 Changing faith, and hiding it from family.
I recently have decided to change faiths. I went from a practicing pagan, (My mother was one) And I realized that I really didn't believe it as much as I used it to be purposefully shocking to my extended family and society. I was a teenager, and you know teenagers love being scandalous.
I realized I want to be Christian, which I have told my family. They are mostly fine with that. I attended a church for a time, but the distance to the church/relationships there didn't work out, by no fault of either my husband and myself or the congregation. It just didn't fit.
Now that my husband and I have moved across the state, we want to go to a new church, but for 3 years I have been researching a certain "branch" of Christianity, and I just feel that it's right. I have prayed on it. I have read about it. I have secretly wanted to go... forever now.
But my family would flip out! My father, the protestant, my mother the wiccan... it would not sit well.
In a similar (but not the same branch) example, my cousin became a Jehovah's Witness because of his wife, and there were FIGHTS about it on every holiday. It was insane.
It's so awkward wanting to walk in the doors of a new church, start something that you should feel joyful and happy about, and to know that if/when I was baptized, I couldn't even share that joy with my parents or family.
My husband and my only sibling know, but how in the heck do I hide this when I am at risk of losing so much!?
Or, should I not risk it at all? |