I feel I can't share my faith with my immediate family.

Salutations brothers, and sisters!

I'm not sure where to begin telling you about the difficulties imposed on me by my family's strong atheistic beliefs, so I'll tell you briefly about how my faith has been shaken out of me through (esp) my step-father's negative comments, and my mother's generally negative points of view: I was a firm believer before I was into my teenage years. I truly had the love of Jesus in my heart, and loved him with everything I had but my step-father verbally abused me so severely one night that I had to turn to his mother for some support. His words struck me to the core: "Religion is for weak-minded people" (maybe the worst of it, for me at least). He belittled me, my faith, and my intelligence. I grew apart from the Lord, and would eventually turn to strong atheist writings, and even toward Satanism, in my quest for spiritual fulfillment - obviously there was none to be found there - as I'm with the Lord at this point in my life, once again.

Recently, I was opening myself up to Jesus, and trying to turn my life around, yet again. My mother would reject me for the smallest portions of the Christian inside me. I would avoid any mention of Him, and it hurt. I wanted to be open, however, and decided that I would just part ways with a simple "God bless you," at the end of one of our phone conversations, and that disgusted her. She said "Oh, no! Don't!" Then we would get into a sort of debate over my faith, what I believe in, and her views of it. Basically, she was raised in a Catholic family, and says that it was "forced down 'their' throats," referring to her other siblings. And that she also doesn't believe in it, that it is wrong, and expressed her concern, and even "fear" that I was, or had been, brainwashed - that she was worried about me.

I was so filled with shame, and reminded of my upbringing, that I decided to turn my back on my faith, and more sadly, Jesus - yet again! I bought another strong atheist book, by Richard Dawkins - I still have it but don't recall the title (it isn't important enough to me to source that right now), but basically immersed myself in my selfish, and worldly pursuits, and returned to abusing drugs, and more recently, after I had ceased taking a certain substance (due to reasons outside of my genuine control), returned to drinking regularly. Yes, I'm a recovering addict and alcoholic. Another sign that my upbringing wasn't healthy (I was actually exposed to drugs and alcohol from a young age, and throughout my life, and dealt with the rejection I was so often subjected with drugs and alcohol). Enough of that, for now. I'm clean and sober at the moment, and that means a lot to me, so does the Lord.

So, I've found a new church (the last one I was recently involved with proved difficult), and my faith is becoming increasingly sound, but it isn't unshakable -yet. At least not impervious to my mother's judgement. My heart has much anguish, and fear, hatred, etc, and so the room I have for Jesus is limited by this. I asked Him last night to help me be rid of these things - so that I could love Him more completely, as I once had a pure heart which was devoted to Him. So I ask of you, whether I'm right to avoid expressing my (again) new-found faith with my mother - at least until I'm strong enough to withstand her negative opinions of it, and of my character, person, etc. Or whether I'm doing a disservice to God, in that selfish act, by the avoidance of sharing my faith in Jesus. I now wonder whether I should just prepare myself for almost complete rejection from the singular person I depend on for total love and respect, or whether I'm showing disrespect to God, by not sharing Him with her. He comes first, but my mother is to be honored. I get so confused with this sort of thing, because I'm a flexible thinker - due to being on the Autism Spectrum. People, and social situations such as this are quite difficult to me, and I feel I can't look at this issue objectively, because there is that past trauma which influences me unconsciously. I will work on this issue once I've posted, but any reply will be welcomed kindly.

Thank you in advance, for your time.

Thank you Adstar, your post has been helpful. I have "worshiped" my mother, and given my step dad too much authority over my life choices. This is something I need to differentiate between regarding our Lord, God almighty, and my parents. I recently learned during a sermon, that there are four words for love in the Greek language:

• Storge—empathy bond.
• Philia—friend bond.
• Eros—erotic bond.
• Agape—unconditional "God" love.

I needed to hear your insights, thank you again.
I feel my self love can be too weak at times, or that my self esteem is so shot that I regard others as being more valuable than my self.

