Hope From Your Mama!

  When Holly was about 8 or 9 years old, (so, about 10 years ago) our church started having something called,  "The Princess Keepers Club." It was based on some book and entire program about "purity" and keeping your "kiss". AKA virginity. Or as Madea would say it, "Virgintity!"  Oh man... us Evangelicals really made a big deal about THAT! Funny Jesus never mentioned it. We worked through a work book and had weekly meetings. We had a big ceremony which included the Dads... I know I know! This is going to be making a lot of readers gag and the others think, What's wrong with that!??  But this is my story to tell. My experience. My mistakes. You raise your kids your way and good luck with that!!  I really think we were just a bunch of young Moms desperately wanting our daughters not to be as... "foolish" as we were about sex!! Or some, wanting our daughters to be "pure" like we were!  I'm not telling you which one I was....

I don't know why, but this picture just seemed like the perfect one  for my last blog here!!! Those who know me best, know that I have been hurt very deeply by the religion I was a part of for many, many years.  Also, the religion I was part of for many, many years, deeply hurt people.  I think this blog is sort of a "testament" to that journey. There were a lot of years of wrestling with, "WHAT do I actually believe??"  This blog was my way of expressing my thoughts throughout that journey.  I didn't do too bad either!! I have received over 22,000 views since I first started this blog!  Brag Picture!   Okay... so maybe half of the views were me and the other half were the people from the old churches I attended, who would spy on me to see what I was writing about them!!  One of my favorite quotes from  Anne Lamott.... (She's another Christian author the "good" Evangelical Christians aren't supposed to take seriously... If you're not fa...

I still converse with Jesus... I have been letting him know I don't even know what to do with Easter anymore. I let him know that I honestly don't even know if he rose from the dead. I just don't know anything anymore!! I'm very honest with Jesus. If someone says to me this Easter... "He is risen!"  My answer is going to be... "I honestly don't know if he is... but I sure would like to believe it!"  I actually asked for some sort of "sign" or "message" from Jesus for some help on this...  I'm glad I still feel that Jesus is cool with my utter honesty and rawness of who I am! Today, a friend of mine shared this blog: http://jenhatmaker.com/blog/2017/04/14/my-saddest-good-friday-in-memory-when-treasured-things-are-dead   It was written by a popular evangelical christian speaker. She probably won't be getting many more speaking gigs. At least not with the evangelicals. You see, she got a divorce. We all kn...

I f ind whenever I want to Spiritually include people of differing belief systems, or perhaps no set belief system ; If I or others want to talk of us a ll Spiritually being One, being United, being The Same.  Some people do not like that.   Often , it's Christians. This idea is usually viewed by many Christians as something called "Heresy". Which, by the way, has been defined as "A belief or opinion that does not agree with the official belief or opinion of a particular religion". So, I'm pretty sure we're ALL heretics in one way or another! And that's the NICE thing they might call you! False Teacher, Wolf, Being led by the Devil; those are just a few of the the other terms they may think or say about you. I am someone who was ostracized for asking the wrong questions and having ideas that didn't fit i n. So, I guess I figure I'm not going to stop there! When th e idea of everyone B elonging gets discussed, I've often...

I've seen this meme quite a few times.  I agree with some of it... to a point. I mean, I don't personally agree with all my friends and acquaintances' opinions. Nor do I agree with all that my loved ones may believe or do. I think diversity is beautiful. If we all believed the same things, how boring would that be!?? Yes, I can do this and still love them deeply! Maybe it isn't a "huge lie" of culture like this quote suggests... (by the way, the fact that they use the term "Huge Lie" really does suggest the need to instill fear to me. That's just my opinion.) Maybe the reason you "disagree" is because you DO fear or hate... have you researched your own heart?? I did... I didn't like what I found there. Most of my firmly held "convictions" were indeed so firmly held because I DID fear. I did fear that if I let go of all these "convictions", that my whole safety net would fall out from under me and my life would ...

