Lauren has no story of her own

[Daenerys]

This makes me so sad, this whole post. She is being made to strip away her whole identity in favour of seeing herself as some generic vagina-posessing vessel for Jesus. Everyone has their own story about their life and she's being told that hers doesn't matter. Nothing matters except sitting pretty and completing her father's harem of adoring daughters. It makes me sick.

onebrightcorner.blogspot.fr

Youu’re one stammering silence away from a complete failure of a conversation. Face to face with someone you’ve just met; racing brain to racing brain with someone who is just as much at a loss to think of what to say; clearing throat to clearing throat, but not much of value is coming out. Cue crickets.

So you do what you can: you keep the conversation going at all costs. If you’re anything like me, you have standard questions you resort to, faithful stories you tell, solid answers you’re ready to give to the questions you already know they’ll ask. And you keep the conversation going, which is a skill in itself.

But it’s at moments like these, walking away from a conversation heaped with job-jawing and school-speaking with a good helping of hobby-haranguing and a sprinkle of weather-warbling, that these words that I pinned on Pinterest a few weeks ago fill my mind:

“You know my name, not my story. You’ve heard what I’ve done, not what I’ve been through.â€

And more often than not, the other person is probably thinking the same thing. Because we all have stories that make us who we are. We all have experiences that shape our very core. And those things are more a part of us than our name or our resume. But this weekend, God dug a little deeper into my paradigm of just how to take that leap from weather-warbling to story-sharing from the heart.

I was at a graveside service, my coat pulled tight against the chill, the rain pouring the tears of Heaven down around those who loved the man who was now with the Lord. My gloved hands awkwardly turned to the song we were about to sing, “Blessed Assurance.†My tongue intoned the words, settling into the comfortable grooves of the melody I had sung so many times before. But then I came to the chorus, and I had one of those lightning bolt, tear-inducing moments of truth from the Lord.

“This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long!â€

It hit me like an exploding pressure cooker lid barrelling the ceiling. I am not the protaganist in my story. I’m not the supporting character in my story. I’m not even the actor in the movie version of my story. Instead, my body and soul are the vehicle and backdrop of my story. The place where God has chosen to stage the greatest adventure, the greatest romance, the greatest history, and the greatest mystery, all at once.

I Corinthians 6:19-20 tells us,

“Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.â€

That’s why my story can be a masterpiece, because I’m not the hero. God is. That’s why, from now on, right after you know my name, I’ll want to ask, “Would you like to hear my story?â€

[AnnieC 305]

http://youtu.be/4ebGp0IcAMA

[mockingbird]

I feel like if (the fundies') God had wanted to make a population of Jesus Robots, he would have made everyone the same... so maybe individuality has a purpose???

[NurseNell]

“Are you a Christian?â€

I remember that I practically opened my mouth to say yes, and I recall that before I could speak, through my mind flashed all of my four and a half-year old sins, mainly in the form of meanness to my sisters. In an instant, I knew that if I was being honest with myself, I could not be a Christian, and I realized that I had never accepted Christ into my heart. So there, in the back of the car, I prayed with Mama............................... Jesus came into my heart today, and He has forgiven my sins! In the one sad moment of the day, everyone was busy, and I had to wait excruciating minutes to share my salvation.

I don't think I was aware at age 4 what sin was, and I was raised Catholic. :? I went to church, I remember only one time actually doing so even though we went every Sunday. I couldn't have said what happened in church. I had no concept of Christ being in my heart or not being in it. I had no concept of sin or even knew what the word meant. That didn't come until 2nd grade when one gets ready for 1st communion. What 4 y.o. knows what salvations means? This kind of thinking at 4 is bizarre and beyond me. I was just a kid at 4, a quiet kid, I played with my brother and dog, life was very simple. Poor Lauren, what a way to spend childhood, worried about sin.

“

[Lady_M]

I don't think I was aware at age 4 what sin was, and I was raised Catholic. :? I went to church, I remember only one time actually doing so even though we went every Sunday. I couldn't have said what happened in church. I had no concept of Christ being in my heart or not being in it. I had no concept of sin or even knew what the word meant. That didn't come until 2nd grade when one gets ready for 1st communion. What 4 y.o. knows what salvations means? This kind of thinking at 4 is bizarre and beyond me. I was just a kid at 4, a quiet kid, I played with my brother and dog, life was very simple. Poor Lauren, what a way to spend childhood, worried about sin.

“

I'm always a little suspicious of people who talk about 4 year olds accepting a full commitment to faith. In some ways, I've always felt it's sort of strange - I just don't believe 4 year olds are capable of understanding abstract moral concepts in the manner necessary to make a binding commitment to faith. Now, that's not to say those children don't grow up with the faith and grow into adherents of it, but I think there's a big difference there.

I don't think at age four I was aware of "sin" per se. I'm sure I knew there were actions that were "good" and actions that were "bad", but I'm absolutely certain that concepts like redemptive sacrifice and moral reasoning were way out of my league.

Lauren's story made me wonder a little if she's applied more adult concepts/belief structures to it as she got older and could use abstract reasoning. I don't doubt the basic facts - that she was 4 and prayed with her mother or that she was very excited to share this moment with her family and could parrot the basic lines (something I'm sure she'd been encouraged in since birth) or that she understood that her parents had rebuked her for doing something unkind to her sister. I do question a 4 year old who truly understands, in a more permanent, adult way the concepts of salvation and sin. I think the way she's written, it fits better into her narrative now. It's an easy thing to do - it can be hard not to apply what I know now and how I think as an adult to my childhood memories.

[gustava]

She's a good writer. Not SOTDRT.

[Closed Womb]

The fundies sometimes use this logic on wavering believers: if we (fundies) are wrong, we've lost nothing (eternally speaking); if you (heathens) are wrong, you've lost everything. Sometimes I want to turn that around on them. If we (heathens) are right, we've lived life; if you (fundies) are wrong, you've wasted your earthly allotment.

Lauren, get a story. Live! You are not background. You can still live for God, as you understand him/her, and be the main character in your own story. What if you're wrong, and you've wasted everything?