miamia Posted July 12, 2016 Share Posted July 12, 2016 met a lady today while I was hanging out with my older sister, who is very liberally christian. well i have met her friend before, very nice lady, haven't talked to her much. anyway, the little ones were playing on the beach. mine and my sister's second youngest are close in age, about 3 and 4 and very, very bold near the water, so we were watching them like hawks, occasionally warning them, "too far.... come back..." I asked her, "even if you have a nice day at the beach or somewhere else, and nothing happens and none of the kids get hurt, do you obsessively worry later on and have horrible pictures about what could have happened? Everyone calls me a helicopter mom but I think being a stay at home mom and being so used to being aware literally 24/7 makes you like that. maybe I'm just crazy" "no," my sister said, " that's me too. the other lady chimed in, (very nice calm seeming lady mind you) and said that is her reason why she says a little prayer. to get through her day, when she starts worrying, she just says a prayer, thinks of all the bad things that could happen, injuries, accident, evil, and just lets it go, and gives it to god. Doesn't sound so bad, I think to myself, she is a very attentive mother so obviously shes not really just praying and assuming god will babysit her kids. It's better not to be neurotic with worry right? But then she goes on to say how she has noticed that when she forgets to pray about it, bad things start happening to her children. She really believes that she has to pray or bad things will happen to her kids. Like an O.C.D like routine of praying. I'm sure like most christians she thinks of the world in terms of good and evil. good on one side, and bad on the other. God, vs evil. But in the bible it said that god created evil. And if god is omnipotent and truly really good, and has the power to protect her innocent children, why does he require her kissing his butt to do it? I really hope she is not scared. she doesn't seem too scared. it seems as if she imagines it as god requiring her to let go and not worry. idk where i'm really going with this. It just struck me as odd. She is a very nice, non preachy woman, and this isn't a judgement on her, It's just strange how some look at the world. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
midniterider Posted July 12, 2016 Share Posted July 12, 2016 I wonder if she actually keeps track of prayers vs bad things, times, dates, like an experiment. Probably not. Probably more of a confirmation bias she ties to negative occurrences. Christians are guilt ridden and tell each other they aren't praying enough, believing enough, reading the bible enough. Atheists probably don't pray for their children at all yet somehow they survive. The Christian mind is fascinating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miamia Posted July 12, 2016 Author Share Posted July 12, 2016 yeah it kind of made me feel weird hearing it, especially because all of the people my sister associates with are really, really, really nice christians so I try to go in open minded, my fiance and I had an amazing conversation with this christian guy that was at her house for the fourth of july to see the fireworks. idk. I guess the oddity of being able to say a magic chant and being able to let go of your worry is probably less weird than being hypervigilant, paranoid, and obsessive like me haha. I just wonder how she would feel if something happened to one of her children one day and she had forgotten to pray, then blamed herself for it. But then again if something happened to my kid, because I am with him every second, I would also blame myself. haha same end result. both for failing to be vigilant enough to accomplish a task that we think is a fail-safe way to protect our kids Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MOHO Posted July 12, 2016 Share Posted July 12, 2016 The wife and her shadow are constantly bringing up times when they've prayed and things went the way they wanted. "Honey! I prayed that you would have a good night's sleep and you did!!! (I also worked my @$$ off in the gym for an hour today) "Honey I prayed that you would fart to relieve your stomach ache and you did!" "See how god works in our lives?!" (I also swallowed a handful of Tums about 1/2 hour ago.) I wonder if they realize how obvious it is that they are trying to convince themselves. - MOHO 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blindsighted Posted July 13, 2016 Share Posted July 13, 2016 When you're in it, you don't see it. You really don't. You are unaware of what your statement really means. Because if you do become aware of the implications you are out, or at least on your way out. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mwc Posted July 13, 2016 Share Posted July 13, 2016 I used to pray compulsively like that. I had little prayers that I could say, in my head, really fast just in case "something" were to happen or what have you. It was a real nightmare. Although it gave me a lot of comfort in the moment like scratching an itch I couldn't see it was really part of a huge rash. It turned out to be a huge relief when I gave it all up. Most of my OCD just went away. I don't want to say I'm cured but by and large I am relatively speaking. A huge weight's been lifted by giving up god. mwc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geezer Posted July 13, 2016 Share Posted July 13, 2016 My experience indicates that's pretty normal thinking for a Xian. It 's just part of the indoctrination process. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quinntar Posted July 18, 2016 Share Posted July 18, 2016 met a lady today while I was hanging out with my older sister, who is very liberally christian. well i have met her friend before, very nice lady, haven't talked to her much. anyway, the little ones were playing on the beach. mine and my sister's second youngest are close in age, about 3 and 4 and very, very bold near the water, so we were watching them like hawks, occasionally warning them, "too far.... come back..." I asked her, "even if you have a nice day at the beach or somewhere else, and nothing happens and none of the kids get hurt, do you obsessively worry later on and have horrible pictures about what could have happened? Everyone calls me a helicopter mom but I think being a stay at home mom and being so used to being aware literally 24/7 makes you like that. maybe I'm just crazy" "no," my sister said, " that's me too. the other lady chimed in, (very nice calm seeming lady mind you) and said that is her reason why she says a little prayer. to get through her day, when she starts worrying, she just says a prayer, thinks of all the bad things that could happen, injuries, accident, evil, and just lets it go, and gives it to god. Doesn't sound so bad, I think to myself, she is a very attentive mother so obviously shes not really just praying and assuming god will babysit her kids. It's better not to be neurotic with worry right? But then she goes on to say how she has noticed that when she forgets to pray about it, bad things start happening to her children. She really believes that she has to pray or bad things will happen to her kids. Like an O.C.D like routine of praying. I'm sure like most christians she thinks of the world in terms of good and evil. good on one side, and bad on the other. God, vs evil. But in the bible it said that god created evil. And if god is omnipotent and truly really good, and has the power to protect her innocent children, why does he require her kissing his butt to do it? I really hope she is not scared. she doesn't seem too scared. it seems as if she imagines it as god requiring her to let go and not worry. idk where i'm really going with this. It just struck me as odd. She is a very nice, non preachy woman, and this isn't a judgement on her, It's just strange how some look at the world. The 12 stepper's have a motto "Let go and let God" but God in the 12 step program is a higher power, could be anything. Actually I did that before, but my higher power is life (Not that it does anything but centre me) Maybe that's all you need. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miamia Posted July 18, 2016 Author Share Posted July 18, 2016 I used to pray compulsively like that. I had little prayers that I could say, in my head, really fast just in case "something" were to happen or what have you. It was a real nightmare. Although it gave me a lot of comfort in the moment like scratching an itch I couldn't see it was really part of a huge rash. It turned out to be a huge relief when I gave it all up. Most of my OCD just went away. I don't want to say I'm cured but by and large I am relatively speaking. A huge weight's been lifted by giving up god. mwc I used to compulsively pray when I was afraid of hell and the end times. I wouldn't say I'm ocd, I would definitely say I have some compulsive habits, and I would DEFINITELY say I'm hyper-vigilant and a bit paranoid, and many others would say the same haha but it has served me so well in so many cases, and I'm so used to it now that it's not really a hindrance anymore. So I think that my behavior patterns haven't changed drastically, but the associated fear/stress has mostly gone away.Except when it comes to my kid. But even then, it doesn't compare to the stress I used to feel. Maybe paranoid isn't the right word. cus that's like, an irrational worry. right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quinntar Posted July 19, 2016 Share Posted July 19, 2016 I used to pray compulsively like that. I had little prayers that I could say, in my head, really fast just in case "something" were to happen or what have you. It was a real nightmare. Although it gave me a lot of comfort in the moment like scratching an itch I couldn't see it was really part of a huge rash. It turned out to be a huge relief when I gave it all up. Most of my OCD just went away. I don't want to say I'm cured but by and large I am relatively speaking. A huge weight's been lifted by giving up god. mwc I used to compulsively pray when I was afraid of hell and the end times. I wouldn't say I'm ocd, I would definitely say I have some compulsive habits, and I would DEFINITELY say I'm hyper-vigilant and a bit paranoid, and many others would say the same haha but it has served me so well in so many cases, and I'm so used to it now that it's not really a hindrance anymore. So I think that my behavior patterns haven't changed drastically, but the associated fear/stress has mostly gone away.Except when it comes to my kid. But even then, it doesn't compare to the stress I used to feel. Maybe paranoid isn't the right word. cus that's like, an irrational worry. right? I think worry is just worry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mwc Posted July 19, 2016 Share Posted July 19, 2016 I used to pray compulsively like that. I had little prayers that I could say, in my head, really fast just in case "something" were to happen or what have you. It was a real nightmare. Although it gave me a lot of comfort in the moment like scratching an itch I couldn't see it was really part of a huge rash. It turned out to be a huge relief when I gave it all up. Most of my OCD just went away. I don't want to say I'm cured but by and large I am relatively speaking. A huge weight's been lifted by giving up god. mwc I used to compulsively pray when I was afraid of hell and the end times. I wouldn't say I'm ocd, I would definitely say I have some compulsive habits, and I would DEFINITELY say I'm hyper-vigilant and a bit paranoid, and many others would say the same haha but it has served me so well in so many cases, and I'm so used to it now that it's not really a hindrance anymore. So I think that my behavior patterns haven't changed drastically, but the associated fear/stress has mostly gone away.Except when it comes to my kid. But even then, it doesn't compare to the stress I used to feel. Maybe paranoid isn't the right word. cus that's like, an irrational worry. right? I got professionally diagnosed so I can't say I know the difference. It was just a part of who I was. I never brought up the prayers with the doc so I was diagnosed on all the other crazy shit I had going on. All that's gotten much better post-religion too. I still have "issues" but not to the point of getting in the way of life and living like they used to (okay, maybe, sometimes...but not wholly imaginary things). Like I can still lose my shit if my hands aren't clean but I don't wash them until they're all raw and bleed anymore. Prayer was like this for me. mwc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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