I just finished reading most of Anna's thread "Conversation with Knight..." Can't remember the whole title right now. But, that thread made me think about when my daughter, at age twenty-on, told me that she was no longer a Christian because of the hypocrisy of Christians. At the time, she didn't give me any examples of the hypocrisy she was talking about. But, she told me that she was now a pagan and was following the ways of Wicca. It took a couple of years, but she eventually told me that it was my hypocrisy that she had been talking about. She thinks that I'm a hypocrite because I don't believe in homosexual marriage and am against abortion on demand. She now tells me that she's engaged to marry a woman and she believes that if a woman gets pregnant she should be the only person who decides whether that pregnancy should be carried to term or not. She just turned twenty-nine at the beginning of this month. Personally, I don't think that I'm a hypocrite for those beliefs. I hold myself to a higher standard of behavior than I do anyone else. My daughter didn't grow up seeing her mother living with a man outside of marriage although she knew that I would never date a woman. And, I've always made my beliefs on abortion clear to anyone, including my daughter, who would listen to them.
Do I feel bad about my daughter's lack of faith in Christ? Yes. But, after eight years of knowing about her decision, I can honestly say that I no longer feel responsible for her lack of faith. Yes. It's taken me that long to come to that feeling. I pray that, someday, someone will come into her life that will show her that I'm not such a hypocrite. But, she's an adult. I did what I felt I was supposed to in raising her in my faith. But, she has to make her own decision about her faith. I can do nothing to change her mind.
Do I feel bad about my daughter's lack of faith in Christ? Yes. But, after eight years of knowing about her decision, I can honestly say that I no longer feel responsible for her lack of faith. Yes. It's taken me that long to come to that feeling. I pray that, someday, someone will come into her life that will show her that I'm not such a hypocrite. But, she's an adult. I did what I felt I was supposed to in raising her in my faith. But, she has to make her own decision about her faith. I can do nothing to change her mind.