Members of my church have advised me to avoid talking about my faith to my parents - at least until I'm strong enough in my faith. What do you think of this?

Salutations brothers, and sisters!

I'm not sure where to begin telling you about the difficulties imposed on me by my family's strong atheistic beliefs, so I'll tell you briefly about how my faith has been shaken out of me through (esp) my step-father's negative comments, and my mother's generally negative points of view: I was a firm believer before I was into my teenage years. I truly had the love of Jesus in my heart, and loved him with everything I had but my step-father verbally abused me so severely one night that I had to turn to his mother for some support. His words struck me to the core: "Religion is for weak-minded people" (maybe the worst of it, for me at least). He belittled me, my faith, and my intelligence. I grew apart from the Lord, and would eventually turn to strong atheist writings, and even toward Satanism, in my quest for spiritual fulfillment - obviously there was none to be found there - as I'm with the Lord at this point in my life, once again.

Recently, I was opening myself up to Jesus, and trying to turn my life around, yet again. My mother would reject me for the smallest portions of the Christian inside me. I would avoid any mention of Him, and it hurt. I wanted to be open, however, and decided that I would just part ways with a simple "God bless you," at the end of one of our phone conversations, and that disgusted her. She said "Oh, no! Don't!" Then we would get into a sort of debate over my faith, what I believe in, and her views of it. Basically, she was raised in a Catholic family, and says that it was "forced down 'their' throats," referring to her other siblings. And that she also doesn't believe in it, that it is wrong, and expressed her concern, and even "fear" that I was, or had been, brainwashed - that she was worried about me.

I was so filled with shame, and reminded of my upbringing, that I decided to turn my back on my faith, and more sadly, Jesus - yet again! I bought another strong atheist book, by Richard Dawkins - I still have it but don't recall the title (it isn't important enough to me to source that right now), but basically immersed myself in my selfish, and worldly pursuits, and returned to abusing drugs, and more recently, after I had ceased taking a certain substance (due to reasons outside of my genuine control), returned to drinking regularly. Yes, I'm a recovering addict and alcoholic. Another sign that my upbringing wasn't healthy (I was actually exposed to drugs and alcohol from a young age, and throughout my life, and dealt with the rejection I was so often subjected with drugs and alcohol). Enough of that, for now. I'm clean and sober at the moment, and that means a lot to me, so does the Lord.

So, I've found a new church (the last one I was recently involved with proved difficult), and my faith is becoming increasingly sound, but it isn't unshakable -yet. At least not impervious to my mother's judgement. My heart has much anguish, and fear, hatred, etc, and so the room I have for Jesus is limited by this. I asked Him last night to help me be rid of these things - so that I could love Him more completely, as I once had a pure heart which was devoted to Him. So I ask of you, whether I'm right to avoid expressing my (again) new-found faith with my mother - at least until I'm strong enough to withstand her negative opinions of it, and of my character, person, etc. Or whether I'm doing a disservice to God, in that selfish act, by the avoidance of sharing my faith in Jesus. I now wonder whether I should just prepare myself for almost complete rejection from the singular person I depend on for total love and respect, or whether I'm showing disrespect to God, by not sharing Him with her. He comes first, but my mother is to be honored. I get so confused with this sort of thing, because I'm a flexible thinker - due to being on the Autism Spectrum. People, and social situations such as this are quite difficult to me, and I feel I can't look at this issue objectively, because there is that past trauma which influences me unconsciously. I will work on this issue once I've posted, but any reply will be welcomed kindly.

Thank you in advance, for your time.

Salutations brothers, and sisters!

I'm not sure where to begin telling you about the difficulties imposed on me by my family's strong atheistic beliefs, so I'll tell you briefly about how my faith has been shaken out of me through (esp) my step-father's negative comments, and my mother's generally negative points of view: I was a firm believer before I was into my teenage years. I truly had the love of Jesus in my heart, and loved him with everything I had but my step-father verbally abused me so severely one night that I had to turn to his mother for some support. His words struck me to the core: "Religion is for weak-minded people" (maybe the worst of it, for me at least). He belittled me, my faith, and my intelligence. I grew apart from the Lord, and would eventually turn to strong atheist writings, and even toward Satanism, in my quest for spiritual fulfillment - obviously there was none to be found there - as I'm with the Lord at this point in my life, once again.

