QOTW - Getting back to your roots

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-22-2003
QOTW - Getting back to your roots
11
Wed, 04-27-2005 - 8:19am

It seems a lot of us had formal or at least a good deal of exposure to the religion of our parents or guardians growing up.  Do you think it made a difference in who you are today?  We hear quite often that parents want to raise their children with a church in their lives.  What are your thoughts on that?  Does it really mold the child and help them on their journey?


I'm really looking forward to your responses.


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iVillage Member
Registered: 12-31-2003
Wed, 04-27-2005 - 10:27am
For me it definitely was important.

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-26-2005
Wed, 04-27-2005 - 10:59am
Interesting question. I think a spiritual focus that includes values and morals kind of gets the job done as far as raising kids. I think later in life, it means a lot to someone to have these roots in values and beliefs beyond the self. I think my Catholic childhood really made me strong in believing right and wrong, and backing it up with how I live. Maybe it's not a specific doctrine as much a it is that deep foundation? I don't know as I'm in flux now, after many years, exploring the possibility of returning to the Church of my childhood. Anna
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Wed, 04-27-2005 - 11:17am

My family didn't belong to any church til I was about 9 and started asking to go. Seemed like all my friends did and I was feeling left out. Since my Dad had grown up Episcopalian, that's where we went. I quit going just before my 16th birthday when we got a new priest and I didn't like him. I'd dearly loved the previous priest who was retiring and the new one just didn't feel right.

My Mom hadn't grown up with any religion. My grandfather's mother had been a very fundamentalist who'd gone to church every day and forced it on her children so he'd rebelled and rejected religion completely. Mom has never believed the Christian story and so explored things like astrology, numerology and astral travel. So I grew up with that being a normal everyday part of my life too.

I didn't really start exploring my own beliefs til my MIL sent Mists of Avalon home with DH one day about 5 or 6 years ago saying that I 'needed' to read it. (She and I are very close and have very similar beliefs.) She was so right. That book introduced me to the concept of a Sacred Feminine and was the catalyst to start reading and exploring what *I* believe instead of just swallowing whatever was handed to me. Ironically, my beliefs haven't really CHANGED so much as I've just taken the time to really think about what they are.

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-22-2003
Wed, 04-27-2005 - 5:57pm

I was raised in the "every Sunday" crowd and went to a Protestant Christian college.


iVillage Member
Registered: 05-20-2004
Thu, 04-28-2005 - 12:51pm

I was raised in a house where both my parents were Catholic, but not practicing.

Shyla

  

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-26-2004
Fri, 04-29-2005 - 8:47am
That's a tough one for me. I was raised strict Catholic and had some tough times growing up. I didn't have the greatest Nuns teaching me in Sunday school and they loved to instill fear in us. Our priest was an alcoholic, but a nice guy and I do treasure the friends I made that I still talk to today from our congregation.
I have 2 young children and it is really tough for me to choose the best route to go. I was never a good liar and quite a bit of structured religion I don't believe so I am a skeptic and, when the kids ask me questions, I tend to tell them what I learned as a child and what I really believe today. I am probably confusing the hell out of them! Excuse the pun.
The other problem is that in Florida there are so many different churches. Some names are ones I have never heard of. It seems every street has some kind of church, but most of them are evangelical. I don't like evangelical at all!
I have resorted for the time being to teach them morals, explain parts of the Bible to them, and if questions arise, answer them as well as I can.
I do believe church is great for children growing up, but I am so conflicted on what kind of church I want to expose them to.
If anyone could help...I'd appreciate it!
Thanks!
R-
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-26-2005
Fri, 04-29-2005 - 9:23pm
I connected to what you said. I am a cradle Catholic, also. In my family we really lived our faith on a daily basis, went to Church every Sunday and Holy Day, were involved in the Church community, etc. It was like a safe cacoon, an entire culture in a way. I left in my 20s, in college. Didn't look back. Then I was struck with this yearning in my late 30s/early 40s. Came back and my daugher received her First Communion and went to Catechism classes. In a few years we both fell away again. DH is Christian but not Catholic, so he didn't participate. Then I wasn't involved in anything up until recently. I am in the process of returning to the Church once again. Even though my spiritual path has been kind of confused, the teachings, moral teachings, etc., were good for my daughter. Even though now as an adult, she isn't going to any Church, she is a moral person and know right from wrong. I hope she will find a spiritual path again. Values are very important as a part of raising a child/children, I think, but it's better when the parents, or at least one, is involved in the religion, too, and the other is at least supportive about the children being taught and taken to worship, and backs up the other parent with the children. I feel I am coming full circle in my life now. I hope you find something right for you. I am, for myself, glad to have God in my life again. Anna
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-22-2003
Sat, 04-30-2005 - 11:13am

I am wondering now how those among us who are Wiccan and Pagan found their path.


iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Sun, 05-01-2005 - 12:38pm

Looking back, I've probably always been pagan but just didn't have a name for it. My beliefs haven't changed over the years. The difference has been that I've taken the time to really THINK about what they are.

My eyes were opened to my path about 6 or 7 years ago (sometime around the pregnancy or birth of my 2nd child as I recall) when MIL gave me the book Mists of Avalon. I'd always believed that God was beyond gender, but I'd never seen the Divine with a female face. Then when I was pg with Baby #3 I joined an expecting club here on iVillage where there was one particular very vocal pagan. I found myself fascinated and began asking questions. She pointed me to WitchVox.com and from there I came back to the Village looking for pagan message boards. I started on the Winter Solstice board, and once Solstice passed and that board slowed down I moved on to Pagan Parenting and then Pagan Paths. Since then I've done tons of reading and soul searching, met lots of interesting people, left and then returned to the Village.

I don't feel as if I've truly left any tradition behind. I've just changed how I think about it and stopped using a lable that never really fit to begin with. I'm quite happy to straddle the fence between Christianity and Paganism. (The Celtic cross is a perfect symbol to reperesent that for me.) There is much Truth and Wisdom in Christianity, and I regularly use the teachings of Jesus in my own life and to teach my children. I just don't accept that the Christian path is the WHOLE Truth or the ONLY way. :-)

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-27-2003
Sun, 05-01-2005 - 5:49pm

I was raised in the non-denominational Church of Christ setting.

 

 

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