I am writing this with a heavy and prayerful heart. I have already asked God to help me choose my words carefully. Please bear with me as this situation currently weighs heavily on my mind.

A couple of days ago I got a comment on a post I had written several weeks back. I'll try to pare down what they said, but the point was that I am not and should not claim to be a Christian because I follow the Catholic faith. My blog should be removed because I am deceiving my readers. The concluded by saying they would remove themselves from my Follower's List and from their blogroll at their site.

Needless to say, after I read it my heart sank. I was devastated. I grew up in the Catholic church, going to Catholic school so this faith is all I've ever known as it was chosen by my parents. In high school, I did question whether or not this was where I wanted to be. I did some researching on other faiths and came to the conclusion that we are all basically the same. Sure we have our differences in traditions, the way the service is held, and the leaders of our churches to name a few, but don't we all believe in the most important part of our faith- that God sent down his only Son to live here, teach His word and then die for our sins? Isn't that the most important part- knowing who God is and accepting His powerful love and Word into our lives.

A brother and his sister each want to go to see their favorite musician in concert. The brother hops into his beat up truck that he loves and picks up his buddies. While driving, they sing the musicians older, classic songs to get them pumped up. They stop for pizza and milkshakes at a local Italian eatery. The sister on the other hand, starts her night off by washing and fixing her hair and choosing the perfect outfit. Her best friend comes to pick her up in her little red sports car. The sing loudly to the musician's newest album and decide to stop at their favorite Chinese restaurant. Eventually the siblings meet up at the concert and just have the best time together. They sing, laugh, take silly pictures and make some special memories. The concert was fabulous and the musician put on a great show! It was a wonderful night.

A silly metaphor, but I guess that's sort of how I see it. We all choose to take different paths to God. The journey, the locations, the prayers, the spiritual leaders- those will all be different. Even within the same church, we all chose different times to get serious about our relationship with our Father and to open ourselves up to Him to be our King and lead our way. It is not going to be the same for everybody. But in the end we are there to be with the same God and His son, Jesus Christ. Is that not the most important part? God loves us ALL. He wants us ALL to accept Him into our hearts. I just have to believe that it doesn't matter to Him if we take the beat up old truck or the sports car, as long as we end up at the same destination- with Him.

I am in love with my faith. It brings me comfort when I need it, joy to celebrate, a sense of peace and calm and it brings me closer to our Lord. I pray that I am not being naive. I pray to the Lord that no one would judge me for my faith, just as I would never judge a Baptist, Evangelical, Lutheran, Methodist, etc. To me we are all still brothers and sisters under Christ.

Sadly, I don't find that this is the case. While searching for a Bible reading plan to follow online, I came upon a fabulous print out link for your readings. It was given freely by a Baptist church in the south. The web page had a "Women's" category that had articles on attire, being the keeper of your home, submission, recipes, and a bunch of other fun stuff I normally love to read about. As I kept clicking further into the site, I saw a link to an article titled something like "The Catholic Heresies" Of course I had to read it and once more, my poor ol' heart just sank. The man was proclaiming Catholics to be nothing more than a cult. I just couldn't believe what I was reading. It hurt me so much that there was a man of God out there spewing out hate and condemning the path I take to Jesus. (Isn't God the only one that can judge what is in our hearts?) And he was teaching it to families, so that when/if we have a baby, others who may not be Catholic or have ill will towards anything that has an ounce of difference, will stomp on his/her faith and belief. How do you protect your child from that?

I guess at this point, I'm just so heartbroken. I wanted this blog to be about Homemaking, arts and crafts, and the experiences in my path to God. I wanted to reach out and connect with other women who had the same fundamental beliefs about women in the home. I wanted to share stores, post pictures of a future baby, seek advice, make friend. Now I feel like certain people who do not share my faith will condemn me and judge me.

I am at a bit of a crossroads. Do I take the potential harsh words, and an anonymous comment here or there so that I can continue to write and share and still keep all the friends I've made so far? Or do I shut it down? Believe me, the last thing I wanted to do was to stir up some battle of religions. It was not my intention. Which is why for the most part, I don't really ever share my church or fellowship with my readers. I don't judge others and I would pray that they would do the same for me.

I ask for your prayers in this- to heal some hurts and to have the Lord continue to speak to me as I am listening more than ever right now.