Hope From Your Mama!

 I honestly don’t mind discussion of politics or religion.  I actually LOVE real discussion about real things with *real* people with no hidden agendas... But, there is also the fact that I have a very, very hard time trusting people in my older age. But here’s the thing... it seems it usually cannot be an HONEST and agenda free, open discussion when we are talking about these subjects.  It usually has to be an argument that divides. Oh don’t get me wrong… I am definitely not innocent of this sin. If you look at the meme that I’ve used as my picture at the top…  There is actually an entire controversy on this picture alone. It’s all really pretty stupid the things we busy ourselves with when we should be busy loving and doing onto others… again… Guilty as charged.  I just like the picture because it sort of states my feelings about the guy.  Which, as you know, are subject to change at any point in time. We get to do that as humans! I’m not sure if you knew...

  Woodlands Church, Stevens Point, WI Religion/ Denomination Evangelical “Free”  Most of you know this blog was started over 10 years ago when I was still part of a mega-church.  It's interesting to look back on my blogs and see some of the brainwashing that took place. It keeps me humble and it causes me to be wary of any thing, place or person trying to control my heart and mind. Most of you also know I was asked to "step down" from a leadership role at said church because I was "naughty"... Reading “naughty” books... LOVE WINS Questioning whether or not Jesus would accept Gays. Gasp!!  I also lashed out (privately) at one of the Pastor's wives who thought she could bully me into not sharing my beliefs.  I guess I learned MY lesson!  😆 I recently wrote a blog talking about one of my experiences at this very church.  Imagine my surprise when my blog had an anonymous comment left on it by someone, who probably is still a part of this huge enterprise....

  ~I’ve lost friends for various reasons throughout my life.  One time in the 7th grade, one of my best friends ended our friendship because...  “She heard I tried smoking!!”  😮😮 Yep. Our relationship was never the same again because I tried a ciggie! Even though I apologized and begged her to take me back and promised her I would never try it again!!  Nope! No deal! I guess I just counted myself lucky that she didn’t tell my Mom on me as well!  Momma would say to me, “Don’t ever smoke!” With a cigarette hanging out of her mouth! 🤣  My Momma also said, “Do as I say, not as I do!”  But it worked! I don’t smoke cigarettes. 😉       I use that line on my daughter to this day!    ~I also lost a lot of friends when I drifted away from the Christian religion/ “cult” I was in.  Especially when I had the audacity to talk about that journey in my blogs or on Facebook!!  “We don’t talk about injustice and the bad things...

Warning!! If you are a complete type A personality, a fitness junkie or a complete healthy food eater... this blog is NOT for you! This blog is for people like me who have ALWAYS struggled with weight gain and body image and bad eating habits and wishes someone would have turned me on to Yoga in My 20’s ~~~ Puberty was crazy. Having my period sucked. Having children was fricken hard!!!  But no one really warned me about the worst one... peri menopause!! I have been having multiple issues with pain and with my mood stability the last year and a half. One night I looked up peri menopause, and all of these issues fit!  I won’t bore you with all the gory details. I am getting help from my doctor. Thank the Goddess for Estrogen and Legal marijuana!   But one thing I am learning is that my body, as completely imperfect as it may be... has served me well for many many years! I need to love her and treat her well!  So that is why I share with you, the best thing I have found...

  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...