I was taught growing up that I should praise God for all the good that happened in my life. The bad that happened where lessons from God and all the in between was still attributed to God in some way or another that put him in the best light. Since this thought process had always been drilled into me, I thought it was normal. When I moved away from home I went through a time of great loneliness and I called on God to comfort me and I praised him when that loneliness went away. As I look back I can see that my de-conversion happened over the past 10 years. When I started working hard to figure out who I am and what I want in life, I started realizing that the good that came to my life was because of MY hard work or the help of other fellow humans, but what I still did for the longest time was continue to give the praise to God. I honestly went through phases, I tried for the longest time to push myself back into church and then I would feel empty again, then someone would reach out to me and get me involved again. I wanted that security that religion brought to me, after all it had been a part of my life since I could remember. I hadn't experienced patting myself on the back for my own accomplishments. Now, I am not trying to say that we as human beings shouldn't practice humility. What I am trying to get at is that when we accept that our choices are our own, that things happen in life because of those choices, then we start not only taking accountability for our own choices and consequences more, but we also start giving ourselves (and other people) the praise that it takes to step it up a notch a become truly happy. When I decided to leave the church, I started to take inventory of all the good that had happened in my life. I feel that I have accomplished a lot in my short life and I have (and do) experience an extreme amount of happiness. This happiness is due to learning from my mistakes, taking accountability and constantly challenging myself, working hard to attain the things in life that bring me joy. I am sorry, but I can no longer give praise to the man upstairs. I give that praise to myself and my fellow human beings. There is good out there and it is because of good people and their good works. Part of saying goodbye to God for me has been accepting and realizing the many PEOPLE and experiences that have influenced my life and made me who I am today. I wouldn't change any of my life experiences because they have made me who I am today and I love who I am ;).
About this Blog
- NonBelievers
- This blog has been created by Luke and Cozette Stoddard as a place to share resources and feelings related to separating ourselves from an organized religion and embracing the ideology that there is probably no God(s) and that we are better off that way. The reason for sharing this is that we believe that this separation has enabled us to be better human beings that take accountability for our actions and value this life with no expectation for reward in an afterlife for doing so.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Praise to the man (or woman)
I was taught growing up that I should praise God for all the good that happened in my life. The bad that happened where lessons from God and all the in between was still attributed to God in some way or another that put him in the best light. Since this thought process had always been drilled into me, I thought it was normal. When I moved away from home I went through a time of great loneliness and I called on God to comfort me and I praised him when that loneliness went away. As I look back I can see that my de-conversion happened over the past 10 years. When I started working hard to figure out who I am and what I want in life, I started realizing that the good that came to my life was because of MY hard work or the help of other fellow humans, but what I still did for the longest time was continue to give the praise to God. I honestly went through phases, I tried for the longest time to push myself back into church and then I would feel empty again, then someone would reach out to me and get me involved again. I wanted that security that religion brought to me, after all it had been a part of my life since I could remember. I hadn't experienced patting myself on the back for my own accomplishments. Now, I am not trying to say that we as human beings shouldn't practice humility. What I am trying to get at is that when we accept that our choices are our own, that things happen in life because of those choices, then we start not only taking accountability for our own choices and consequences more, but we also start giving ourselves (and other people) the praise that it takes to step it up a notch a become truly happy. When I decided to leave the church, I started to take inventory of all the good that had happened in my life. I feel that I have accomplished a lot in my short life and I have (and do) experience an extreme amount of happiness. This happiness is due to learning from my mistakes, taking accountability and constantly challenging myself, working hard to attain the things in life that bring me joy. I am sorry, but I can no longer give praise to the man upstairs. I give that praise to myself and my fellow human beings. There is good out there and it is because of good people and their good works. Part of saying goodbye to God for me has been accepting and realizing the many PEOPLE and experiences that have influenced my life and made me who I am today. I wouldn't change any of my life experiences because they have made me who I am today and I love who I am ;).
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that I have a follower. I am glad that you are enjoying my blog!
ReplyDeleteI am glad to see that you are doing research and finding your own truth. I have to say that I am loving your blog. I find it interesting. I was not brought up LDS but Baptist and although I am still a believer in God I do not associate with any organized religion. I feel they have thier own agenda and are not true to what God had in mind. My boyfriend is a non believer as well and it is fun to see how are views on things are simular just mine comes from the bibicle side and his is from the human kind side. Just as with this blog. God gave us the freedom of choice. We are responsible for our own lives and how we live them. He just gave us guidelines to help us be compationate and loving to each other. He also told us our place is not to judge but that is his place only. (I believe this is in Mark if you want to use this with your sister). Keep it up I hope you feel fullfield. I support you and look forward to reading more!
ReplyDelete