Hobbies, interests, pastimes...
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Ah, hobbies... What are they again?
Not long after my divorce, I invited a pair of elders to my house to do a "spiritual cleansing" and blessing. Once upon a time, I used to do cross stitch, and had literally poured hundreds, if not thousands of hours and dollars into what I had found to be a relaxing, creative outlet. But thanks to these people and their strong faith in God, it was not meant to be.
This couple had strong beliefs in not having anything around that was supposedly attached to demons, including any images of animals that were "creatures of the night," such as bats, or animals involved in negative events written about in the Bible, such as frogs (which were part of The Ten Plagues.)
Years later, a good friend pointed out to me that cats are also creatures of the night, and that many a Christian person owns cats, but I digress. I wish I would have had to good sense to stand up for myself back then.
And so, these people came across some of my cross stitch works of angels and insisted that this one in particular had a demon behind it: (This is a picture of the pattern I pulled up from the internet.) I know when most people think of cross stitch, they think of little samplers of homey sayings in their Grandma's kitchen, but I can assure you that the kinds of designs I was interested in were a little bit more than that.
This couple insisted that there was a demon "behind" (attached to) this picture, and that it was the same, or a similar one as the scene in The Passion of the Christ in which Satan walks by, holding a deformed, aging baby. They insisted I get rid of all my pictures, and it wasn't good enough to just throw them away, but that we should cut them up so that, "No one would find them and take them home, accidentally inviting a demon behind these pictures into their house."
And so I blindly followed, because something else another leader in this church had successfully done was tell me that I was rebellious and wouldn't listen to the directions God was trying to give me through other people (meaning, the leaders in the church, of course.)
For this and many other reasons, I usually don't take what people say "in the name of the Lord" at face value until I can fairly solidly determine how much of their own interpretation they have inserted into their "word from the Lord," no matter how sincerely they believe -- in themselves.
But at the time, I was young and naive and just went with what I was told -- and was later utterly heartbroken. Even my parents talked about how they had watched me working so hard on those pictures as a kid, saving up my allowances and later, money from jobs, and how it broke their heart that someone would tell me to get rid of them "as God's will."
The woman who designed this pattern would make a new one every year for something like 20 years, and each pattern became more and more complex. This was something that really drew me to her designs -- you had to learn to grow your own skills right along with hers as her design skills expanded and she experimented with new materials (in the last few years, she was even incorporating beads.) And these were projects that literally cost hundreds of dollars to make, as they require hundreds of different colors of threads, along with specialty metallic threads and supplies that are a pain in the butt to work with, but boy do they add incredible dimension to the design.
The other big project of hers was this Nativity Scene:
This was one whopper of a project and I had completed the shepherd boy on the left, and the camel on the right. That camel was a BEAR to do, but it had little 3D tassels that stood out from the picture, and boy did it ever stretch my stitching skills.
But "just in case," these people insisted I get rid of it all.
And to tell you the truth, I have never really picked up anything so passionately ever since, because I told God, "Why bother? I am never going to pour my heart or resources into something again that one of 'your people' is just going to come along and say I have to get rid of because of what THEY believe -- and call it Your will."
For a long time, I figured that maybe God was punishing me over some sense of pride I felt in finishing those pieces, so I told myself that I had to follow His will for my life. I am not the type who is naturally good at anything -- I have to really work for whatever I try to do, and I've told myself for years that maybe God doesn't want me to work on anything so I have more time to focus on study and prayer, or that maybe He wants to keep me from being prideful and so I shouldn't try these hobbies again.
These days, I'm a lot more cautious about trying to find the dividing line between what PEOPLE will for me in what they call God's will because it goes along with THEIR beliefs, vs. what is truly God's will for my life.
But it's left a permanent scar, and I've just never found the will to get into something like that ever since, even though every now and then I do have the longing. But I no longer have the interest, even though I considered rebuying the patterns (I threw EVERYTHING away at the time, thinking this was what God wanted me to do.) But the patterns have been out of print for years and some are considered collector's items, it would literally cost several thousands of dollars for me to reacquire all the supplies I would need.
One of the prayers I have had for many years is that if by some chance, these people were wrong, that one of the things God might have waiting for me in heaven would be this exact same set of patterns and supplies in order to redo this project.
I would see it as God showing me what His ultimate will was in that situation -- possibly in the form of me finally getting a chance to complete this set, and instead of passing it down among my family as I had hoped, this time, it would last for all eternity.
Not long after my divorce, I invited a pair of elders to my house to do a "spiritual cleansing" and blessing. Once upon a time, I used to do cross stitch, and had literally poured hundreds, if not thousands of hours and dollars into what I had found to be a relaxing, creative outlet. But thanks to these people and their strong faith in God, it was not meant to be.
This couple had strong beliefs in not having anything around that was supposedly attached to demons, including any images of animals that were "creatures of the night," such as bats, or animals involved in negative events written about in the Bible, such as frogs (which were part of The Ten Plagues.)
Years later, a good friend pointed out to me that cats are also creatures of the night, and that many a Christian person owns cats, but I digress. I wish I would have had to good sense to stand up for myself back then.
And so, these people came across some of my cross stitch works of angels and insisted that this one in particular had a demon behind it: (This is a picture of the pattern I pulled up from the internet.) I know when most people think of cross stitch, they think of little samplers of homey sayings in their Grandma's kitchen, but I can assure you that the kinds of designs I was interested in were a little bit more than that.
This couple insisted that there was a demon "behind" (attached to) this picture, and that it was the same, or a similar one as the scene in The Passion of the Christ in which Satan walks by, holding a deformed, aging baby. They insisted I get rid of all my pictures, and it wasn't good enough to just throw them away, but that we should cut them up so that, "No one would find them and take them home, accidentally inviting a demon behind these pictures into their house."
And so I blindly followed, because something else another leader in this church had successfully done was tell me that I was rebellious and wouldn't listen to the directions God was trying to give me through other people (meaning, the leaders in the church, of course.)
For this and many other reasons, I usually don't take what people say "in the name of the Lord" at face value until I can fairly solidly determine how much of their own interpretation they have inserted into their "word from the Lord," no matter how sincerely they believe -- in themselves.
But at the time, I was young and naive and just went with what I was told -- and was later utterly heartbroken. Even my parents talked about how they had watched me working so hard on those pictures as a kid, saving up my allowances and later, money from jobs, and how it broke their heart that someone would tell me to get rid of them "as God's will."
The woman who designed this pattern would make a new one every year for something like 20 years, and each pattern became more and more complex. This was something that really drew me to her designs -- you had to learn to grow your own skills right along with hers as her design skills expanded and she experimented with new materials (in the last few years, she was even incorporating beads.) And these were projects that literally cost hundreds of dollars to make, as they require hundreds of different colors of threads, along with specialty metallic threads and supplies that are a pain in the butt to work with, but boy do they add incredible dimension to the design.
The other big project of hers was this Nativity Scene:
This was one whopper of a project and I had completed the shepherd boy on the left, and the camel on the right. That camel was a BEAR to do, but it had little 3D tassels that stood out from the picture, and boy did it ever stretch my stitching skills.
But "just in case," these people insisted I get rid of it all.
And to tell you the truth, I have never really picked up anything so passionately ever since, because I told God, "Why bother? I am never going to pour my heart or resources into something again that one of 'your people' is just going to come along and say I have to get rid of because of what THEY believe -- and call it Your will."
For a long time, I figured that maybe God was punishing me over some sense of pride I felt in finishing those pieces, so I told myself that I had to follow His will for my life. I am not the type who is naturally good at anything -- I have to really work for whatever I try to do, and I've told myself for years that maybe God doesn't want me to work on anything so I have more time to focus on study and prayer, or that maybe He wants to keep me from being prideful and so I shouldn't try these hobbies again.
These days, I'm a lot more cautious about trying to find the dividing line between what PEOPLE will for me in what they call God's will because it goes along with THEIR beliefs, vs. what is truly God's will for my life.
But it's left a permanent scar, and I've just never found the will to get into something like that ever since, even though every now and then I do have the longing. But I no longer have the interest, even though I considered rebuying the patterns (I threw EVERYTHING away at the time, thinking this was what God wanted me to do.) But the patterns have been out of print for years and some are considered collector's items, it would literally cost several thousands of dollars for me to reacquire all the supplies I would need.
One of the prayers I have had for many years is that if by some chance, these people were wrong, that one of the things God might have waiting for me in heaven would be this exact same set of patterns and supplies in order to redo this project.
