Acceptance

Hope I'm phrasing this all correctly and it's within guidelines.

I keep being attacked by friends, people I know, because what I choose to believe is different from what they believe, because I choose not to follow what they think and instead I see things in my own way, because what I choose to place my faith in isn't "normal" to them, because they don't see it as "main-stream", and they have the nerve to say that makes it primitive and wrong.

I understand wanting to speak about beliefs and such, but isn't it too much to have them impose everything they believe in on me, try to make me believe it, and tell me what I believe is wrong. I don't attack them for what they believe, and yet they tell me I am wrong and need to see things the right way and be grateful to things I don't believe in.

I hope for understanding and acceptance one day, it is so sad that something like faith can cause rifts and fights.

The keys to patience are acceptance and faith. Accept things as they are, and look realistically at the world around you. Have faith in yourself and in the direction you have chosen.
- Ralph Marston

i wish i couldnt say that i understand what you feel Griffe... we seek to know what is true for ourselves and we explore what seems availalbe... one thing which really helped me was making a personal decision to care about others health... all my life i'd been told i was selfish and thinking of only myself.. i tried to think of all the times i'd forgotten when i was unintentionally selfish.. i searched so deeply to discover the truth about my own soul and when i got to the core i discovered that i had never intended harm to any others..

that when kindness to others became an important part of my spiritual belief system.. i found that by searching my own interior i found my true connection to others and the importance of each soul having the opportunity to grow, feel,learn.. harmlessness to any other (including myself) has been my driving energy as i search about this wild mystical world of hours.. harmlessness eventually leads to inner peace, inner peace eventually affects our immediate environment.. our immediate environment eventually affects the larger and the whole and so on into timelessness and spacelessness....

an inner spirit can never be killed.. its energy lives on after the bodies physical death.. some call this a legacy.. a legacy is a birthright.. the very fact that we've lived gives us each a legacy.. legacies are the stuff of life.. legacies are timeless..

praying for healing for all..

((((griffe)))) You are right--it's a shame that something as wonderful as our religious beliefs can cause such huge rifts. It's not just your friends, griffe, wars have been fought over religious beliefs for thousands and thousands of years, unfortunately. I think part of the reason is people are so passionate about it that it becomes "obvious" to them that they are right and how can you not see it. Stand by your beliefs, griffe, and you may just have to agree to disagree.