Remaining faithful beyond separation

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house13um

Guest
#21
One of the challenges i have faced with my divorce is the conflict between faith vs denial vs giving up too soon.

If you have too much faith, it begins to look more like denial, if you have too little faith it begins to look more like giving up too soon.

I don't really know exactly what the right answer is, but i feel the right answer, as it is with many things in life, it is about balance.
One of the bad things about this is, in the case of separation, appearances really do matter. What you "appear" to be doing is what is communicated to those around you, most notably your spouse. So acting in a manner that communicates clearly, effectively, and honestly is really difficult when every fibre of your body is pulling and pushing you forward in every direction to fix things.

I don't know the answer either. But I wouldn't necessarily say there is a thing as "too much" faith. Like you said, it is a matter of balance, but the balance lies in our actions more than our beliefs. In my case, I believe that scripture is 100% infallible truth -- but that is belief, faith, not knowledge or logic of any sort. However, I don't act on my faith as often as I should by living through Christ and His follower's instructions as found in scripture. But let's say that I did: The defining factor would not be my faith so much as the way in which I live my life based off of scripture. Living by cultural bounds of attending church, avoiding cussing, praising God, etc. are not going to work. But doing any one of these things based strictly off of any faith in scripture defines the action. Rather than doing these things and telling others about them, I just do them. I don't announce my actions to other. If someone asks "Do you go to church?" I'll say "Yes." And that's about it.

The point is, I made a mistake with my wife very early on about telling her how I was doing this and that relevant to my Christianity. It would have come across as southeastern U.S. baloney to anyone, including myself. So I understand why my wife was turned off by my actions -- I was boasting of my progress rather than just doing what I needed to do and letting it be at that. My actions in my life and my relations with her, those few and far-between moments, would reflect the decisions I was making elsewhere, even if not as vividly as by telling her straight-up that I was trying to do right by God. Christ wants us to live in a Christ-like manner. Would He ever boast of what He does?

... If this got off-topic, my apologies. Rabbit trails are my weakness. :p
 
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gerlie

Guest
#22
One of the challenges i have faced with my divorce is the conflict between faith vs denial vs giving up too soon.

If you have too much faith, it begins to look more like denial, if you have too little faith it begins to look more like giving up too soon.

I don't really know exactly what the right answer is, but i feel the right answer, as it is with many things in life, it is about balance.
I like whta you said,i been separated and i dont know what to do