I would see it as God showing me what His ultimate will was in that situation -- possibly in the form of me finally getting a chance to complete this set, and instead of passing it down among my family as I had hoped, this time, it would last for all eternity.
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I love the outdoors so most of the things I do when the weather allows is always outdoor stuff. So hiking in the mountains, camping, hunting, scaring my neighbor's cause I like to make a big bonfire in my back yard and just sit by it and whittle on a piece of wood as well as love to grow flowers come springtime.
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Ah, hobbies... What are they again?
Not long after my divorce, I invited a pair of elders to my house to do a "spiritual cleansing" and blessing. Once upon a time, I used to do cross stitch, and had literally poured hundreds, if not thousands of hours and dollars into what I had found to be a relaxing, creative outlet. But thanks to these people and their strong faith in God, it was not meant to be.
This couple had strong beliefs in not having anything around that was supposedly attached to demons, including any images of animals that were "creatures of the night," such as bats, or animals involved in negative events written about in the Bible, such as frogs (which were part of The Ten Plagues.)
Years later, a good friend pointed out to me that cats are also creatures of the night, and that many a Christian person owns cats, but I digress. I wish I would have had to good sense to stand up for myself back then.
And so, these people came across some of my cross stitch works of angels and insisted that this one in particular had a demon behind it: (This is a picture of the pattern I pulled up from the internet.) I know when most people think of cross stitch, they think of little samplers of homey sayings in their Grandma's kitchen, but I can assure you that the kinds of designs I was interested in were a little bit more than that.
This couple insisted that there was a demon "behind" (attached to) this picture, and that it was the same, or a similar one as the scene in The Passion of the Christ in which Satan walks by, holding a deformed, aging baby. They insisted I get rid of all my pictures, and it wasn't good enough to just throw them away, but that we should cut them up so that, "No one would find them and take them home, accidentally inviting a demon behind these pictures into their house."
And so I blindly followed, because something else another leader in this church had successfully done was tell me that I was rebellious and wouldn't listen to the directions God was trying to give me through other people (meaning, the leaders in the church, of course.)
For this and many other reasons, I usually don't take what people say "in the name of the Lord" at face value until I can fairly solidly determine how much of their own interpretation they have inserted into their "word from the Lord," no matter how sincerely they believe -- in themselves.
But at the time, I was young and naive and just went with what I was told -- and was later utterly heartbroken. Even my parents talked about how they had watched me working so hard on those pictures as a kid, saving up my allowances and later, money from jobs, and how it broke their heart that someone would tell me to get rid of them "as God's will."
The woman who designed this pattern would make a new one every year for something like 20 years, and each pattern became more and more complex. This was something that really drew me to her designs -- you had to learn to grow your own skills right along with hers as her design skills expanded and she experimented with new materials (in the last few years, she was even incorporating beads.) And these were projects that literally cost hundreds of dollars to make, as they require hundreds of different colors of threads, along with specialty metallic threads and supplies that are a pain in the butt to work with, but boy do they add incredible dimension to the design.
The other big project of hers was this Nativity Scene:
This was one whopper of a project and I had completed the shepherd boy on the left, and the camel on the right. That camel was a BEAR to do, but it had little 3D tassels that stood out from the picture, and boy did it ever stretch my stitching skills.
But "just in case," these people insisted I get rid of it all.
And to tell you the truth, I have never really picked up anything so passionately ever since, because I told God, "Why bother? I am never going to pour my heart or resources into something again that one of 'your people' is just going to come along and say I have to get rid of because of what THEY believe -- and call it Your will."
For a long time, I figured that maybe God was punishing me over some sense of pride I felt in finishing those pieces, so I told myself that I had to follow His will for my life. I am not the type who is naturally good at anything -- I have to really work for whatever I try to do, and I've told myself for years that maybe God doesn't want me to work on anything so I have more time to focus on study and prayer, or that maybe He wants to keep me from being prideful and so I shouldn't try these hobbies again.
These days, I'm a lot more cautious about trying to find the dividing line between what PEOPLE will for me in what they call God's will because it goes along with THEIR beliefs, vs. what is truly God's will for my life.
But it's left a permanent scar, and I've just never found the will to get into something like that ever since, even though every now and then I do have the longing. But I no longer have the interest, even though I considered rebuying the patterns (I threw EVERYTHING away at the time, thinking this was what God wanted me to do.) But the patterns have been out of print for years and some are considered collector's items, it would literally cost several thousands of dollars for me to reacquire all the supplies I would need.
One of the prayers I have had for many years is that if by some chance, these people were wrong, that one of the things God might have waiting for me in heaven would be this exact same set of patterns and supplies in order to redo this project.
I would see it as God showing me what His ultimate will was in that situation -- possibly in the form of me finally getting a chance to complete this set, and instead of passing it down among my family as I had hoped, this time, it would last for all eternity.
Not long after my divorce, I invited a pair of elders to my house to do a "spiritual cleansing" and blessing. Once upon a time, I used to do cross stitch, and had literally poured hundreds, if not thousands of hours and dollars into what I had found to be a relaxing, creative outlet. But thanks to these people and their strong faith in God, it was not meant to be.
This couple had strong beliefs in not having anything around that was supposedly attached to demons, including any images of animals that were "creatures of the night," such as bats, or animals involved in negative events written about in the Bible, such as frogs (which were part of The Ten Plagues.)
Years later, a good friend pointed out to me that cats are also creatures of the night, and that many a Christian person owns cats, but I digress. I wish I would have had to good sense to stand up for myself back then.
And so, these people came across some of my cross stitch works of angels and insisted that this one in particular had a demon behind it: (This is a picture of the pattern I pulled up from the internet.) I know when most people think of cross stitch, they think of little samplers of homey sayings in their Grandma's kitchen, but I can assure you that the kinds of designs I was interested in were a little bit more than that.
This couple insisted that there was a demon "behind" (attached to) this picture, and that it was the same, or a similar one as the scene in The Passion of the Christ in which Satan walks by, holding a deformed, aging baby. They insisted I get rid of all my pictures, and it wasn't good enough to just throw them away, but that we should cut them up so that, "No one would find them and take them home, accidentally inviting a demon behind these pictures into their house."
And so I blindly followed, because something else another leader in this church had successfully done was tell me that I was rebellious and wouldn't listen to the directions God was trying to give me through other people (meaning, the leaders in the church, of course.)
For this and many other reasons, I usually don't take what people say "in the name of the Lord" at face value until I can fairly solidly determine how much of their own interpretation they have inserted into their "word from the Lord," no matter how sincerely they believe -- in themselves.
But at the time, I was young and naive and just went with what I was told -- and was later utterly heartbroken. Even my parents talked about how they had watched me working so hard on those pictures as a kid, saving up my allowances and later, money from jobs, and how it broke their heart that someone would tell me to get rid of them "as God's will."
The woman who designed this pattern would make a new one every year for something like 20 years, and each pattern became more and more complex. This was something that really drew me to her designs -- you had to learn to grow your own skills right along with hers as her design skills expanded and she experimented with new materials (in the last few years, she was even incorporating beads.) And these were projects that literally cost hundreds of dollars to make, as they require hundreds of different colors of threads, along with specialty metallic threads and supplies that are a pain in the butt to work with, but boy do they add incredible dimension to the design.
The other big project of hers was this Nativity Scene:
This was one whopper of a project and I had completed the shepherd boy on the left, and the camel on the right. That camel was a BEAR to do, but it had little 3D tassels that stood out from the picture, and boy did it ever stretch my stitching skills.
But "just in case," these people insisted I get rid of it all.
And to tell you the truth, I have never really picked up anything so passionately ever since, because I told God, "Why bother? I am never going to pour my heart or resources into something again that one of 'your people' is just going to come along and say I have to get rid of because of what THEY believe -- and call it Your will."
For a long time, I figured that maybe God was punishing me over some sense of pride I felt in finishing those pieces, so I told myself that I had to follow His will for my life. I am not the type who is naturally good at anything -- I have to really work for whatever I try to do, and I've told myself for years that maybe God doesn't want me to work on anything so I have more time to focus on study and prayer, or that maybe He wants to keep me from being prideful and so I shouldn't try these hobbies again.
These days, I'm a lot more cautious about trying to find the dividing line between what PEOPLE will for me in what they call God's will because it goes along with THEIR beliefs, vs. what is truly God's will for my life.
