Wanting family to grow in faith!

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tanya_c

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I have a dileemma that i am open to all points of view. I am a catholic, my children are all catholic, my husband is uniting but was none practising. After years of preaching in my home i was winning my husband over for God. Recently he was diagnosed as having cancer. I am pleased to say we have won that battle with the power of our Lord.
So here goes, this journey saw my husband give himself to God. we have baptist friends ( a pastor for that matter) they moved in next door tous a few years ago. i Do a bilble study with the baptist ladies, they have never tried to convert me, and i have never felt i have had to defend myself. We are just sisters in christ. our catholic church doesnt offer anything. I tried to start a litergy to encourage children to attend, i did this for 2 years and still my children are the only kids. It had got to the point my kids were getting nothing out of church. our priest is not very engaging even for me. My husband finds it boring and doesnt understand the catholic stance. To be honest i dont get it in a lot of areas either.
The baptist church has a youth group and lots of kids. Both my children and husband are being fed closer to God at the baptist church. I must admit i am too. I dont want to turn away from the catholic church. And my children want to be cathloics. But as a mother and wife i have a choice. I either raise 3 caholic boys in a catholic church who are not growing in faith and forming friendships of faith or 3 christians who will always be reminded of catholic roots but are growing in faith. Only this week my 14 and 13 years old boys told me they had given their life to christ when 5 months ago they were complaing about attending church. I also have to consider my husband that God gave me. He want to be a christian and i also want him fed. I believe if we had a different preist things may be different. So i dont understand how doing something to draw 4 more people to God is so wrong. Is it the right thing for the moment… Please help. Sorry for rambling
Tanya

Ps i do spent alot of time with my bible and belief if it not for the words of God i would not have got through the last 12 months with my husband being sick and 3 boys needing me strong. it was in Gods words that i drew strength
 
Has everyone been baptized Catholic? Are you satisfied with Baptist teachings? There are some branches of the Baptist’s that are not very nice but there are others that are decent. I would look at all different types of churches and find one in which the word of Christ is spoken most plainly and pure and where you feel you and your family can be strengthened in Christ.
We live in a world of competing religions and too often people choose none, which is a real tragedy.
 
All my children are baptisted catholic. The 2 older ones have done all the sacraments. My youngers is still to make his first communion next year. I 2 have done all the sacrements and have been baptised. My husband was baptised uniting. The only thing i enjoy about the baptist church is the fellowship and teachings of the bible. I do not participate in their communion. They have a great youth pressence that has been great for our children. I would certainly rather be in the catholic church but i could not see us growing there at this time. The decision just seems so hard. I keep think about scripture when jesus said of those healing in his name that those who are for us who can be against us or something along those lines. So if they are for jesus and so are we who is against us.
Tanya
 
tanya_c said:
I have a dileemma that i am open to all points of view. I am a catholic, my children are all catholic, my husband is uniting but was none practising. After years of preaching in my home i was winning my husband over for God. Recently he was diagnosed as having cancer. I am pleased to say we have won that battle with the power of our Lord.
So here goes, this journey saw my husband give himself to God. we have baptist friends ( a pastor for that matter) they moved in next door tous a few years ago. i Do a bilble study with the baptist ladies, they have never tried to convert me, and i have never felt i have had to defend myself. We are just sisters in christ. our catholic church doesnt offer anything. I tried to start a litergy to encourage children to attend, i did this for 2 years and still my children are the only kids. It had got to the point my kids were getting nothing out of church. our priest is not very engaging even for me. My husband finds it boring and doesnt understand the catholic stance. To be honest i dont get it in a lot of areas either.
The baptist church has a youth group and lots of kids. Both my children and husband are being fed closer to God at the baptist church. I must admit i am too. I dont want to turn away from the catholic church. And my children want to be cathloics. But as a mother and wife i have a choice. I either raise 3 caholic boys in a catholic church who are not growing in faith and forming friendships of faith or 3 christians who will always be reminded of catholic roots but are growing in faith. Only this week my 14 and 13 years old boys told me they had given their life to christ when 5 months ago they were complaing about attending church. I also have to consider my husband that God gave me. He want to be a christian and i also want him fed. I believe if we had a different preist things may be different. So i dont understand how doing something to draw 4 more people to God is so wrong. Is it the right thing for the moment… Please help. Sorry for rambling
Tanya

Ps i do spent alot of time with my bible and belief if it not for the words of God i would not have got through the last 12 months with my husband being sick and 3 boys needing me strong. it was in Gods words that i drew strength
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As much as I hate to say it, find another parish. One of my good friends has begun attending two different parishes. One is a wonderfully orthodox parish with a wonderful liturgy, however he feels the homilies are too lofty for his children so he attends another church. The other parish is equally orthodox, but in a bit of a veiled sense. The homilies are what I used to hear at my old baptist church, jokes an homilies that have little to do with scripture and lots to do with life in general. Very good homilies, but geared more towards those who are still on milk not real meat.

