Looking for support in MI

[countrygirl7762]

Hello soulforce community! This is a great website, and I'm so glad I found it! I'm a divorced mother of 4 wonderful daughters, ages 10, 13, 16 and 20. My 20-yr old introduced me to the world of being a grandma last year, also. It's great! My 18-month old granddaughter keeps me young and running after her! I was raised in a very conservative Christian home and have been a PK for all of my life. My parents are very influential in the church, as my dad is the General Superintendant of their group of churches. I have always struggled with the issue of being attracted to the same sex, so I'm so glad to have found all of you! I know that we'll all find the support we need here. I welcome private messages so that we can get to know one another better here. Have a great day, all!

[Gennee]

Hi and welcome to Soulforce. This is a great site and there are many wonderful people here who can assist you and answer your questions. Congrats on becoming a grandmother.

Gennee

[countrygirl7762]

I posted a lot of this in another thread, but I thought I would share it in this thread, also. Maybe someone can identify with me?

I'm out to my parents only because my mom had suspicions about me and asked my sister, who called a "family meeting" to "get it all out in the open". This happened several years ago, and to this day I could count on one hand the times I have ever spoken of or referred to my sexuality to my parents or sister. They are completely loving and accepting of my girlfriend, and I have been able to close the gap between us considerably in the past couple of years. However, I would love to share some of this information about Homosexuality and the Bible with them, because they are conservative Christieans. Both my father and my brother-in-law are Holiness preachers, and for those of you who are acquainted with "Holiness", you know what that means for me! I fight feelings of concern and frustration over their "burden" for me and my spiritual condition. In their eyes, I'm "lost", and I hate that they feel that way! Even though I attend a wonderful Nazarene church and am closer to God than I've been in years, I know they still feel that I can't be a Christian and be with another woman. Their feeling about this, along with being raised that way, causes me to continually question my relationship with God, also. I feel that I either need to constantly pray for forgiveness, or else I become "blind to the truth" by reconciling my sexuality with my spirituality.

I'm glad we found this place for support, advice, guidance, and information.

[Unmasked]

You'll find a lot of people in that boat. I was born a Methodist and then transplanted to the Church of Christ. Michigan can be a hard place, because there are so many small towns and conservatives. The city of Lansing, where I go to school, is pretty accepting and there is an abundance of resources to serve the needs of the LGBT community, including Open and Affirming churches. Back home in Frankfort, there's nothing really, the Gay-friendly church is 45 minutes away, and is a UU church, so for non-Unitarian gay folk it gets hard to live a full spiritual life.

[tymejumper]

Hey, it sounds like my father and grandmother. My grandma because being gay and with the same sex "just is not right, I don't aprove" Well, I felt bad until I remembered that she think that mixed marriages are not 'right' either! I guess it's just that generation. My father, does not want to see me with a woman. I should have said "close your eyes".

[Jennifer5]

Welcome! I hope we'll see a lot of you around the forums!