But it's left a permanent scar, and I've just never found the will to get into something like that ever since, even though every now and then I do have the longing. But I no longer have the interest, even though I considered rebuying the patterns (I threw EVERYTHING away at the time, thinking this was what God wanted me to do.) But the patterns have been out of print for years and some are considered collector's items, it would literally cost several thousands of dollars for me to reacquire all the supplies I would need.
One of the prayers I have had for many years is that if by some chance, these people were wrong, that one of the things God might have waiting for me in heaven would be this exact same set of patterns and supplies in order to redo this project.
I would see it as God showing me what His ultimate will was in that situation -- possibly in the form of me finally getting a chance to complete this set, and instead of passing it down among my family as I had hoped, this time, it would last for all eternity.
I'm sorry you endured that. My opinion? And you know what they say about opinions... Just do it. Plain and simple. Maybe dip your toes in the water first to see that the water's nice. Then, go in deeper. Unless it's an idol, I don't see how any creative or productive endeavor can fail to bring God glory (unless of course your subject matter is of questionable judgment, but I'd have to think that would go beyond imaginary demons in a tapestry).
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Hi Goji,
Thanks very much for the kind reply! Don't worry, I found another outlet for my extra time and energy, and as you can imagine, they liked my next hobby even less -- that was the time when I spent almost 10 years writing to and occasionally visiting inmates. Like you, I tend to go against the grain. Sometimes on purpose, sometimes because that just seems to be how I'm naturally built and that's what I gravitate towards. If I had to pick a label for myself, I suppose I would call it, "Rebel Nerd."
How would you describe yourself?
The reasons I share stories like the one above is because I'm very adamant about trying to prevent the same abuses "in the name of the Lord" from happening to others. It helps take away some of the sting if I know I can help protect other people.
Most of my hob-bitious energy (I also like the hobby of making up my own words!) has been shifted into correspondence or other writing in some way or form. And while I'm thinking of it, how do you and everyone else answering this thread budget your time and money when it comes to hobbies? At one time, I was spending probably $20 a week just on postage, and then gas money to drive to the prison twice a month (about an hour away.) Eventually I put a limit on what I knew I could feasibly spend.
Like everyone else, time, energy, and money are my biggest hurdles to becoming seriously invested in anything right now. One thing I like about writing is that this time, no one can step in and take that away from me. Even if I could never talk again, God-willing, I would still write, which I tend to do a lot more of anyway.
I've also had to recognize a pattern within myself -- I will try something new for a while, get all excited, buy more tools and supplies than I will ever need... Only to find out that hobby really isn't for me. Do other people go through this? So now I try to ask myself: How long do I feasibly see myself doing this? Is it sustainable (will I have the resources to continue?) Do I have the time and space available?
I'm also the type who will often try something just to see if I can do it (there goes the rebel in me again!) and then once I try it for myself, I lose interest. I got into melt and pour soapmaking for a while, but then when I realized how much it would take to get into "real" soapmaking (and how dangerous it could potentially be because of the chemicals you're working with,) I knew it wasn't going to be for me. Unfortunately, I'm guilty of several such flirtations with various crafts. Then you have to worry about how you're going to give away or sell all your unused supplies...
I've been very interested in things like making candles and perfume, so my strategy has been to hopefully find an everything-included kit as a first date so that I don't have to worry about making a full-on commitment right out of the box. However, the cheapest serious perfume mixology kit I've seen (that isn't just another bubble bath-for-kids kind of concoction) costs around $300 as a starting point.
I also like to travel, which of course takes a much bigger bite out of the budget, so I often forgo smaller ventures for the sake of a bigger picture.
Lately I have been considering venturing across the frame via Amtrak, as I'm at a point where I almost disdain what has become the overly cumbersome process of flying.
Thanks very much for the kind reply! Don't worry, I found another outlet for my extra time and energy, and as you can imagine, they liked my next hobby even less -- that was the time when I spent almost 10 years writing to and occasionally visiting inmates. Like you, I tend to go against the grain. Sometimes on purpose, sometimes because that just seems to be how I'm naturally built and that's what I gravitate towards. If I had to pick a label for myself, I suppose I would call it, "Rebel Nerd."
How would you describe yourself? The reasons I share stories like the one above is because I'm very adamant about trying to prevent the same abuses "in the name of the Lord" from happening to others. It helps take away some of the sting if I know I can help protect other people.
Most of my hob-bitious energy (I also like the hobby of making up my own words!) has been shifted into correspondence or other writing in some way or form. And while I'm thinking of it, how do you and everyone else answering this thread budget your time and money when it comes to hobbies? At one time, I was spending probably $20 a week just on postage, and then gas money to drive to the prison twice a month (about an hour away.) Eventually I put a limit on what I knew I could feasibly spend.
Like everyone else, time, energy, and money are my biggest hurdles to becoming seriously invested in anything right now. One thing I like about writing is that this time, no one can step in and take that away from me. Even if I could never talk again, God-willing, I would still write, which I tend to do a lot more of anyway.
I've also had to recognize a pattern within myself -- I will try something new for a while, get all excited, buy more tools and supplies than I will ever need... Only to find out that hobby really isn't for me. Do other people go through this? So now I try to ask myself: How long do I feasibly see myself doing this? Is it sustainable (will I have the resources to continue?) Do I have the time and space available?
I'm also the type who will often try something just to see if I can do it (there goes the rebel in me again!) and then once I try it for myself, I lose interest. I got into melt and pour soapmaking for a while, but then when I realized how much it would take to get into "real" soapmaking (and how dangerous it could potentially be because of the chemicals you're working with,) I knew it wasn't going to be for me. Unfortunately, I'm guilty of several such flirtations with various crafts. Then you have to worry about how you're going to give away or sell all your unused supplies...
I've been very interested in things like making candles and perfume, so my strategy has been to hopefully find an everything-included kit as a first date so that I don't have to worry about making a full-on commitment right out of the box.
However, the cheapest serious perfume mixology kit I've seen (that isn't just another bubble bath-for-kids kind of concoction) costs around $300 as a starting point. I also like to travel, which of course takes a much bigger bite out of the budget, so I often forgo smaller ventures for the sake of a bigger picture.
Lately I have been considering venturing across the frame via Amtrak, as I'm at a point where I almost disdain what has become the overly cumbersome process of flying.
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T
Ah, hobbies... What are they again?
Not long after my divorce, I invited a pair of elders to my house to do a "spiritual cleansing" and blessing. Once upon a time, I used to do cross stitch, and had literally poured hundreds, if not thousands of hours and dollars into what I had found to be a relaxing, creative outlet. But thanks to these people and their strong faith in God, it was not meant to be.
This couple had strong beliefs in not having anything around that was supposedly attached to demons, including any images of animals that were "creatures of the night," such as bats, or animals involved in negative events written about in the Bible, such as frogs (which were part of The Ten Plagues.)
Years later, a good friend pointed out to me that cats are also creatures of the night, and that many a Christian person owns cats, but I digress. I wish I would have had to good sense to stand up for myself back then.
And so, these people came across some of my cross stitch works of angels and insisted that this one in particular had a demon behind it: (This is a picture of the pattern I pulled up from the internet.) I know when most people think of cross stitch, they think of little samplers of homey sayings in their Grandma's kitchen, but I can assure you that the kinds of designs I was interested in were a little bit more than that.
This couple insisted that there was a demon "behind" (attached to) this picture, and that it was the same, or a similar one as the scene in The Passion of the Christ in which Satan walks by, holding a deformed, aging baby. They insisted I get rid of all my pictures, and it wasn't good enough to just throw them away, but that we should cut them up so that, "No one would find them and take them home, accidentally inviting a demon behind these pictures into their house."
And so I blindly followed, because something else another leader in this church had successfully done was tell me that I was rebellious and wouldn't listen to the directions God was trying to give me through other people (meaning, the leaders in the church, of course.)
For this and many other reasons, I usually don't take what people say "in the name of the Lord" at face value until I can fairly solidly determine how much of their own interpretation they have inserted into their "word from the Lord," no matter how sincerely they believe -- in themselves.
But at the time, I was young and naive and just went with what I was told -- and was later utterly heartbroken. Even my parents talked about how they had watched me working so hard on those pictures as a kid, saving up my allowances and later, money from jobs, and how it broke their heart that someone would tell me to get rid of them "as God's will."
