This morning's prayer time allerted me to how difficult it is to be a Christian in today's world, especially as the mother of teens.

I pondered whether I change colors with my environment to fit in with the current discussion.

I decided I stick out like a sore thumb and it often hurts.

I sometimes feel like I am swimming upstream to maintain my spiritual beliefs and walk the walk.

How about you?

I absolutely feel that way, almost all the time!
The world doesn't like to talk about "sin". No one seems to worry about offending God, only other people, which is why we have the term "politically correct".
Dotsie, I've been a lover of Christ for 20 years now and I know I'm doing His will when I DO stick out like a sore thumb! We have to rejoice in being persecuted for His Name, He was certainly persecuted for us.
There are times when I think it would be easier to just "join" the world in their beliefs, but those times are fleeting, the minute I stop and think about Him. Life is so hard WITH Him, I cannot imagine doing it without Him.
It does hurt the most in my own household, though. But the devil will attack what is most important to God's children, and of course for us mothers, it is our family. So I say, bring it on, satan. Take your best shot. In the end, I will be with Him in heaven and my family will too. A mother's prayers and tears are never in vain.

Even though I don't necessarily share your religious beliefs, I don't think either of you should change one bit. You are secure and sincere in your spirituality, which is to be admired and respected. I believe that we shre many of the same moral values.

BTW, not to be a pain, but we Jews have known about persecution for a very long time. It doesn't appear to have stopped us from standing up for what we believe in.

Was it Shakespeare who said, "This above all, to thine own self be true?" If we are forced to change or not express our views because they are not currently "mainstream", the world will be a very sad place.

If I'm butting in on a discussion where I don't belong, I apologize. This was meant as a compliment and encouragement.

Told my daughter last week that I believed she skipped the rebillion durning her teen years to take it up now since she's 21.

Being a Christian is never easy...and we are not given the promise of a easy path.

I also agree with BB...life is hard with HIM, I don't want to find out what it would be like without HIM.

With faith and the love of Jesus, I look forward to eternal life...

Jackie, you are not being a pain! I have a special love for the Jewish people, exactly for the reasons you mentioned. They are a people of miracles and even though they had their share of straying (wandering in the desert) they have kept the precepts that God gave to them - His chosen people. This is why He had Jesus born as a Jew! They are the people of promise and I know you don't believe this way, but true Christians love and honor the Jews because Jesus, Mary, Joseph and all the apostles were Jewish. There would be no church without the Jewish faith.

Jackie...you are not the pain.
I have love for all my brothers and sisters.

Thanks. ladies. Sometimes I tend to shoot my mouth off and regret it later.

I've never seen you shoot your mouth off on here, Jackie. You've always been as sweet as sweet can be!

Friends, being a Christian is a challenge, today more than ever. But we haven't seen the worst yet.

Still, we are called to stand firm in the midst of all. We are not called to please the crowd. Our focus should be to please God rather than men. If we are changing with our environment, perhaps we are not sure of whom we've believed in. God is the same today, tomorrow, always. That should give us stability and courage to walk the walk, as challenging as it is.

He's promised to be with us all the way!

Dotsie, I'm definitely a chameleon Christian...I'm a chameleon in almost every facet of my being. I think being a chameleon is a well-honed defence mechanism that began in early childhood out of a need to hide my real self in order to appear more acceptable to - and appease - significant others who had the power to hurt and ostracize me in ways that were intolerable at the time.

Chameleonizing (I made that word up and wanted to use it in my book but my book coach wouldn't let me) served me well over the years, not just as a way to hide my self, values and beliefs from attack and persecution, but also as a gift of attentive listening...it's allowed me to listen to the heart of the other person I'm with and hear what's really being said behind the actual words.

I don't like my wimpiness when my chameleonizing prevents me from being authentically all that I can be, but I DO like the way that chameleonizing allows me to have compassionate conversations with people who might otherwise feel too threatened by my Christian beliefs to speak. I'm almost always able to find a common ground from which to carry on a good, dynamic, non-theocratic-specific, non-denomination, spiritual conversation.

Ironically, my chameleonizing, when driven by compassion and sincere (unconditional?) interest in another person's being and becoming, is one of the few qualities I actually like about myself.