Dr3ams

Thank you, that's very kind of you to say that. I want to thank everyone for their comments and opinions. Every one of them gave me something to think about. @ missmuffet. Nearly every opinion you have written here mirrors what my wife has already expressed to me. Thank you for that, it has compelled me to think about her concerns on this matter with a little more care and scrutiny. In conclusion. My wife and I have voiced our concerns and hopes to our daughter at length. Our daughter has always known what she wanted, even when she was in grade school. She never took a leap without examining the consequences and rewards. When she was 10, she decided she wanted to be a nurse. At 17 she entered nursing school and graduated three years later. She is now 21 and works at one of the best hospitals in the county. Her fiancee joined the German army at 18 and is currently in an Airborn division stationed two hours from where we live. He has done everything he can to separate himself from his parents culture and religion, and gets very upset when someone stereotypes him as Muslim without getting to know who he is inside. When they eat dinner at our house, once or twice a week, I observe them closely. What I see is what many couples dream about having but don't. Because of my background, they come to me often for advice. As a father to them both I try to give them as much time as they need from me. Considering what I have seen and experienced, I can't thank God enough to be a part of their lives and I want this wedding to be a day that they will both treasure for a lifetime. The wedding is on October 8th, 2016. I will post some photos later.

If that were to happen, then that would be a sad day indeed for America.

He has become very close with my family. When he is home from deployment, he goes to church with us every chance he gets. He doesn't speak English, so I talk to him about the Gospel in German at least once a week. He told me before they get married that he wants to become a Christian. But...I know he doesn't fully comprehend what that means or should mean to him personally. Him and I will continue to talk and when I am sure that he wants more than just a label, when I'm sure he understands repentance and grace, then we will both get on our knees and he will give his heart at the foot of the cross.

Because the U.S. is in NATO, they would have to respond with military force. We do have serious deterrents in Europe. Here in Germany we have nukes on loan from America. The nukes are on a joint base and would be delivered by German Tornados. There are also American nukes in Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy and Turkey. There's also England's arsenal. Russia would also have to worry about China's constant eyeballing of Russian territory. If Russia were to attack NATO, it would be a good time for China to invade and capture land they have been lusting after for eons.

I see things as black or white, right or wrong. An example is when I'm asked to rate something, choosing a number between 1 and 10. I can't, just not wired that way. Either I like something or I don't...that means I choose a 1 or a 10, nothing in between.

This should be swallowed with a block of salt. Russia doesn't have the military might for a multi sided massive attack against NATO, nor do they have the resources for a prolonged conflict. If you need an example, look what happened in the Ukraine. If they threw the same arsenal and half witted invasion plans at NATO, they would have their extensions slapped into the dirt.

Do you think because a Christian couple has serious martial problems (even catastrophic ones) that they are fake Christians? I think judging a book by it's cover applies here. I have seen equally successful marriages of non-believers. Marriage requires commitment, compassion, conviction, empathy, truth, etc...these are not exclusive to Christians. Though they can be enhanced because of our relationship with Jesus, that doesn't always happen with every Christian couple for various reasons. This could turn out to be a disaster, or it could not. There is no guarantee either way. I agree with many of your points, but this is not a perfect world and we can't have everything we want. My experiences in life have taught me to reach higher but also to work with what you've been given. My daughter is marrying someone she is deeply in love with. My future son-in-law is marrying someone he is deeply in love with. To find someone that you can't honestly live without and with whom you have everything in common is a rare thing indeed these days. 1 Cor. 7:12-14 But to the rest I, not the Lord, say: If any brother has a wife who does not believe, and she is willing to live with him, let him not divorce her. And a woman who has a husband who does not believe, if he is willing to live with her, let her not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband; otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.

Sorry, I thought the site ChristianMingle was a Christian business.

I agree. But when my daughter moved out her relationship with Christ suffered. When she met her fiancee they were both in the spiritual void. He was the one who encouraged her to get back into church and to keep praying, even for him. This was my concern from the beginning and the reason why I spent so much time with him. His father hasn't been in his life since he was four, he has sort of adopted me for that position. This means that I have his attention. I have made it clear to him, that we (me and my two large sons) take my daughter's well being seriously. Any second thoughts about Islam will result in her living with us and him ejected from the family. Any physical harm will be avenged with three heavy sticks. He understood.