The woman who designed this pattern would make a new one every year for something like 20 years, and each pattern became more and more complex. This was something that really drew me to her designs -- you had to learn to grow your own skills right along with hers as her design skills expanded and she experimented with new materials (in the last few years, she was even incorporating beads.) And these were projects that literally cost hundreds of dollars to make, as they require hundreds of different colors of threads, along with specialty metallic threads and supplies that are a pain in the butt to work with, but boy do they add incredible dimension to the design.
The other big project of hers was this Nativity Scene:
This was one whopper of a project and I had completed the shepherd boy on the left, and the camel on the right. That camel was a BEAR to do, but it had little 3D tassels that stood out from the picture, and boy did it ever stretch my stitching skills.
But "just in case," these people insisted I get rid of it all.
And to tell you the truth, I have never really picked up anything so passionately ever since, because I told God, "Why bother? I am never going to pour my heart or resources into something again that one of 'your people' is just going to come along and say I have to get rid of because of what THEY believe -- and call it Your will."
For a long time, I figured that maybe God was punishing me over some sense of pride I felt in finishing those pieces, so I told myself that I had to follow His will for my life. I am not the type who is naturally good at anything -- I have to really work for whatever I try to do, and I've told myself for years that maybe God doesn't want me to work on anything so I have more time to focus on study and prayer, or that maybe He wants to keep me from being prideful and so I shouldn't try these hobbies again.
These days, I'm a lot more cautious about trying to find the dividing line between what PEOPLE will for me in what they call God's will because it goes along with THEIR beliefs, vs. what is truly God's will for my life.
But it's left a permanent scar, and I've just never found the will to get into something like that ever since, even though every now and then I do have the longing. But I no longer have the interest, even though I considered rebuying the patterns (I threw EVERYTHING away at the time, thinking this was what God wanted me to do.) But the patterns have been out of print for years and some are considered collector's items, it would literally cost several thousands of dollars for me to reacquire all the supplies I would need.
One of the prayers I have had for many years is that if by some chance, these people were wrong, that one of the things God might have waiting for me in heaven would be this exact same set of patterns and supplies in order to redo this project.
I would see it as God showing me what His ultimate will was in that situation -- possibly in the form of me finally getting a chance to complete this set, and instead of passing it down among my family as I had hoped, this time, it would last for all eternity.
Not long after my divorce, I invited a pair of elders to my house to do a "spiritual cleansing" and blessing. Once upon a time, I used to do cross stitch, and had literally poured hundreds, if not thousands of hours and dollars into what I had found to be a relaxing, creative outlet. But thanks to these people and their strong faith in God, it was not meant to be.
This couple had strong beliefs in not having anything around that was supposedly attached to demons, including any images of animals that were "creatures of the night," such as bats, or animals involved in negative events written about in the Bible, such as frogs (which were part of The Ten Plagues.)
Years later, a good friend pointed out to me that cats are also creatures of the night, and that many a Christian person owns cats, but I digress. I wish I would have had to good sense to stand up for myself back then.
And so, these people came across some of my cross stitch works of angels and insisted that this one in particular had a demon behind it: (This is a picture of the pattern I pulled up from the internet.) I know when most people think of cross stitch, they think of little samplers of homey sayings in their Grandma's kitchen, but I can assure you that the kinds of designs I was interested in were a little bit more than that.
This couple insisted that there was a demon "behind" (attached to) this picture, and that it was the same, or a similar one as the scene in The Passion of the Christ in which Satan walks by, holding a deformed, aging baby. They insisted I get rid of all my pictures, and it wasn't good enough to just throw them away, but that we should cut them up so that, "No one would find them and take them home, accidentally inviting a demon behind these pictures into their house."
And so I blindly followed, because something else another leader in this church had successfully done was tell me that I was rebellious and wouldn't listen to the directions God was trying to give me through other people (meaning, the leaders in the church, of course.)
For this and many other reasons, I usually don't take what people say "in the name of the Lord" at face value until I can fairly solidly determine how much of their own interpretation they have inserted into their "word from the Lord," no matter how sincerely they believe -- in themselves.
But at the time, I was young and naive and just went with what I was told -- and was later utterly heartbroken. Even my parents talked about how they had watched me working so hard on those pictures as a kid, saving up my allowances and later, money from jobs, and how it broke their heart that someone would tell me to get rid of them "as God's will."
The woman who designed this pattern would make a new one every year for something like 20 years, and each pattern became more and more complex. This was something that really drew me to her designs -- you had to learn to grow your own skills right along with hers as her design skills expanded and she experimented with new materials (in the last few years, she was even incorporating beads.) And these were projects that literally cost hundreds of dollars to make, as they require hundreds of different colors of threads, along with specialty metallic threads and supplies that are a pain in the butt to work with, but boy do they add incredible dimension to the design.
The other big project of hers was this Nativity Scene:
This was one whopper of a project and I had completed the shepherd boy on the left, and the camel on the right. That camel was a BEAR to do, but it had little 3D tassels that stood out from the picture, and boy did it ever stretch my stitching skills.
But "just in case," these people insisted I get rid of it all.
And to tell you the truth, I have never really picked up anything so passionately ever since, because I told God, "Why bother? I am never going to pour my heart or resources into something again that one of 'your people' is just going to come along and say I have to get rid of because of what THEY believe -- and call it Your will."
For a long time, I figured that maybe God was punishing me over some sense of pride I felt in finishing those pieces, so I told myself that I had to follow His will for my life. I am not the type who is naturally good at anything -- I have to really work for whatever I try to do, and I've told myself for years that maybe God doesn't want me to work on anything so I have more time to focus on study and prayer, or that maybe He wants to keep me from being prideful and so I shouldn't try these hobbies again.
These days, I'm a lot more cautious about trying to find the dividing line between what PEOPLE will for me in what they call God's will because it goes along with THEIR beliefs, vs. what is truly God's will for my life.
But it's left a permanent scar, and I've just never found the will to get into something like that ever since, even though every now and then I do have the longing. But I no longer have the interest, even though I considered rebuying the patterns (I threw EVERYTHING away at the time, thinking this was what God wanted me to do.) But the patterns have been out of print for years and some are considered collector's items, it would literally cost several thousands of dollars for me to reacquire all the supplies I would need.
One of the prayers I have had for many years is that if by some chance, these people were wrong, that one of the things God might have waiting for me in heaven would be this exact same set of patterns and supplies in order to redo this project.
I would see it as God showing me what His ultimate will was in that situation -- possibly in the form of me finally getting a chance to complete this set, and instead of passing it down among my family as I had hoped, this time, it would last for all eternity.
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T
Right now, for hobbies, I don't do much besides watch movies, watch educational videos (including religious/Christian) on Youtube, read/watch the news, post here on CC, and play with my cat.
My job also involves research, which I enjoy, so I also do work-related research in my spare time.
My job also involves research, which I enjoy, so I also do work-related research in my spare time.
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Ah, hobbies... What are they again?
Not long after my divorce, I invited a pair of elders to my house to do a "spiritual cleansing" and blessing. Once upon a time, I used to do cross stitch, and had literally poured hundreds, if not thousands of hours and dollars into what I had found to be a relaxing, creative outlet. But thanks to these people and their strong faith in God, it was not meant to be.
This couple had strong beliefs in not having anything around that was supposedly attached to demons, including any images of animals that were "creatures of the night," such as bats, or animals involved in negative events written about in the Bible, such as frogs (which were part of The Ten Plagues.)
Years later, a good friend pointed out to me that cats are also creatures of the night, and that many a Christian person owns cats, but I digress. I wish I would have had to good sense to stand up for myself back then.
And so, these people came across some of my cross stitch works of angels and insisted that this one in particular had a demon behind it: (This is a picture of the pattern I pulled up from the internet.) I know when most people think of cross stitch, they think of little samplers of homey sayings in their Grandma's kitchen, but I can assure you that the kinds of designs I was interested in were a little bit more than that.
This couple insisted that there was a demon "behind" (attached to) this picture, and that it was the same, or a similar one as the scene in The Passion of the Christ in which Satan walks by, holding a deformed, aging baby. They insisted I get rid of all my pictures, and it wasn't good enough to just throw them away, but that we should cut them up so that, "No one would find them and take them home, accidentally inviting a demon behind these pictures into their house."
And so I blindly followed, because something else another leader in this church had successfully done was tell me that I was rebellious and wouldn't listen to the directions God was trying to give me through other people (meaning, the leaders in the church, of course.)