Recently, I was opening myself up to Jesus, and trying to turn my life around, yet again. My mother would reject me for the smallest portions of the Christian inside me. I would avoid any mention of Him, and it hurt. I wanted to be open, however, and decided that I would just part ways with a simple "God bless you," at the end of one of our phone conversations, and that disgusted her. She said "Oh, no! Don't!" Then we would get into a sort of debate over my faith, what I believe in, and her views of it. Basically, she was raised in a Catholic family, and says that it was "forced down 'their' throats," referring to her other siblings. And that she also doesn't believe in it, that it is wrong, and expressed her concern, and even "fear" that I was, or had been, brainwashed - that she was worried about me.

I was so filled with shame, and reminded of my upbringing, that I decided to turn my back on my faith, and more sadly, Jesus - yet again! I bought another strong atheist book, by Richard Dawkins - I still have it but don't recall the title (it isn't important enough to me to source that right now), but basically immersed myself in my selfish, and worldly pursuits, and returned to abusing drugs, and more recently, after I had ceased taking a certain substance (due to reasons outside of my genuine control), returned to drinking regularly. Yes, I'm a recovering addict and alcoholic. Another sign that my upbringing wasn't healthy (I was actually exposed to drugs and alcohol from a young age, and throughout my life, and dealt with the rejection I was so often subjected with drugs and alcohol). Enough of that, for now. I'm clean and sober at the moment, and that means a lot to me, so does the Lord.

So, I've found a new church (the last one I was recently involved with proved difficult), and my faith is becoming increasingly sound, but it isn't unshakable -yet. At least not impervious to my mother's judgement. My heart has much anguish, and fear, hatred, etc, and so the room I have for Jesus is limited by this. I asked Him last night to help me be rid of these things - so that I could love Him more completely, as I once had a pure heart which was devoted to Him. So I ask of you, whether I'm right to avoid expressing my (again) new-found faith with my mother - at least until I'm strong enough to withstand her negative opinions of it, and of my character, person, etc. Or whether I'm doing a disservice to God, in that selfish act, by the avoidance of sharing my faith in Jesus. I now wonder whether I should just prepare myself for almost complete rejection from the singular person I depend on for total love and respect, or whether I'm showing disrespect to God, by not sharing Him with her. He comes first, but my mother is to be honored. I get so confused with this sort of thing, because I'm a flexible thinker - due to being on the Autism Spectrum. People, and social situations such as this are quite difficult to me, and I feel I can't look at this issue objectively, because there is that past trauma which influences me unconsciously. I will work on this issue once I've posted, but any reply will be welcomed kindly.

Thank you in advance, for your time.

Salutations brothers, and sisters!

I'm not sure where to begin telling you about the difficulties imposed on me by my family's strong atheistic beliefs, so I'll tell you briefly about how my faith has been shaken out of me through (esp) my step-father's negative comments, and my mother's generally negative points of view: I was a firm believer before I was into my teenage years. I truly had the love of Jesus in my heart, and loved him with everything I had but my step-father verbally abused me so severely one night that I had to turn to his mother for some support. His words struck me to the core: "Religion is for weak-minded people" (maybe the worst of it, for me at least). He belittled me, my faith, and my intelligence. I grew apart from the Lord, and would eventually turn to strong atheist writings, and even toward Satanism, in my quest for spiritual fulfillment - obviously there was none to be found there - as I'm with the Lord at this point in my life, once again.

Recently, I was opening myself up to Jesus, and trying to turn my life around, yet again. My mother would reject me for the smallest portions of the Christian inside me. I would avoid any mention of Him, and it hurt. I wanted to be open, however, and decided that I would just part ways with a simple "God bless you," at the end of one of our phone conversations, and that disgusted her. She said "Oh, no! Don't!" Then we would get into a sort of debate over my faith, what I believe in, and her views of it. Basically, she was raised in a Catholic family, and says that it was "forced down 'their' throats," referring to her other siblings. And that she also doesn't believe in it, that it is wrong, and expressed her concern, and even "fear" that I was, or had been, brainwashed - that she was worried about me.

