Putting my feet in the icy cold water.
Where is the Love of Christ in the people?
Why do the people need to hurt others in the name of Christ?
Is Your church growing? or shrinking? or staying the same?
Are you growing with new converts? and then losing them? or older members?
Do you ever wonder why the church is losing members?
Do you even care about your brothers and sisters in Christ?
I love The Church.
I feel very hurt by the people in the church.
I feel like the people in the church wish I would just go away.
I was married for 34 years.
I am not now.
I was very young when I married. I chose to commit to him. I chose to continue to love him through it all. I did not want divorce. I was willing to do anything to work through it all.
I was not given an option.
He left.
I am still the same person.
I would never come between a marriage.
I still will not compromise my body outside of marriage.
I still have the same morals and convictions.
The Scarlett letter at Church seems to be D not A.
He has been welcomed into a new congregation alongside his now wife.
They do not suffer the Scarlett letter A.
They receive forgiveness from the people in church.
They are accepted as participating members of the church.
Their past is ignored or forgotten but surely not mentioned.
The Church does not know what to do with me.
I am considered a failure.
I am considered a threat.
I have no place in the Church.
No one has asked.
No one has bothered to try to get to know me.
I am viewed with suspicion by wives as soon as they find out about the D.
I am not allowed to talk to husbands at all.
I am not allowed to interact with males at all unless I want to be the object of gossip.
I am not welcome to sing.
I am not welcome in small groups.
I have no place in the Church.
I am thankful that I have faith that God will take me through anything.
Jesus felt abandoned.
Jesus was viewed with suspicion by the pharisees.
Jesus was not welcomed.
Jesus was killed.
The people in the Church know how to interact with the unsaved.
They do not expect perfection in baby Christians.
They are willing to forgive Christians.
They do not seem to be able to deal with the injured Christians.
They HAVE to find fault in the injured Christian.
They NEED to assume the worst in single divorced women.
Oh, they can give out pity.
They can look that young single mom in the eye and say...
We will be there for you and your young children. We will give you aid.
But where are you?
She is not really wanted. She is not missed. Her children are not missed.
In fact, there is a sigh of relief that those wild kids aren't at church influencing the other kids.
Do you know that children without a father NEED good Christian males to interact?
Do you know that children of divorce are in pain?
Do you really care or do you think these children are a hopeless cause so why really bother?
The people in the Church can gossip by turning it into a prayer.
God Bless the single mom. We pray that she is strong and does not fall to sexual sin now that she is lonely. Oh protect our single men from the single mom.
God Bless the single woman who was married a long time. We pray her ex is able to recover from the harm she must have brought him during his long-suffering marriage to her. Protect our husbands from this viper.
Do you wonder why divorced women would choose to just stop coming?
Do you really even care?
It is much easier to allow them to leave.
Many of them will fall anyway so at least it won't be here.
Until the people in the Church choose to love each and every person who comes their way...
Until the people in the Church choose to take the risk to love...
Until the people in the Church step out of their own comfort zones...
People will continue to be hurt
People will continue to be lost
People will continue to become bitter
People will continue to lose hope
I am hurt.
I am Not Lost
I am Not Bitter
I still have Hope
I choose to love each person who comes into my life.
I choose to risk that they are not be perfect and may hurt me.
I choose to step out of my comfort zones.
I choose The Church of Christ.
I choose Christ.
I however do not choose to continue to allow people to hurt me.
I am an UN-churched Christian.
I am sad that this is how the Church treats those with the Scarlett single D.
I pray daily that people in the Church will wake up and see the pain that they cause others.
This is just one kind of pain they cause...I have sorrowed for years over the pain the people in the church have caused in others who have crossed my path.
When will it end?
Will it end with YOU?