For this and many other reasons, I usually don't take what people say "in the name of the Lord" at face value until I can fairly solidly determine how much of their own interpretation they have inserted into their "word from the Lord," no matter how sincerely they believe -- in themselves.
But at the time, I was young and naive and just went with what I was told -- and was later utterly heartbroken. Even my parents talked about how they had watched me working so hard on those pictures as a kid, saving up my allowances and later, money from jobs, and how it broke their heart that someone would tell me to get rid of them "as God's will."
The woman who designed this pattern would make a new one every year for something like 20 years, and each pattern became more and more complex. This was something that really drew me to her designs -- you had to learn to grow your own skills right along with hers as her design skills expanded and she experimented with new materials (in the last few years, she was even incorporating beads.) And these were projects that literally cost hundreds of dollars to make, as they require hundreds of different colors of threads, along with specialty metallic threads and supplies that are a pain in the butt to work with, but boy do they add incredible dimension to the design.
The other big project of hers was this Nativity Scene:
This was one whopper of a project and I had completed the shepherd boy on the left, and the camel on the right. That camel was a BEAR to do, but it had little 3D tassels that stood out from the picture, and boy did it ever stretch my stitching skills.
But "just in case," these people insisted I get rid of it all.
And to tell you the truth, I have never really picked up anything so passionately ever since, because I told God, "Why bother? I am never going to pour my heart or resources into something again that one of 'your people' is just going to come along and say I have to get rid of because of what THEY believe -- and call it Your will."
For a long time, I figured that maybe God was punishing me over some sense of pride I felt in finishing those pieces, so I told myself that I had to follow His will for my life. I am not the type who is naturally good at anything -- I have to really work for whatever I try to do, and I've told myself for years that maybe God doesn't want me to work on anything so I have more time to focus on study and prayer, or that maybe He wants to keep me from being prideful and so I shouldn't try these hobbies again.
These days, I'm a lot more cautious about trying to find the dividing line between what PEOPLE will for me in what they call God's will because it goes along with THEIR beliefs, vs. what is truly God's will for my life.
But it's left a permanent scar, and I've just never found the will to get into something like that ever since, even though every now and then I do have the longing. But I no longer have the interest, even though I considered rebuying the patterns (I threw EVERYTHING away at the time, thinking this was what God wanted me to do.) But the patterns have been out of print for years and some are considered collector's items, it would literally cost several thousands of dollars for me to reacquire all the supplies I would need.
One of the prayers I have had for many years is that if by some chance, these people were wrong, that one of the things God might have waiting for me in heaven would be this exact same set of patterns and supplies in order to redo this project.
I would see it as God showing me what His ultimate will was in that situation -- possibly in the form of me finally getting a chance to complete this set, and instead of passing it down among my family as I had hoped, this time, it would last for all eternity.
Not long after my divorce, I invited a pair of elders to my house to do a "spiritual cleansing" and blessing. Once upon a time, I used to do cross stitch, and had literally poured hundreds, if not thousands of hours and dollars into what I had found to be a relaxing, creative outlet. But thanks to these people and their strong faith in God, it was not meant to be.
This couple had strong beliefs in not having anything around that was supposedly attached to demons, including any images of animals that were "creatures of the night," such as bats, or animals involved in negative events written about in the Bible, such as frogs (which were part of The Ten Plagues.)
Years later, a good friend pointed out to me that cats are also creatures of the night, and that many a Christian person owns cats, but I digress. I wish I would have had to good sense to stand up for myself back then.
And so, these people came across some of my cross stitch works of angels and insisted that this one in particular had a demon behind it: (This is a picture of the pattern I pulled up from the internet.) I know when most people think of cross stitch, they think of little samplers of homey sayings in their Grandma's kitchen, but I can assure you that the kinds of designs I was interested in were a little bit more than that.
This couple insisted that there was a demon "behind" (attached to) this picture, and that it was the same, or a similar one as the scene in The Passion of the Christ in which Satan walks by, holding a deformed, aging baby. They insisted I get rid of all my pictures, and it wasn't good enough to just throw them away, but that we should cut them up so that, "No one would find them and take them home, accidentally inviting a demon behind these pictures into their house."
And so I blindly followed, because something else another leader in this church had successfully done was tell me that I was rebellious and wouldn't listen to the directions God was trying to give me through other people (meaning, the leaders in the church, of course.)
For this and many other reasons, I usually don't take what people say "in the name of the Lord" at face value until I can fairly solidly determine how much of their own interpretation they have inserted into their "word from the Lord," no matter how sincerely they believe -- in themselves.
But at the time, I was young and naive and just went with what I was told -- and was later utterly heartbroken. Even my parents talked about how they had watched me working so hard on those pictures as a kid, saving up my allowances and later, money from jobs, and how it broke their heart that someone would tell me to get rid of them "as God's will."
The woman who designed this pattern would make a new one every year for something like 20 years, and each pattern became more and more complex. This was something that really drew me to her designs -- you had to learn to grow your own skills right along with hers as her design skills expanded and she experimented with new materials (in the last few years, she was even incorporating beads.) And these were projects that literally cost hundreds of dollars to make, as they require hundreds of different colors of threads, along with specialty metallic threads and supplies that are a pain in the butt to work with, but boy do they add incredible dimension to the design.
The other big project of hers was this Nativity Scene:
This was one whopper of a project and I had completed the shepherd boy on the left, and the camel on the right. That camel was a BEAR to do, but it had little 3D tassels that stood out from the picture, and boy did it ever stretch my stitching skills.
But "just in case," these people insisted I get rid of it all.
And to tell you the truth, I have never really picked up anything so passionately ever since, because I told God, "Why bother? I am never going to pour my heart or resources into something again that one of 'your people' is just going to come along and say I have to get rid of because of what THEY believe -- and call it Your will."
For a long time, I figured that maybe God was punishing me over some sense of pride I felt in finishing those pieces, so I told myself that I had to follow His will for my life. I am not the type who is naturally good at anything -- I have to really work for whatever I try to do, and I've told myself for years that maybe God doesn't want me to work on anything so I have more time to focus on study and prayer, or that maybe He wants to keep me from being prideful and so I shouldn't try these hobbies again.
These days, I'm a lot more cautious about trying to find the dividing line between what PEOPLE will for me in what they call God's will because it goes along with THEIR beliefs, vs. what is truly God's will for my life.
But it's left a permanent scar, and I've just never found the will to get into something like that ever since, even though every now and then I do have the longing. But I no longer have the interest, even though I considered rebuying the patterns (I threw EVERYTHING away at the time, thinking this was what God wanted me to do.) But the patterns have been out of print for years and some are considered collector's items, it would literally cost several thousands of dollars for me to reacquire all the supplies I would need.
One of the prayers I have had for many years is that if by some chance, these people were wrong, that one of the things God might have waiting for me in heaven would be this exact same set of patterns and supplies in order to redo this project.
I would see it as God showing me what His ultimate will was in that situation -- possibly in the form of me finally getting a chance to complete this set, and instead of passing it down among my family as I had hoped, this time, it would last for all eternity.
And I don't know where you are from, Seoul, but from your name I would guess you have some ties to S. Korea? There are a lot of cult groups out of South Korea that seem very Biblically based at first until you really get into them. I have a personal experience concerning one such group.
University Bible Fellowship was founded by a certain Reverend Moon (if I recall correctly). I didn't know much about the group but got involved with them when I was a student at UMBC. I just wanted to join a good Christian Bible study group. I had been praying about it for some time when a fellow on campus approached me and asked if I would be interested in a Bible study. Sure I would be!
I was part of the Bible study for about a semester and did some stuff with the group. The theology seemed unimpeachable, the group were great people, but there were warning signs, little things here and there that I just tried to reason away. Anyways, this group preys on weakminded, easily manipulated people. UBF sucks them in, uses various psychological techniques to bind them to the group, and then begins manipulating and controlling their lives. Members are "encouraged" to give money, cars, houses, other property, time and labor to the group and the group even arranges marriages, using the system to get affluent Western husbands for attractive Korean girls. Disturbing and weird. A false church with false motives. It turns out the leader of the chapter I had gotten involved with hadn't even given me his real name. He was going by "Peter."
I'm really sorry to hear about your experiences, sister. Hopefully you have found some better Christian circles since then.
