We are just a simple family of 8. Dad, Mom, 4 boys and 2 girls - ages 29 down to 10. We do our best to follow Yahweh's commands. We are not perfect. We make and have made plenty of mistakes. I'm the mom of the bunch. I am a consultant in a network marketing company and work on this site and a blog in my spare
time (ha ha).
I grew up in a cult church called the Worldwide Church of God. It was run by Herbert W. Armstrong. There is plenty out there on the web about it so I won't go into it here. Suffice to say it turned me far, far away from Yahweh. Either He didn't exist for me or if He did, I hated Him and what He had done to me through His "church".
When I got married the first time I had to go through "becoming Catholic" classes in order to be married in that church, which my future husband belonged. I did it because I had to, not because I wanted to. I dreaded going to mass and stopped going as soon as we got married. For most of the 14 years we were married we didn't attend church. We dabbled at times, only because we felt guilty for not going because of our two sons.
We ended up divorcing and I met another man, also Catholic. He didn't practice either so that was fine with me. We got married and blended our two families together. He had a girl and a boy a bit younger than my two boys. We went along happily in our lives for quite awhile.
Our two oldest boys started attending a non-denominational church in our area and became part of a youth group called Young Life. They encouraged us to start attending church which we refused to do. Plenty of excuses. Then we had two more children and that same old guilt feeling started again. One day I just said, let's go to church this weekend and my husband agreed.
Sitting in church that day I didn't even listen to what was being said. I still didn't really want to be there. I just sat there and this huge feeling came upon me. I can't explain it. I just know it was Him speaking to me and telling me it was time to give up my fight against Him. Time to surrender and live my life for Him instead of me. My time was over. It was His time now. I bent my head and cried because I knew without a shadow of doubt that He was real and He was there with me and that I had no choice but to follow Him from that moment forward.
The journey that I've been on this past 12 years has been a rocky one. Learning a bit, then a plateau, then learning more. Each time of learning had an act of obedience that went along with it. If I obeyed then more knowledge was given to me. If I paused, or was afraid, or disobeyed, well.... let's just say it wasn't fun to be disobedient to Him. I've learned that no matter what He asks of me I must do it and must do it without procrastinating.
The road has certainly been interesting. We don't attend church any longer. We have come out of organized religion. We have stopped keeping the pagan church holidays such as Christmas and Easter and keep Yahweh's set apart Feast days instead. We keep the Sabbath instead of the day of the sun. We don't celebrate pagan days such as Halloween or Valentine's day. We don't wear crosses or keep other idols. We've stopped eating bacon and pork chops and shrimp. People look at us pretty funny sometimes when they find these things out. I don't care. I only care what He thinks of us. What other people think won't grow my relationship with my Savior and it certainly won't keep me under His protective wings. Keeping His commands will.
So that's us in a nutshell. Thank you for reading. More gets added as I get time.
I pray that you are blessed with wisdom and obedience in these matters.
If you would like to ask me a question or comment, please email me at arbonnekathe@msn.com
