Faith and Relationships

I am kind of nervous writing this post.  I am not too sure how it will be received.

I asked on Twitter one day, if it was wrong that I want to have a relationship with a man who has the same faith I do? I mean we don’t have to be exactly on the same page about absolutely everything, but I would want someone who has the same fundamental beliefs I do.  I hope that doesn’t seem judgmental or anything but God is a huge part of my life and I want to be able to share it with my someday husband.   I want to be able to pray with him, read the Bible together, have discussions, and worship together. I personally believe that people with different beliefs in a relationship can strain the relationship.   I think a solid relationship is based on a foundation and you have to have similar belief systems.  When I think about this subject two things come to mind.  The first one is a bible verse.  A cord of three strands is not quickly broken, if you are both wrapped around God your relationship is stronger.  Three is stronger than two strings that are just wrapped around each other.  This could be whatever you believe but for me it is God.

 The other thing I think of is an episode of Trading Spouses.  I think it is the only one I have ever watched and I have seen it twice.  The families are a Christian family and the other family is Orthodox Jewish, which means they are completely Kosher, they are very strict about dress and very old school with their beliefs.  When the Jewish mom is having dinner with the other family, she says it is important that her children marry someone who is also Orthodox Jewish. One of the family members said something along the lines of that’s judgmental.  The mother of the family agreed with the new mom and said it is important to have the same beliefs.   I have noticed people struggling with their relationships because they want to talk about their faith and the other person is not interested or even disrespectful about it.  It is ok that they don’t believe the same thing but I think that it is important to have that support system.

I have dated guys that don’t believe in God. I had some be rude about it and insult my faith. I never sat them down and tried to get them to believe in him. I respected their beliefs. I think it is easier when you have someone holding your hand and encouraging you to believe in your faith of choice and nurture it.  You definitely notice it more when you’re struggling in your faith without that support system.  It is in my opinion easier to get off the path you are on and be led astray.  I guess it is an accountability thing,  someone to keep you on track.

 Someone on Twitter responded it is important especially if you want kids down the road.  I totally agree. I am teaching Noah about God and Jesus.  His first DVD was God made Christmas. I love the God Made series. They are really cute DVDS.  I am not cramming it down his throat, he can make the choice when he is old enough to do so, but I want him to know about God.  We talk about God  together, pray together, he calls them God Blesses. It is important to me that he does. I want all my children to know about God.  I don’t want my future husband to derail my family’s beliefs.  I don’t want my children to hear that God isn’t real because he is.  I think that it becomes confusing for a child when they have parents that believe totally different things.  It becomes a struggle for the family and the child.  Things come together better when you are all together in faith and are able to grow in God (or whatever you believe in) as a family.

The Secret Things of God is Amazing!!!

I have had many people tell me about “The Secret”, they told me about all the great things that happened to them and I was interested in learning more. I remember going to Borders and looking for the book. I didn’t find it and I remember thinking, I don’t know if this book is right for me.  A little voice inside me was saying don’t read this book.  I just felt like I shouldn’t read it. I wasn’t sure where this secret came from. I am a Christian and although I am not someone who only reads Christian books or very many for that matter, I just felt like I needed to research it more. I wasn’t able to really find a source of where the Secret came from, I looked on CBN’s website because I figured Pat Robertson would know.  I didn’t find anything either way so I stopped looking.

I started wanting to know more about The Secret again. I still couldn’t find the source of the secret so I decided to download the audio book. I listened to the first 45 minutes and was falling asleep. The book was like 4 and half hours long.  I decided I would listen to it later.  I knew there was a DVD version and if you know me at all, you know I love to watch movies. I remember someone saying it was on Netflix. I wanted to get Netflix anyways so when I did, I found out that The Secret wasn’t on Netflix any more.  I even called Netflix and I asked them because it was showing on the site before I signed up.  I guess it was only available on DVD. I didn’t really want to deal with signing up for DVDS too.  So, I let it go.  I knew I would have to start the audio recording again and that wasn’t an option.  I kept feeling like I shouldn’t watch it.

