me the permission to speak my mind. My patient husband who often shakes his head when he is thinking “Why did she just say that?” loves me unconditionally. Now that I have had my squirrel moment let me give you an example. In the mist of hippie heaven I have learned that shouting proudly that “Obama sucks and I am voting for Mitt Romney” is not exactly the words one wants to say in hippieville. If the pagan community resigns it to be tolerant isn’t my declaring statement ok to say and can’t we respectfully disagree. I have heard Dana Loesch say on her television show that freedom of speech doesn’t give anyone the right to be offended. (Paraphrased)
It wasn’t the pagan community that was all welcoming. It was the Christian community that invited us to church, prayed for us and loves us. The over whelming calm that I feel every Sunday morning is truly love of God and these wonderful people that only want to share this love. Many of the members of the pagan community see Christianity as restrictive. It is in those “rules” such as the Ten Commandments or the family structure laid out in Ephesians 5 that proves to be the greatest freedom. “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.” What a big responsibility for the men of this nation. God has purposefully chosen roles for each of us, so as not to wonder what we as his children are supposed to do in this life. Not only do man and wife have their roles, but children under this protection as well. “Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right” (Ephesians 6:1) I am not Barry’s slave. He lifts me up and I lift him up we support one another with everything that we have to give in this family. If we do not seek God first then one another the family will break down and be destroyed.
The pagan community only seeks to build with each individual first. There is not a family oriented structure. If there has to be an adult oriented festival then something is wrong. The idea that I was not welcomed within the pagan community and that a person I considered a sister said that I was more of a “friend of convenience” set me aside drove me to tears. My investment was no longer worth the pain. I have read scripture after scripture that God’s truth is that I am worth it to him. I have a husband, children and a church family that sees me as worthy.
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