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I will pass on looking it up, then LOL thanks
Years ago I watched Contact many many times. It has since been replaced as my fave with The Matrix. Cannot say how many times I have watched it, and every time I find something else to really appreciate about it Recently on Netflix I have watched a few good sci fi movies or series; one I thought was excellently done was called Better Than Us: A family on the brink of splitting up become the owners of a cutting-edge robot being sought by a corporation, homicide investigators and terrorists. I loved Limitless, though I am not sure if sci fi is really the right category for that. I also liked The Midnight Sky even though it was quite slow moving. Past ones would include The Minority Report, (just about any by Philip K. Dick, though Blade Runner would not rank as high as others), Vanilla Sky, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Being John Malkovich... it's hard to remember them all. Stargate. The Fifth Element. Dark was crazy confusing with its characters time travelling and co-existing within different time frames at different ages at the same time.... but still enjoyable and very intriguing. Bio Hackers. Really enjoyed the Black Mirror series. Wish there was more like that
Years ago I watched Contact many many times. It has since been replaced as my fave with The Matrix. Cannot say how many times I have watched it, and every time I find something else to really appreciate about it
Recently on Netflix I have watched a few good sci fi movies or series; one I thought was excellently done was called Better Than Us: A family on the brink of splitting up become the owners of a cutting-edge robot being sought by a corporation, homicide investigators and terrorists. I loved Limitless, though I am not sure if sci fi is really the right category for that. I also liked The Midnight Sky even though it was quite slow moving. Past ones would include The Minority Report, (just about any by Philip K. Dick, though Blade Runner would not rank as high as others), Vanilla Sky, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Being John Malkovich... it's hard to remember them all. Stargate. The Fifth Element. Dark was crazy confusing with its characters time travelling and co-existing within different time frames at different ages at the same time.... but still enjoyable and very intriguing. Bio Hackers. Really enjoyed the Black Mirror series. Wish there was more like that -
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I'm sorry you had to go through this. I went through something similar, though not nearly as traumatic as what you experienced. I had a well-meaning Christian friend try to convince me that anything with eyes (such as a doll, teddy bear, statue, maybe painting, etc.) is demon-possessed. I had a Venetian mask in my apartment (something similar to the below picture but less elaborate) but it scared her. I can see how it could scare her, so I removed it. I feel as though she put a poisonous thought in my head. However, deep down, I know a teddy bear is not demon possessed.
But you really drove the nail into place when you said that the mask "scared HER." She was using her belief in God to manipulate you into acting in accordance with what SHE believed and the way SHE interpreted God, and not necessarily in who God truly is.
This has been the most important lesson I have learned in all my experiences with things like this. And truthfully, as imperfect, sinful human beings, I don't think any human being, including myself, can ever fully interpret God's will and way perfectly or translate it to others without some kind of error.
If you could meet the people I spoke about in my post, they are at heart, wonderful, loving, sincere people. They were the first ones to arrive at the hospital and pray when a family member got sick. But they are also just very invested in their own form of ministry -- healing the sick, which often includes "casting out demons" -- and so the way they minister to people has to also fit with the way they interpret God's purpose in their own lives. .
Another church member tried to insist (and this was a popular belief there) that I throw out any medication I was on and "just believe Jesus for healing." Now I am not trying to downplay anyone who believes this, but I knew that for myself, this was not an option.
The other curious thing I saw happening was that several elders in the church would find their own niche ministry, and if the church wasn't going in the same direction or promoting the things they wanted to push, they would say that God was calling them to another church or area and leave.
Now this could be entirely possible. But since it kept happening... It made me very cautious as to whether this was what God was doing -- or if people were just being insistent on either finding or converting others to their way of thinking.
As far as your friend goes, I can understand that train of thought because almost every horror movie makes use of the "if it has eyes or eye sockets, something evil is using it to watch you" lore.
I just hope you've broken free from her own fears, because I wonder if those are sometimes the real demonic forces at hand: well-meaning Christian people trying to impose their own personally ingrained fears or restrictions onto others.
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I will pass on looking it up, then LOL thanks
Years ago I watched Contact many many times. It has since been replaced as my fave with The Matrix. Cannot say how many times I have watched it, and every time I find something else to really appreciate about it Recently on Netflix I have watched a few good sci fi movies or series; one I thought was excellently done was called Better Than Us: A family on the brink of splitting up become the owners of a cutting-edge robot being sought by a corporation, homicide investigators and terrorists. I loved Limitless, though I am not sure if sci fi is really the right category for that. I also liked The Midnight Sky even though it was quite slow moving. Past ones would include The Minority Report, (just about any by Philip K. Dick, though Blade Runner would not rank as high as others), Vanilla Sky, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Being John Malkovich... it's hard to remember them all. Stargate. The Fifth Element. Dark was crazy confusing with its characters time travelling and co-existing within different time frames at different ages at the same time.... but still enjoyable and very intriguing. Bio Hackers. Really enjoyed the Black Mirror series. Wish there was more like that
Years ago I watched Contact many many times. It has since been replaced as my fave with The Matrix. Cannot say how many times I have watched it, and every time I find something else to really appreciate about it
Recently on Netflix I have watched a few good sci fi movies or series; one I thought was excellently done was called Better Than Us: A family on the brink of splitting up become the owners of a cutting-edge robot being sought by a corporation, homicide investigators and terrorists. I loved Limitless, though I am not sure if sci fi is really the right category for that. I also liked The Midnight Sky even though it was quite slow moving. Past ones would include The Minority Report, (just about any by Philip K. Dick, though Blade Runner would not rank as high as others), Vanilla Sky, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Being John Malkovich... it's hard to remember them all. Stargate. The Fifth Element. Dark was crazy confusing with its characters time travelling and co-existing within different time frames at different ages at the same time.... but still enjoyable and very intriguing. Bio Hackers. Really enjoyed the Black Mirror series. Wish there was more like that
Better Than Us was good but I thought some of the characters were a bit weak and irrational. I think that was a Russian series? I wonder if Netflix is going to drop their Russian content with the current Ukraine situation. Netflix has already stopped streaming services to Russia. There was a detective series with the same male protagonist actor as Better Than Us called... "The Sniffer" I think. A private detective with a ridiculous sense of smell, lol!
I've left Netflix behind though. A shame, but the company itself is rotten and a lot of their new content is just Luciferian or Masonic propaganda. Too much occult magic and related garbage. I think the Cuties scandal related to underage kids being sexualized. I never actually saw the movie or series or whatever it was. Just didn't like the direction Netflix was going.
I use a lot of free services now. Vudu, Plex.tv, Peacock, and Tubi are the main ones. Tubi seems like it has a lot of sci-fi. I just starting exploring that one.
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Wow, I'm really glad you were able get away from that group you were in before it was too late.
I grew up in the middle of Nowheresville, USA, so the church I experienced this at was a little homegrown, mostly white, everyday American church. I can't say anything bad about it as a whole because it was full of well-meaning people whom I'm sure were sincere in their faith, but I think they fell for the sometimes slow-burning trap of, "If I think this way, God must think this way too, because I believe in God. Therefore, I must convert everyone to my way of thinking, because it has to be from God."
This is just my own opinion, but one of the things I feel very strongly about when it comes to new and/or Christians with meeker personality types is to try my best to protect them from the very real dangers of spiritual gaslighting and abuse (using people and burning them out, even for "good" causes) within the church.
Oddly enough, I'm also someone who feels lost without a church and will always be connected to one in some way. I've just learned to be very careful about who and how anyone tries to corral me into certain areas of concern that seem most important to them, but is not necessarily where I'm being led by God.
I went to a Lutheran school from kindergarten to the day I graduated high school, and of course, we were always taught to read our Bibles and pray in order to get closer to the Lord.
What they didn't tell us though, is that (I believe, at least,) reading the Bible and praying is crucial not just to have a relationship with God, but to learn to protect yourself from all the people who will "come in His Name," trying to veer you onto one path or another that just might not be from God, and to be prepared and stand your ground when they further try to manipulate you by accusing you of rebelling "not against them, but against the Lord."
Now I'm certainly not promoting the "Lone Wolf" theology either, in which someone thinks everyone else has it wrong and they don't allow anyone to hold them accountable but "the Lord" (because they are the ones defining who they think the Lord is,) but my goodness.
One thing I can tell you about growing up in white, any town churches across everyday America is that you can't just take anyone at face value and let them tell you what they personally think God says.
You have to study, pray, and seek it out for yourself, even when His presence feels elusive, or you will become yet another spiritual victim of "the cause" that someone other than God is pushing.