My best friend watched The Secret, and she had already figured out the secret before watching the movie. She found it on Amazon Prime, I wasn’t a member and I wasn’t going to sign up for it.  I thought maybe I would look On Demand, you never know what you will find on there.  I started looking and I couldn’t find it.  I did find something called “The Secret Things of God”.  I read the description and found out it is a faith based version of The Secret.  I wasn’t sure about this either, so I was able to find something on CBN’s website and a short video of Dr. Henry Cloud. I watched it a couple times.  My favorite part was when he was talking about being on an airplane with this woman and she was talking about how angry her boyfriend always was and how they always break up and get back together.  Dr. Cloud said something like you know there is an old proverb that says “If you rescue an angry man you will have to do it again tomorrow”.  She was like that’s amazing where did you learn that?  He said it’s in the Bible, Proverbs 19:19. That just rang through me; I knew that I needed to watch The Secret Things of God. 

I know that doubt creeped in and I decided to read other peoples reviews, many people put it down, called it cheesy and talked about the audience being fake and mindless. I didn’t focus on the audience, I was so focused on the message and the secrets of God.  I hesitated for a few moments to order it, I know that everyone is a critic and some people go to seek out to be negative. Those leaving the negative reviews about it and calling it a cheap knock off of The Secret, aren’t practicing their positive thinking skills.  They were instead of focusing on the point of the seminar; they were looking for what was wrong with it. I guess I don’t understand why they can discredit something because it came from God but sit there and believe some kind of magical mystical thing like “The Universe”.  I think that there is a whole stigma when it comes to God, but will put their faith in other things, that they believe to be true.  I am not trying to say what you believe in is wrong, we all have the choice in what we believe in.

While watching The Secret Things of God, it opened my eyes and my heart.  I have been a Christian for a long time and it helped implement my faith.  It wasn’t a sermon by any means and it was actually really awesome. It wasn’t like a seminar about why you should believe in God and if you didn’t your life would be miserable.  It was more about how God works in our lives through different keys or secrets.  I learned so much about things I didn’t even know.  Dr. Cloud is a psychologist so he also included his clinical views along with his personal views.  All of the things he shared are backed by psychology and science. There were also other people sharing information  and personal stories like Dr. Drew and a Rabbi to name a few.  I learned that my relationship problems are due to my patterns and that I attract a certain type of person and I have to figure out what kind of person that is, by exploring past relationships and realizing who I am attracted to.  I will have to spend some time thinking about it, but I will definitely blog about it. 

I love The Secret Things of God so much that I watched it twice in a row.  I was tired after the first time, not because it was boring but because it was getting late. I put it on again and I watched the whole thing and when it was over I was wide awake.   I was unable to sleep because I was so excited about what I learned.  Needless to say it was 3 AM at this point.  After watching it I wanted to blog about it. I opened my laptop up and decided to wait until morning.  I am so excited about The Secret Things of God and using the keys and secrets that God designed me to use.  I highly recommend it to anyone.  Especially people who have faith in God, or are searching to learn more about God.

Karma? Is that French?

Tonight while I was making dinner I was listening to The 700 Club and Pat Robertson was talking about Karma. I didn’t really hear everything he was saying because I was doing all kinds of things at the same time and I didn’t turn the TV up. I started thinking about karma. I personally don’t believe in karma as a Christian. I don’t believe that what I do now has anything to do with what I come back as because I don’t believe in reincarnation. People are always asking what you would want to be if you were reincarnated. Some people are like a tiger or a bear etc. Even if I had the possibility to be reincarnated I wouldn’t want to be. I would rather go to heaven than live on this earth all over again after I died. You could not pay me enough to give up my chance to go to Heaven someday when it is my time.

I am aware there is a difference between karma in a religious definition and what pop culture considers “karma”. I am not sure how old I was before I knew about “karma”. I can’t remember. I did know Karma was my local music store that always smelled like incense. In fact I have a Grateful Dead afghan that I had to have from there and it still smelled like incense for many years after I received it. People always say oh “karma” is going to get you or it’s “karma”. I don’t really believe in pop culture “karma” either. I think people believe in “karma” because it gives them some kind of comfort that the person is going to be punished for their wrong doings. It helps people cope and the person’s longing for everything to be made right and whole again. Things happen for a reason but I don’t see it as a way to seek revenge on someone.

I am a strong believer in the whole cliché saying “Everything happens for a reason” We might not know the reason, and we might never know, but there is an absolute reason for everything. I also believe that there are set consequences for choices we make. I don’t really believe it is the universe’s way to get back at someone. It just is what it is.