I was so filled with shame, and reminded of my upbringing, that I decided to turn my back on my faith, and more sadly, Jesus - yet again! I bought another strong atheist book, by Richard Dawkins - I still have it but don't recall the title (it isn't important enough to me to source that right now), but basically immersed myself in my selfish, and worldly pursuits, and returned to abusing drugs, and more recently, after I had ceased taking a certain substance (due to reasons outside of my genuine control), returned to drinking regularly. Yes, I'm a recovering addict and alcoholic. Another sign that my upbringing wasn't healthy (I was actually exposed to drugs and alcohol from a young age, and throughout my life, and dealt with the rejection I was so often subjected with drugs and alcohol). Enough of that, for now. I'm clean and sober at the moment, and that means a lot to me, so does the Lord.

So, I've found a new church (the last one I was recently involved with proved difficult), and my faith is becoming increasingly sound, but it isn't unshakable -yet. At least not impervious to my mother's judgement. My heart has much anguish, and fear, hatred, etc, and so the room I have for Jesus is limited by this. I asked Him last night to help me be rid of these things - so that I could love Him more completely, as I once had a pure heart which was devoted to Him. So I ask of you, whether I'm right to avoid expressing my (again) new-found faith with my mother - at least until I'm strong enough to withstand her negative opinions of it, and of my character, person, etc. Or whether I'm doing a disservice to God, in that selfish act, by the avoidance of sharing my faith in Jesus. I now wonder whether I should just prepare myself for almost complete rejection from the singular person I depend on for total love and respect, or whether I'm showing disrespect to God, by not sharing Him with her. He comes first, but my mother is to be honored. I get so confused with this sort of thing, because I'm a flexible thinker - due to being on the Autism Spectrum. People, and social situations such as this are quite difficult to me, and I feel I can't look at this issue objectively, because there is that past trauma which influences me unconsciously. I will work on this issue once I've posted, but any reply will be welcomed kindly.

Thank you in advance, for your time.

I think it is a good idea to take the time to be built up in the knowledge of salvation before you go go out and engage in hard discussions with family members..

Also another small thing.. It is best to click of the "" REPLY "" option at the bottom right of the post you want to reply to.. In that way you will have a quote of that person post in your reply and the other person will get a notification that their post has been replied to..

It was only by luck that i was going down the list of topics and saw this topic again and remembered i had posted in it and saw that you where the last poster.. I visit a couple of different forums each day and usually post quite a number of replies and being a human my memory is not perfect ( actually it is way less them perfect ) So i need all the help i can get when i try and help others

Hi Jed...I am so sorry to hear what you are going through...I once had a problem as you are having , but not to your extreme... I witnessed to a family member of my granddaughter who begs on the street for his fixes , I had given him £20 once when I was in my drinking days , even though I was saved , but the LORD I believe put it on my heart not to offer him money but to offer him food and a word from God...

So the next time I saw him I said hello , he asked me if I had change for him , I told him I will not give him money but if he is hungry or thirsty I will provide for him , I then offered him Gods word , I thought he may ask questions but instead he through the words back at me cursing God , I was devastated...

I struggled with this for a while because I knew I would bump into him daily , now as I pass him I ignore him because this Scripture comes to mind Matthew 7:6 "Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces...

As long as you take your troubles to the LORD , the Holy Spirit will lead you , do not feel bad , God is not condemning you , the evil one is...The LORD will set your paths straight...xox...

You should wait until you're more rooted in the word, let your witness be in your lifestyle in the way that you live, rather than in your words.