Any Christian business where gender selection is a part of the business model will be eventually preyed upon by gay activists. I'm surprised they haven't come after Christian forums yet, demanding a third or fourth option when choosing genders. Or complaining about discrimination and hate speech, even demanding that a Christian forum provide an inclusive board for them to discuss gay Christian agendas and such.

I agree. When my daughter came to me and asked my advice, this is one of the several topics we discussed. I see your point, but some of the worst marriages I've seen were those of Christians. Choosing a Believer is no guarantee that it will be a happy and harmonious marriage. I've spent much time with my daughters fiancee and have closely observed how his character functions. It's personal experience and knowledge that has led me to say yes to this marriage. The fiancee is not a Muslim, in fact he hates Islam. When he was young he was punished, borderline tortured by his Muslim teachers. At 14 he ran away from home and Islam to live with his uncle who is not a Muslim. There he renounced the religion and was subsequently kicked out of the family. He stayed with his non Muslim uncle for some time before he joined the German army. He loves God, and he prays often, even with us, but in his heart he doesn't know who God is. We have had long discussions about the subject and I have shared the Gospel with him on numerous occasions. God will save him, this I know for sure. I thought about this for quite a while. I came to the conclusion that if we are to show who Christ is then we as Believers can't be too exclusive. That doesn't mean to be overly inclusive so as to dilute our own relationship with Jesus or to water down the Gospel, but to allow non-believers close enough not to just hear Jesus coming out of our lips, but close enough to see Jesus in us.

Not sure I believe that statistic. When I lived in the States, I lived for about three years in the Trinity Alps in Northern California. Being a forest fire fighter and an EMT, I visited just about every town in Trinity county and literally every adult there in those towns owned a firearm. Last year, when I flew back to the States to visit my brother in Idaho, every friend of his that I met owned a firearm. I could name about a dozen people I know from a pastor to a veterinarian who all own firearms.

My kids, who are all grown now, were raised in a church where my brother-in-law is the pastor. My daughter is engaged to be married and wants to have the wedding at the church previously mentioned. My newly minted son-in-law to be is Turkish and comes from a Muslim background. He is not Muslim. He left the religion when he was 14. He is also not a Christian, but goes willingly with us to church. We live in Germany and in the state where we are there is a very large population of Turkish immigrants. One of my daughter's best friends is a Turkish girl who so happens to be a Muslim. The girl's parents, knowing that I am an American and that we are Christians, allowed their daughter to be friends with mine. That included dinners at our house and my daughter staying nights at theirs. We as a family do our best to show my daughter's friend that we are believers in Jesus in every way we can. Here is my dilemma. My daughter has picked her best friend to be a bride's maid. The friend will be attending the wedding at the church wearing a green Hijab (a veil traditionally worn by Muslim women in the presence of adult males outside of their immediate family) with a matching dress. She will be walking in accompanied by my youngest son, who is 19, followed by the other bride's maids and their chaperones. When my wife and her family got wind of this, they immediately protested. There was one exception though, my brother-in-law the pastor, gave his permission. My daughter's first reaction to the protests was to come to me. I am on her side, but what I said to her, I'll explain later. The bride's maid has been chosen. Members of the church are going to assume a great many things even before the wedding is over. On the stage standing on one side of my daughter will be a young German/Turkish man, who has a dynamic character, is a Paratrooper in the German army and has been lovingly welcomed into my family. On the other side is a young German/Turkish woman who has a gentle and thoughtful character and also has been lovingly welcomed into our family. To the church members it will appear as if we have embraced Islam, nothing could be further from the truth. We are Christians, that will never change. Some of my wife's family members are asking me to change my daughter's mind, to convince her to demote her best friend from bride's maid to a bench warmer. This has obviously caused some tension between me and the Mrs. too. I'm very interested to read your advice and opinions.