will ever put a gun to your head and force you to believe. I’m shocked by how angry and hateful atheists get at their fellow pedes who bring up prayer or faith. You are acting exactly like liberals, going in to a post just to hate-reply. It’s sad. All we are doing is praying snd encouraging others to pray. If you don’t want to, that’s fine. There’s no need to harass those who want to. We are all on the same team here.
Where i used to work, a group of people got together by the flagpole every day at lunch. They didn’t demand anyone join them. They didn’t force the company to make prayer mandatory. They just got together and prayed, and everyone else moved on about their day.
There’s no need for the infighting. God bless
🇺🇸
Wow. I’m sorry to hear that. Unfortunately, I’m not sure I can help. I was raised by a new agey single mother who never took any interest in my moral or intellectual development, and between her, my dad, and my lousy childhood, there was never any real hope that I would turn out well at all. The adults I grew up around were (and still are) of pretty low character. My experiences at the handful of nondenominational churches we went to (briefly) were enough to underwhelm me. I discovered the “New Atheists” in my mid teens, around 2006-7, right when they were getting popular. All of that coupled with the TV/Hollywood representation of Christians being hateful bigots, led me to be pretty hateful and bigoted myself.
In the end, I sort of just lost interest in the rage and feelings of superiority that I’d had. There wasn’t a great revelation. After discovering Jordan Peterson, I gave myself permission to start exploring Western religious traditions, and came to appreciate them like I never had before.
The thing is, nobody but me could have changed my mind. I’m very hard-headed. A card could be a nice gesture, just to show that you’re thinking of her. Don’t make it overtly religious, though. That kind of thing could set her off. It would have done that to me. It looks like I’m maybe one year older than your daughter, but I never really related well to people my age anyway.
I wish you all the best, though. Just be patient. Don’t let her walk all over you, though.
Thanks, it was when I stopped letting her walk on me that the rage came out. My plan was a generic holiday season card, like a snowflake or something. Anything could set her off, it was like walking on eggshells. I am hoping life experience will mellow her out.
I had a challenging childhood to put it lightly and my husband says I was the pick of the litter because I somehow wound up pretty sane. When my daughter was really going over the edge I saw a therapist who told me this is common with daughters of strong mothers. They somehow feel they need to compete. The therapist told me to just agree with her to keep the peace. I contemplated that and realized I just cannot lie and say I agree with something I do not. It is not who I am.
Hm. Sounds like a crummy therapist. You already seem to know what feels right to do, though. Give your daughter some space to figure herself out, be patient, and let her decide when to reach out. That’s what I’d suggest.
I hope it all works out for you guys.
Thx