Spirituality

For some time now I have been wanting to find my way spiritually. I was not raised in church, I started attending here and there in college. My husband had a bad church upbringing and his 'faith' was dictated by whatever the stepfather of the day practiced or believed so needless to say he is not big on organized religion. We have attended a church that we both like off and on the past few years, more off than on. Last year I really wanted to 'figure it out' so to speak. I decided we would go all the time, there was some dissention there, some conflicting priorities, some disagreements and it rarely materialized. I got dejected and didnt get past genesis in the bible.

I did do one thing right and found a Bible I can read. It is called the international reader's version. A friend of mine showed me a website, perhaps I can still find it somewhere, you can put in a passage from the bible and then select the different versions of the bible and read the way it would be written in that Bible. The version I chose is meant for reading, it is in 'todays' language and is marketed towards teens etc but I felt it was a good place for me to start and be able to understand. There is also a study guide you can get to go with it and it has extra stuff in the back for instance you want to read all about Mary, look her up and it will tell you where she is and what to read, what she is all about etc.

This year I told hubby that I would not force him to go to church like I was previously trying to do but Lillian and I were going (he was always fine with this it was just my hang up about going together). I also decided that part of the problem with not going was that the church we were going to was 40minutes away in good weather so I looked up all the churches in the town where we live last week. I decided that while I was trying to find a new one I would go by myself. I settled on one that I knew did alot with the community and had a kids program. When I looked them up on the net they had a very good website, they looked like a 'modern' church, they touted an multi-media presentation, child education through 5th grade, and alot of extra programs and community affairs to get involved with. PLUS it was only 1.5 miles from our house.

The church was nice, it was very very similar to the one we were going to that we liked but perhaps about 1/3 to 1/4 the size. It's very contemporary and relaxed. Onething I didnt like about it was that their kids classes end at 5th grade when middle school seems to be SUCH an important time for that sort of thing. It wasnt really a negative for me because we dont even plan to be in this town for that long. The only true negative was that they ahve a band not traditional choir and there was that smokey stuff up around the stage (it wasnt heavy like a rock concert it was more for the light effects, you couldnt see it coming otu or anything) but I swear I could smell/taste it and was worried it would affect my lungs so I got up and moved way to the back and I would hate to sit back there all the time.

Anyway I have heard of the 'honeymoon' period where you see, feel, experience more spiritual related items after inviting God into your life. Well I think taht is happening to me. I have had a couple things happen. Today was the coolest one. I have alist of books I want to read this year so I went to library and of course forgot the list so I was searching for some of the titles I could remember and they didnt have them in, I remembered the title "when bad things happen to good people" I searched it, it was in, I wrote it down with authors last name, went to shelf pulled that number and the last name. Well the book in my hand was called "Who Needs God" hmmm turns out the guy Kushner is a spiritual counselor and rabbi and has written alot regarding religion not just the book I wanted to read. What makes this even more cool is that I had prayed earlier in the week for God to help me find my way, that I wasnt really sure what I needed or what I was doing or even exactly what I believed but I was going to try if he could help me. Well then the other day I was thining that I wish I could find a book about teaching religion, answering tough questions and basically explaining about religion. Hmmm what do you think this book does? Yep! And it has very good reviews, the man is very well regarded, the book is written for any religion etc. Very very cool I am super stoked about reading it as well as his other book that I went there for. Matter of fact I am signing off now to go get started!




http://www.amazon.com/Who-Needs-God-Harold-Kushner/dp/0743234774/ref=pd_sim_b_6