- This topic is empty.
-
Posts
-
Thank you everyone for replying. I have ached with our stories. Keep them coming. Conversations like these remind me that – yes – we have a lot of control over our own lives but maybe not as much as we think. When I was young I thought that given enough work and dedication one can make anything happen, especially if you live in a free / democratic country. Now I believe there is an awful lot of chance in our lives. 9/11 changed my life for the worse but I almost never bring it up because it changed other peoples’ lives much more than it changed mine. One of my children was born with a medium severity birth defect but with practice, patience, and some extra effort, her life will be virtually the same as anyone else’s life. The silver lining is that her birth defect has made her a strong, independent woman with probably more likelihood of success than my other children.
All things considered, and comparing my life with other people across the world, I am extremely blessed. It’s just that my life is not what I expected, particularly with my religious beliefs. My parents taught me to believe that church was the most important thing in this life, including family. That has been a difficult teaching to remove from my belief system.
SilentDawning wrote:
For some of us — Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans — John Lennon.
Growing up my dad always said, “If there are 2 ways of doing things, Amy will find the third way.”
So I expected a certain amount of dissidence between my expectations and reality. About 5 years ago I stopped trying to have long-term expectations because it wasn’t working out…
I did not expect to be a sole income bread winner. But my husband is a very talented cook with a low-salt diet that I can’t cook for.
I did not expect to have only 2 children – or be intimidated by those 2 children (and 1 of them is only 11 months!). Actually, the responsibility is intimidating… Yet both of my daughters are priceless to me, and bring me a lot of joy (and confusion, and pain).
I also did not expect to have a miscarriage. My mom had babies left, right and center easily – and I got pregnant with our first child within months when it was expected that it would take a year or so…. And yet, I can now mourn with those that mourn on that level.
Growing up in a household with Major Depression, I thought I knew enough to handle mental illnesses/brain diversity (I laugh out loud when I compare then to now…)
I did not ever expect to “break” or feel out of control anxiety, yet that happened. I trust that good will be or can be fashioned out if it…
I did not ever expect to leave the state of California…. but I feel much more at home in Michigan.
Interesting questions!! 🙂 My life has had a couple of shifts that I never expected. The first unexpected shift would have been going through a full blown faith crisis, going through two separations, coming within inches of divorce, trying to raise two kids essentially as a single dad, looking for another religion and wondering if it would be better to raise the kids without any religion at all, wondering if I would want to re-marry eventually after divorce, etc. I never saw myself going through any of that.
However, while I was going through all of that, I never would have expected landing where I am currently. My marriage is now stronger than it has been since the first year of our marriage, I am madly in love with my wife, I’m still attending church even though I believe very little of what is taught, and I’m happy with where I am at. I am perfectly happy with where my faith journey has brought me. I’m happy to go without garments, I’m happy not attending the temple, I’m happy not paying tithing, I’m happy throwing out 95% of what JS and BY ever said; and yet, I’m also happy to attend church for the social aspect, I’m happy sharing exactly what I do and do not believe openly (even in SS or EQ), I’m happy to be a llama, I’m happy to raise my kids in the church while still teaching them about the importance of symbolism and how much of the scriptures can be seen as symbolic lessons rather than historical accounts. I’m very happy with where my life is, despite unexpected bumps in the road, and unforeseen twists and turns.
No definitely not. But that has relatively little to do with LDS.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.