I grew up in the middle of Nowheresville, USA, so the church I experienced this at was a little homegrown, mostly white, everyday American church. I can't say anything bad about it as a whole because it was full of well-meaning people whom I'm sure were sincere in their faith, but I think they fell for the sometimes slow-burning trap of, "If I think this way, God must think this way too, because I believe in God. Therefore, I must convert everyone to my way of thinking, because it has to be from God."
This is just my own opinion, but one of the things I feel very strongly about when it comes to new and/or Christians with meeker personality types is to try my best to protect them from the very real dangers of spiritual gaslighting and abuse (using people and burning them out, even for "good" causes) within the church.
Oddly enough, I'm also someone who feels lost without a church and will always be connected to one in some way. I've just learned to be very careful about who and how anyone tries to corral me into certain areas of concern that seem most important to them, but is not necessarily where I'm being led by God.
I went to a Lutheran school from kindergarten to the day I graduated high school, and of course, we were always taught to read our Bibles and pray in order to get closer to the Lord.
What they didn't tell us though, is that (I believe, at least,) reading the Bible and praying is crucial not just to have a relationship with God, but to learn to protect yourself from all the people who will "come in His Name," trying to veer you onto one path or another that just might not be from God, and to be prepared and stand your ground when they further try to manipulate you by accusing you of rebelling "not against them, but against the Lord."
Now I'm certainly not promoting the "Lone Wolf" theology either, in which someone thinks everyone else has it wrong and they don't allow anyone to hold them accountable but "the Lord" (because they are the ones defining who they think the Lord is,) but my goodness.
One thing I can tell you about growing up in white, any town churches across everyday America is that you can't just take anyone at face value and let them tell you what they personally think God says.
You have to study, pray, and seek it out for yourself, even when His presence feels elusive, or you will become yet another spiritual victim of "the cause" that someone other than God is pushing.
I remember when the Matrix came out in 1999, going to see it in the theatre with my daughter... about ten minutes in, she asked me, what is happening? And I said, I have no idea. LOL! But yeah, didn't take long to figure out after that, as you say, sadly, it is quite the commentary on life in the modern world. She was 12 at the time and I was not yet a Christian... I keep a list of my viewing but need to expand it to include categories and my personal ratings, and/or just keep a list of the best of the best. I like a number of genres, but have not heard of the Sniffer hehee. One show I watched was called Hit and Run (the first Netflix original series from Israel), and I liked the actor (Lior Raz) in that so much that shortly after that I watched another starring him, called Fauda. Fuada was created and co-scripted by him and another guy; both had served in Israel's undercover unit in the Palestinian territories. It was so suspenseful at times I had to turn it off. But I like gripping stories
Thank you for the alternative recommendations for entertainment I will make
a note of them and look into them some time when I can't find anything on Netflix
I designed this today:
... and finished this one yesterday:
Thank you for the alternative recommendations for entertainment
I will make a note of them and look into them some time when I can't find anything on Netflix
I designed this today:
... and finished this one yesterday:
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Ah, hobbies... What are they again?
Not long after my divorce, I invited a pair of elders to my house to do a "spiritual cleansing" and blessing. Once upon a time, I used to do cross stitch, and had literally poured hundreds, if not thousands of hours and dollars into what I had found to be a relaxing, creative outlet. But thanks to these people and their strong faith in God, it was not meant to be.
This couple had strong beliefs in not having anything around that was supposedly attached to demons, including any images of animals that were "creatures of the night," such as bats, or animals involved in negative events written about in the Bible, such as frogs (which were part of The Ten Plagues.)
Years later, a good friend pointed out to me that cats are also creatures of the night, and that many a Christian person owns cats, but I digress. I wish I would have had to good sense to stand up for myself back then.
And so, these people came across some of my cross stitch works of angels and insisted that this one in particular had a demon behind it: (This is a picture of the pattern I pulled up from the internet.) I know when most people think of cross stitch, they think of little samplers of homey sayings in their Grandma's kitchen, but I can assure you that the kinds of designs I was interested in were a little bit more than that.
This couple insisted that there was a demon "behind" (attached to) this picture, and that it was the same, or a similar one as the scene in The Passion of the Christ in which Satan walks by, holding a deformed, aging baby. They insisted I get rid of all my pictures, and it wasn't good enough to just throw them away, but that we should cut them up so that, "No one would find them and take them home, accidentally inviting a demon behind these pictures into their house."
And so I blindly followed, because something else another leader in this church had successfully done was tell me that I was rebellious and wouldn't listen to the directions God was trying to give me through other people (meaning, the leaders in the church, of course.)
For this and many other reasons, I usually don't take what people say "in the name of the Lord" at face value until I can fairly solidly determine how much of their own interpretation they have inserted into their "word from the Lord," no matter how sincerely they believe -- in themselves.
But at the time, I was young and naive and just went with what I was told -- and was later utterly heartbroken. Even my parents talked about how they had watched me working so hard on those pictures as a kid, saving up my allowances and later, money from jobs, and how it broke their heart that someone would tell me to get rid of them "as God's will."
The woman who designed this pattern would make a new one every year for something like 20 years, and each pattern became more and more complex. This was something that really drew me to her designs -- you had to learn to grow your own skills right along with hers as her design skills expanded and she experimented with new materials (in the last few years, she was even incorporating beads.) And these were projects that literally cost hundreds of dollars to make, as they require hundreds of different colors of threads, along with specialty metallic threads and supplies that are a pain in the butt to work with, but boy do they add incredible dimension to the design.
The other big project of hers was this Nativity Scene:
This was one whopper of a project and I had completed the shepherd boy on the left, and the camel on the right. That camel was a BEAR to do, but it had little 3D tassels that stood out from the picture, and boy did it ever stretch my stitching skills.
But "just in case," these people insisted I get rid of it all.
And to tell you the truth, I have never really picked up anything so passionately ever since, because I told God, "Why bother? I am never going to pour my heart or resources into something again that one of 'your people' is just going to come along and say I have to get rid of because of what THEY believe -- and call it Your will."
For a long time, I figured that maybe God was punishing me over some sense of pride I felt in finishing those pieces, so I told myself that I had to follow His will for my life. I am not the type who is naturally good at anything -- I have to really work for whatever I try to do, and I've told myself for years that maybe God doesn't want me to work on anything so I have more time to focus on study and prayer, or that maybe He wants to keep me from being prideful and so I shouldn't try these hobbies again.
These days, I'm a lot more cautious about trying to find the dividing line between what PEOPLE will for me in what they call God's will because it goes along with THEIR beliefs, vs. what is truly God's will for my life.
But it's left a permanent scar, and I've just never found the will to get into something like that ever since, even though every now and then I do have the longing. But I no longer have the interest, even though I considered rebuying the patterns (I threw EVERYTHING away at the time, thinking this was what God wanted me to do.) But the patterns have been out of print for years and some are considered collector's items, it would literally cost several thousands of dollars for me to reacquire all the supplies I would need.
One of the prayers I have had for many years is that if by some chance, these people were wrong, that one of the things God might have waiting for me in heaven would be this exact same set of patterns and supplies in order to redo this project.
I would see it as God showing me what His ultimate will was in that situation -- possibly in the form of me finally getting a chance to complete this set, and instead of passing it down among my family as I had hoped, this time, it would last for all eternity.
Not long after my divorce, I invited a pair of elders to my house to do a "spiritual cleansing" and blessing. Once upon a time, I used to do cross stitch, and had literally poured hundreds, if not thousands of hours and dollars into what I had found to be a relaxing, creative outlet. But thanks to these people and their strong faith in God, it was not meant to be.
This couple had strong beliefs in not having anything around that was supposedly attached to demons, including any images of animals that were "creatures of the night," such as bats, or animals involved in negative events written about in the Bible, such as frogs (which were part of The Ten Plagues.)
Years later, a good friend pointed out to me that cats are also creatures of the night, and that many a Christian person owns cats, but I digress. I wish I would have had to good sense to stand up for myself back then.
And so, these people came across some of my cross stitch works of angels and insisted that this one in particular had a demon behind it: (This is a picture of the pattern I pulled up from the internet.) I know when most people think of cross stitch, they think of little samplers of homey sayings in their Grandma's kitchen, but I can assure you that the kinds of designs I was interested in were a little bit more than that.
