I don't often come into this forum at all, because I don't really enjoy "debating" my spirituality, but I came here tonight because I just had another heated discussion with my mom about my "leaving" the religion I was baptized into, Catholicism. I didn't know what I'd find when I came here, but this seems safe enough for me right now, as it is just asking how it came to be that you believe what you believe, etc. After this installment of the 5-year debate on my spirituality with mom, I am quite upset, emotionally drained, spent, and feel like a failure of sorts. As I said, I was raised Catholic, even got married and baptized my children Catholic, mostly to appease my mom. But for quite some time I'd felt so spiritually dead inside, and one day my friend said that maybe someday I would like to come to her church, a charismatic Christian church with very lively praise and worship music and teaching directly from the bible. I went one day, and my spirit felt alive like it never had before. I now feel closer to God than I ever had in my life! It is not a perfect church by any means; we are still all human beings after all, and we all still sin and fall short of the glory of God. I try to look past the human error and keep my eyes on Jesus; He is the reason I feel so alive! This church was just the means that helped me learn how to have a personal relationship with the Lord. But five years later, my mom is still so bitter because I abandoned the religion I was raised with; why can't she just be happy that I'm now closer to God than I ever was? I've been "saved" for five yrs., my husband and children are also saved now, and we have a church family now too, which I never felt that in Catholic church. Sorry to ramble, but I wonder how many others out there have been criticized by family about choosing another "faith" so to speak. I always believed in God, knew OF Him, had faith, etc., but never like this! But it's like my mom looks at me differently, almost with disappointment because of this choice I've made, and it really hurts. Thanks for letting me get this off my chest, and sorry for this being so long.
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