It's Valentine's Day. Around this time I tend to notice a certain disdain about VD from people... wait...what? HA HA! Sorry, I'm a little punchy from not having slept well. My 11 year old little boy, who was born with a significant chromosome abnormality, had the stomach flu last night after already going through a month or two of sinus infections and colds. It's quite an adventure when he gets the flu. He has no idea what is going on with him and has absolutely no ability to hit the toilette or let us know he is throwing up! My almost (in three days!) 14 year old daughter has caught some of the Valentine's Day cynicism I mentioned at the start. "I HATE Valentines Day" she told me.  Then she mentioned all the reasons why she didn't like it. I agreed with her 100% The things that are meant to paint a certain stereotype and sell flowers and cards and such really isn't what Love is about at all. I DID have to laugh, however, at her good joke of as...

I have to wonder if someone made this meme out of fear, or pure meanness, or self righteous anger? What would motivate someone to create something like this? An even bigger question on my mind is, WHAT does this sort of sarcasm accomplish? Not to mention the fact that it isn't even really accurate. When they are talking about the "same old Christianity" which one are they speaking of? The Christianity of the Dark Ages? Gosh, I sure hope not! Or perhaps the Christianity of the Reformation, because if that's the one... then the poor Catholics are screwed... Maybe it's the more modern version of Christianity like that of The Westboro Baptist Church? Perhaps it might be one of the over thirty THOUSAND Christian denominations that has exisited or currently exists!?  Oh I HOPE I've picked the right one!!! Why does the word "Progress" seem to frighten so many Christians? Now don't get me wrong.  I understand that "Christians" don't hol...

Today is the Winter Solstice. That means from today on, the days are going to get longer and longer!! Well, here is what Google taught me anyway... "The moment when the Northern Hemisphere is pointed at its furthest distance from the sun. This means winter solstice boasts the longest night and the shortest day, and often colder temperatures, too. But the good news? If you’re not a fan of winter, from each day on after the solstice, the days will get longer and warmer until the calendar hits summer solstice, June 21, 2015. Summer solstice marks the first day of summer, the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere." I don't even want to touch on the whole "Solstice vs. Christmas" crap. BAH HUMBUG! I don't think I'm the only one who has been suffering from the early onset of Winter? I really have not been enjoying the fact that it is almost completely dark by 4:30pm! Normally in the Summer, this is the time that the pool is just getting ...

I love movies!  Just getting lost for a couple hours in a whole other world. If it's a great movie, I leave the theatre with this dreamy feeling of belonging to a Different Place for awhile. It's wonderful. Maleficent was a beautiful world to get lost in. The movie is the re-telling of the Sleeping Beauty story. If you've ever seen the Cinderella story "Ever After" with Drew Barrymore, it's sort of like that! I loved that one too!! Maleficent is a Faerie who lives in a completely different world than the "Kingdom of Man".  This Kingdom is close by and she can see it from her home in the Forest. You watch her as she grows up and has complete freedom and joy to live and frolic in this Mystical world. I fell in love with this child Faerie and her world. A little boy wonders into the mystical woods. He is a poor boy without any parents. He and the Faerie form a wonderful friendship that continues to grow into Love. He shares with her that, one day...

I finally got to watch the movie Frozen with my daughter. She was able to see it a few times already and she was very excited to finally share it with me. I'm a huge fan of Disney and musicals! I was really looking forward to hearing the AMAZING voice of Idina Menzel who played Elphaba in "Wicked"!! She was the voice of Elsa in "Frozen" (pictured above, the blonde one). She did NOT disappoint! When the song "Let it Go" began, I immediately started crying. That's what some musicals do to me. Just at the beauty of it to me, it overwhelms me. I pretty much cried through the entire movie of Dreamgirls! Oh, Jennifer Hudson's amazing pipes just reduced me to tears!! I listened to it again... yup, it still does! "Jennifer Hudson in Dreamgirls" Then, my daughter said something during that song that made me completely lose it... "You remind me a lot of Elsa, Mom." If she only knew the power those words had for me... Imagine,...