Hello.
Firstly you keep going back to Jesus. That is because Jesus has not given up on you but keeps drawing you back to Him. Jesus has never let go of you. It is so difficult when close family members do not believe. It is going to be tough at times. Jesus never said it would be easy but He did promise he will help you . Leading your life the way you know you should with Jesus in your heart they will see and that will be a witness to them. When we devote time to Jesus, allowing him into our hearts , the Holy Spirit changes us. The way we handle situations and people and problems and the way we can have such peace that only comes from Jesus is such a witness to our unbelieving loved ones and they will be watching you. Take all the advice and help you can from Godly men and women asking for prayer. Pray for your loved ones too. You may never even see the outcome of your prayer. Pray anyway because you just never know what may happen to that person.
Some people are called to go out to witness. Some have a job to do for Jesus in their own homes. The bible is full of biblical stories of true, real, ordinary people who God uses and makes extraordinary. It is the same today. David I feel particularly understood abandonment. He turned to God.
God bless.

You have received some very good advice here from some very spirit filled Christians. Take it, study what has been said and examine it in your own heart to find the truth. First of all I praise GOD that you didn't give up on your first love. Jesus, In Psalms 51: 8-12, verse 12 says restore the joy of my salvation". That was my favorite verse when I repented after a time of back sliding. It is commendable that you are concerned about your family, Right now it seems the best thig for you to do is pray for them and be a good example to them. My brother once told my parents that he didn't want to be around me anymore cause I was always preaching to him. I had never said a word only lived a Christian life example for him. I think you are on the right track, work on your relationship with Jesus. Grow in your prayer life, study his word. Take every opportunity that GOD shows you to share with your family, keep in mind Matthew 10:14, you may have to shake the dust from your feet. and Matthew 13:57. His own hometown took offense at him. Keep up your faith and prayer. GOD will honor that.

Hey MrH59,
Thanks for your insights on this challenging part of my life with Jesus. I looked up the passages you shared, and found them helpful, especially Psalms 51, which says that I should rejoice in the Lord, and be steadfast in my faith, before I attempt to share my praise of Him with others. This, however, comes from the Old Testament, and so I'm concerned that it might conflict with what Jesus teaches, that of going out into the world and spreading His great works. It seems that Psalms is right, but I also don't want to disappoint Jesus.

God bless you, MrH59.

You won't disappoint Jesus by going by the Word; He is the Word (John 1:1, 14). Also, Jesus quoted the Old Testament many times. Old Testament Scripture does not conflict with Jesus; it points to Jesus.

I have some family members and friends who are hostile to the Gospel as well (as many of us probably do). I agree with the advice you've been given. Live a life that shares the Gospel, and bolster your faith with knowledge. Don't engage in debates while you're still on the "milk" and not the "meat" of Scripture. And it sounds like, with your mother, it will become a debate whether you intend it or not. At this point, it sounds like if you don't respond, she'll think she won, and if you respond, she'll win. The good news is that you don't have to "persuade" her (or anyone).

Get in your Bible, worship God with your life, and pray for your people.

just love Jesus' Soldiers' -
very encouraging and loving posts!

I'm glad that you shared your story. It is the story of too few men in this world.

Endure your struggle - it is the struggle that the Spirit has called you to. It may be that the conclusion will be for you in your true Home in Heaven. It could be called a cruel fate, but be true to the calling to God within you and don't look back.

Certainly are, oldethennew
Could you elaborate what it means to be Jesus' Soldiers'?

God bless.



I'm striving to live for Him, to live according to His ways, and, as I mentioned earlier - am getting to know Jesus through reading the first four Scriptures - Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. I'm still reading Matthew. The last two passages I read in the book of Matthew (19:29-30) "And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. (30, and this one I don't quite understand) "But many who are first will be last, and the last first." Concluding chapter 19 of the book of Matthew. Any insight on this final verse would be much appreciated.

God be with you always.

====================================================

a True Soldier in Jesus Christ =
11TIM. 2:3.
Thou therefore endure hardness, (suffer troubles-endure evils) as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

EPH. 6:10.
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.

we must never take (offense) at others comments to or about ourselves, but we should learn
to know and understand all people, that we may always react in Love, which is the most powerful
Spiritual weapon that we can use, coupled with forgiveness...