This couple insisted that there was a demon "behind" (attached to) this picture, and that it was the same, or a similar one as the scene in The Passion of the Christ in which Satan walks by, holding a deformed, aging baby. They insisted I get rid of all my pictures, and it wasn't good enough to just throw them away, but that we should cut them up so that, "No one would find them and take them home, accidentally inviting a demon behind these pictures into their house."
And so I blindly followed, because something else another leader in this church had successfully done was tell me that I was rebellious and wouldn't listen to the directions God was trying to give me through other people (meaning, the leaders in the church, of course.)
For this and many other reasons, I usually don't take what people say "in the name of the Lord" at face value until I can fairly solidly determine how much of their own interpretation they have inserted into their "word from the Lord," no matter how sincerely they believe -- in themselves.
But at the time, I was young and naive and just went with what I was told -- and was later utterly heartbroken. Even my parents talked about how they had watched me working so hard on those pictures as a kid, saving up my allowances and later, money from jobs, and how it broke their heart that someone would tell me to get rid of them "as God's will."
The woman who designed this pattern would make a new one every year for something like 20 years, and each pattern became more and more complex. This was something that really drew me to her designs -- you had to learn to grow your own skills right along with hers as her design skills expanded and she experimented with new materials (in the last few years, she was even incorporating beads.) And these were projects that literally cost hundreds of dollars to make, as they require hundreds of different colors of threads, along with specialty metallic threads and supplies that are a pain in the butt to work with, but boy do they add incredible dimension to the design.
The other big project of hers was this Nativity Scene:
This was one whopper of a project and I had completed the shepherd boy on the left, and the camel on the right. That camel was a BEAR to do, but it had little 3D tassels that stood out from the picture, and boy did it ever stretch my stitching skills.
But "just in case," these people insisted I get rid of it all.
And to tell you the truth, I have never really picked up anything so passionately ever since, because I told God, "Why bother? I am never going to pour my heart or resources into something again that one of 'your people' is just going to come along and say I have to get rid of because of what THEY believe -- and call it Your will."
For a long time, I figured that maybe God was punishing me over some sense of pride I felt in finishing those pieces, so I told myself that I had to follow His will for my life. I am not the type who is naturally good at anything -- I have to really work for whatever I try to do, and I've told myself for years that maybe God doesn't want me to work on anything so I have more time to focus on study and prayer, or that maybe He wants to keep me from being prideful and so I shouldn't try these hobbies again.
These days, I'm a lot more cautious about trying to find the dividing line between what PEOPLE will for me in what they call God's will because it goes along with THEIR beliefs, vs. what is truly God's will for my life.
But it's left a permanent scar, and I've just never found the will to get into something like that ever since, even though every now and then I do have the longing. But I no longer have the interest, even though I considered rebuying the patterns (I threw EVERYTHING away at the time, thinking this was what God wanted me to do.) But the patterns have been out of print for years and some are considered collector's items, it would literally cost several thousands of dollars for me to reacquire all the supplies I would need.
One of the prayers I have had for many years is that if by some chance, these people were wrong, that one of the things God might have waiting for me in heaven would be this exact same set of patterns and supplies in order to redo this project.
I would see it as God showing me what His ultimate will was in that situation -- possibly in the form of me finally getting a chance to complete this set, and instead of passing it down among my family as I had hoped, this time, it would last for all eternity.
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Hi Goji,
Thanks very much for the kind reply! Don't worry, I found another outlet for my extra time and energy, and as you can imagine, they liked my next hobby even less -- that was the time when I spent almost 10 years writing to and occasionally visiting inmates. Like you, I tend to go against the grain. Sometimes on purpose, sometimes because that just seems to be how I'm naturally built and that's what I gravitate towards. If I had to pick a label for myself, I suppose I would call it, "Rebel Nerd." How would you describe yourself?
The reasons I share stories like the one above is because I'm very adamant about trying to prevent the same abuses "in the name of the Lord" from happening to others. It helps take away some of the sting if I know I can help protect other people.
Most of my hob-bitious energy (I also like the hobby of making up my own words!) has been shifted into correspondence or other writing in some way or form. And while I'm thinking of it, how do you and everyone else answering this thread budget your time and money when it comes to hobbies? At one time, I was spending probably $20 a week just on postage, and then gas money to drive to the prison twice a month (about an hour away.) Eventually I put a limit on what I knew I could feasibly spend.
Like everyone else, time, energy, and money are my biggest hurdles to becoming seriously invested in anything right now. One thing I like about writing is that this time, no one can step in and take that away from me. Even if I could never talk again, God-willing, I would still write, which I tend to do a lot more of anyway.
I've also had to recognize a pattern within myself -- I will try something new for a while, get all excited, buy more tools and supplies than I will ever need... Only to find out that hobby really isn't for me. Do other people go through this? So now I try to ask myself: How long do I feasibly see myself doing this? Is it sustainable (will I have the resources to continue?) Do I have the time and space available?
I'm also the type who will often try something just to see if I can do it (there goes the rebel in me again!) and then once I try it for myself, I lose interest. I got into melt and pour soapmaking for a while, but then when I realized how much it would take to get into "real" soapmaking (and how dangerous it could potentially be because of the chemicals you're working with,) I knew it wasn't going to be for me. Unfortunately, I'm guilty of several such flirtations with various crafts. Then you have to worry about how you're going to give away or sell all your unused supplies...
I've been very interested in things like making candles and perfume, so my strategy has been to hopefully find an everything-included kit as a first date so that I don't have to worry about making a full-on commitment right out of the box. However, the cheapest serious perfume mixology kit I've seen (that isn't just another bubble bath-for-kids kind of concoction) costs around $300 as a starting point.
I also like to travel, which of course takes a much bigger bite out of the budget, so I often forgo smaller ventures for the sake of a bigger picture.
Lately I have been considering venturing across the frame via Amtrak, as I'm at a point where I almost disdain what has become the overly cumbersome process of flying.
Thanks very much for the kind reply! Don't worry, I found another outlet for my extra time and energy, and as you can imagine, they liked my next hobby even less -- that was the time when I spent almost 10 years writing to and occasionally visiting inmates. Like you, I tend to go against the grain. Sometimes on purpose, sometimes because that just seems to be how I'm naturally built and that's what I gravitate towards. If I had to pick a label for myself, I suppose I would call it, "Rebel Nerd."
How would you describe yourself?The reasons I share stories like the one above is because I'm very adamant about trying to prevent the same abuses "in the name of the Lord" from happening to others. It helps take away some of the sting if I know I can help protect other people.
Most of my hob-bitious energy (I also like the hobby of making up my own words!) has been shifted into correspondence or other writing in some way or form. And while I'm thinking of it, how do you and everyone else answering this thread budget your time and money when it comes to hobbies? At one time, I was spending probably $20 a week just on postage, and then gas money to drive to the prison twice a month (about an hour away.) Eventually I put a limit on what I knew I could feasibly spend.
Like everyone else, time, energy, and money are my biggest hurdles to becoming seriously invested in anything right now. One thing I like about writing is that this time, no one can step in and take that away from me. Even if I could never talk again, God-willing, I would still write, which I tend to do a lot more of anyway.
I've also had to recognize a pattern within myself -- I will try something new for a while, get all excited, buy more tools and supplies than I will ever need... Only to find out that hobby really isn't for me. Do other people go through this? So now I try to ask myself: How long do I feasibly see myself doing this? Is it sustainable (will I have the resources to continue?) Do I have the time and space available?
I'm also the type who will often try something just to see if I can do it (there goes the rebel in me again!) and then once I try it for myself, I lose interest. I got into melt and pour soapmaking for a while, but then when I realized how much it would take to get into "real" soapmaking (and how dangerous it could potentially be because of the chemicals you're working with,) I knew it wasn't going to be for me. Unfortunately, I'm guilty of several such flirtations with various crafts. Then you have to worry about how you're going to give away or sell all your unused supplies...
I've been very interested in things like making candles and perfume, so my strategy has been to hopefully find an everything-included kit as a first date so that I don't have to worry about making a full-on commitment right out of the box.
However, the cheapest serious perfume mixology kit I've seen (that isn't just another bubble bath-for-kids kind of concoction) costs around $300 as a starting point.I also like to travel, which of course takes a much bigger bite out of the budget, so I often forgo smaller ventures for the sake of a bigger picture.
Lately I have been considering venturing across the frame via Amtrak, as I'm at a point where I almost disdain what has become the overly cumbersome process of flying.
it has recently made my life so much easier. Perhaps it can help you as we seem to have similar hobbies -
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