In your case, I would suggest that, rather than leave the Church founded by Christ, finding another parish would do you worlds of good.
tanya_c said:
All my children are baptisted catholic. The 2 older ones have done all the sacraments. My youngers is still to make his first communion next year. I 2 have done all the sacrements and have been baptised. My husband was baptised uniting. The only thing i enjoy about the baptist church is the fellowship and teachings of the bible. I do not participate in their communion. They have a great youth pressence that has been great for our children. I would certainly rather be in the catholic church but i could not see us growing there at this time. The decision just seems so hard. I keep think about scripture when jesus said of those healing in his name that those who are for us who can be against us or something along those lines. So if they are for jesus and so are we who is against us.
Tanya
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Yes, if you are for Christ and with Christ, none can stand against you… except yourself. To leave the one true faith would be to disobey the command of Christ that Peter feed His sheep. C.S. Lewis said in Mere Christianity that you should choose a church not by what color its door is, nor by whether you like the decor, but by the truth taught in that church. In this case, there is one church (The CC) that is teaching the entirety of revealed truth and one church (the baptists) that teach a portion of the truth. Would you serve your children a diet of one type of food and leave the rest out or would you serve them a complete meal with meat, veggies, etc.?

I say this with lots of respect for the baptists since I was one way back when. They can be wonderful people, but their faith is lacking in substance. Find another parish with better outreach. They are out there and there are more cropping up all over the place. The difficult thing is that you are fighting years of culture where Catholics seemed to just assume that the faith would be taught in the home and that children would find their own friends and community. That is, sadly, no longer the case for many families. So if you can find a parish that has the youth programs you are looking for, go there. But do not abandon a full meal for what amounts to a snack simply because you want your children (and you and your husband) to have fun.

But that is just one man’s opinion.

FSC
 
Tanya, I can understand that you are pulled toward the fellowship of your Baptist friends. But the Baptist preacher can’t give you the most important part of the Catholic church: the Holy Eucharist. If you change churches, your family will not experience that which the true Church is centered around. IMHO, that is much more important than a youth group and friendly people.

Is there another Catholic parish nearby that you could attend that might be more to your family’s liking? Could you contact your diocese and let someone there know what is going on in your home church? Have you thought of doing a family Bible study at home using a good Catholic Bible? Would it be possible for your boys to be Altar Servers? That might increase their interest in the church, and also that of your husband if he knows his sons are serving God in that way.

I believe you answered your own question in your first post when you said that your boys want to be Catholic.

I will pray for you and your family.
 
i appreciate all your answers and oppions. There is no other parish for an hour. we are not looking at leaving the catholic church just attending the other for the fellowship. I will still be going to the catholic church to take part in the echucarist. Yes i did say that my boys want to be catholic, but this morning one of my children said to me that he doesnt feel he is gettin g close to God in the catholic church, but wants to be one of Gods sheep when he goes to the baptist church. What am i to do. I want to do what God leads me to do but i have confussed that direction by questioning so much. It seems that there are so many oppions and over the years i feel that some things have become distorted. I just want to do what God wants, that is all i want. I want to love and serve the lord, but how do we not get caught up in human oppion.
 
tanya_c said:
i appreciate all your answers and oppions. There is no other parish for an hour. we are not looking at leaving the catholic church just attending the other for the fellowship. I will still be going to the catholic church to take part in the echucarist. Yes i did say that my boys want to be catholic, but this morning one of my children said to me that he doesnt feel he is gettin g close to God in the catholic church, but wants to be one of Gods sheep when he goes to the baptist church. What am i to do. I want to do what God leads me to do but i have confussed that direction by questioning so much. It seems that there are so many oppions and over the years i feel that some things have become distorted. I just want to do what God wants, that is all i want. I want to love and serve the lord, but how do we not get caught up in human oppion.
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Tanya,
Please take your time on this and pray, asking for guidance from the Holy Spirit.
 
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