Thewhitedove

My husband took the kids a few hours ago. In trying to keep myself busy in the hope that it will soon be too late for anyone to call. I have been praying that the 'team' stay away. My husband wasnt interested in my arguments, and in fact seems to get triggered by the phrase 'against the rules'. Where I come from, disdain for the law is pretty normal. It was leading to a fight so I let him take the kids. How could I stop him? They are his children as much as mine, but they are down on the form as staying with me, so it will be me that will have technically broken the law by allowing them to go. Please pray that the officials dont come knocking. Its stressing me out so much and also that God understands how I have allowed this to happen. I feel like I have been rail road into breaking the law. If the authorities come tonight I can say the kids are in bed, but that's a lie. I'm figuring out what lie to tell on top of having broken the law!

Myself, husband and 2 young children have recently flown to our home country. We are in Europe but live in a different European city normally. The rules of my country are that we isolate for 10 days and take some covid tests in that time. It is within the rules to isolate with family. I chose to isolate with my parents, alongside the kids. My in laws live 20 minutes away and due to space restrictions at my parents' house, my husband is isolating with his family. We had to register our details with a government website and we get phonecalls every day. We were told that members from 'the team' may do a doorstop check. They have only ever asked about me, not the children (who I registered on the website too. Failure to comply can result in a big fine, but for me the shame would be the worst thing. My unsaved husband isnt a criminal by any means, but he doesnt stick to the law if he feels its illogical. Myself and our children have diligently been staying in my parents. Husband has been staying with his folks but has travelled down to see us for an hour and then gone back home a few times. This is against the rules, but his choice. Yesterday he said he wanted to take the kids to his parents for the weekend. It is against the law for the children to break the isolation. I tried to protest and he told me that I am over reacting and what harm will it do. As they are his children too, I couldn't withhold them from him. They have gone to my in-laws and I feel so anxious that I am going to get a knock on the door. What do I say? Do I lie? Or do I tell the truth and get my husband in trouble? I am pregnant and I am sure the stress is making my pregnancy sickness worse. I cannot bear to be on tenterhooks like this all weekend. Help!

Thanks so much everyone!

Thank you. As I knew the vaccine was coming up, we decided to put our efforts to conceive on hold. I asked the Lord, before the vaccine, that if there was a pregnancy and he wanted me to know about it, to let me know. I did a pregnancy test that morning and it was negative. I went ahead and had the vaccine, answering 'no' when asked if I was pregnant. I came home and noticed that the pregnancy test that I took as a precaution that morning, which was negative when I had examined it, had slowly turned into a faint positive over the course of the day. Subsequent tests have now shown that I am in fact pregnant, to my shock, and that I had been pregnant when I took the vaccine. So, God seems to have hidden that knowledge from me for a reason. My next vaccine is scheduled for a date that perfectly fits in between times that I will be away (a holiday near our home, and a trip overseas to see family that I havent seen in a year). The recommendation seems to be for pregnant women to get vaccinated as standard and i dont know how I feel about that. I feel that God has blessed this process and actually wants me to have the next shot. Should I proceed in good faith and ask Him to block it if it will cause more harm than good? It was Pfizer.

PeterR, I have already taken it, as of this morning. I outlined my reasons in my original post. You are right in that I didnt take it to prevent Covid as such. However I plan to get pregnant this year, God willing, and some research is saying that Covid in pregnant patients is related to preterm births. My last child was preterm so I am already at an increased risk. I also dont want to have covid with a newborn and 2 other young kids to care for. The main reason though is that my father is very high risk and I wanted to make a decision that I did my best to protect him. I weighed everything up and decided that I didnt want to take my chances and that I would rather risk my health (by getting the vaccine) than his. I was in prayer all morning, close communication with Jesus from the break of dawn. I prayed for His divine protection and at every step along the way, told Him to block the procedure if it was against His will. I meant it. Right up until the vaccinator had the needle poised and ready to inject me, I gave it all to Christ and poured my emotions, fears, worries, everything onto him, and suddenly it was over. Afterwards, I dont regret it. Scripture says to ask for wisdom and He will give it freely. I begged for His opinion for months, weeks, days, hours and up until the very last second and the vaccination was suddenly over. Happy, you are right. I cant shake the feeling that she has some kind of 'right' to know.

I am waiting to go for the vaccine now and feel a little nervous, but I spent a long time researching and praying and am going with this choice. As my Dad always says, 'every decision we make is for better or for worse'. I pray the blood of Jesus protects me from any long term ill effects and that I am spared from any damage to my body. I pray that I am not displeasing the Father and that the Lord will be with me as I go through this procedure. Please spare a few seconds to pray in agreement with me if you are reading this.

Billiard, I opened the video before it was removed so can still watch it. Thank you for your perspective Other One...very useful!

Thanks. We dont live in the US so not sure what the Equality Act is. I already watched the Ask Pastor John podcast haha!

Thank you everyone. Unfortunately she has reacted so badly to the pandemic that I have started to avoid her ? She is always full of such anxiety and talks about 'evil' and how 'persecution is coming' every time we speak. She is a lovely, lovely person and I love her but I feel that she has gone so far into the rabbit hole that I cannot see her anymore. She watches a lot of videos and reads a lot of conspiracy stuff and seems to become really depressed and despairing. She thinks everyone else is 'brainwashed' by the 'narrative' and she doesn't seem to understand certain scientific aspects of the response measures. At the start I agreed with her, as I agreed with everything she said but now feel like I need to move away from her. She makes me so stressed and anxious and leaves me feeling with fear of the future for days after we talk. Surely Christ is our hope? And that if we cling to God we will be ok? That God is good? That delving into knowing him deeper is the only real remedy to persecution...surely we should be aiming to love Jesus enough to die for him? This is derailing the thread slightly but I just wanted to give a little more light on the subject.

Sorry for all the autocorrects!

I have a friend who is very sure that Covid has been staged and that all the governments are working together to bring about a One World Order and that the Grear Tribulation is starting soon. She is against all kind of vaccinations and feels that the Covid ones are pure evil and part of a plan to experiment on us. I don't know what to think but basically my views are somewhere in the middle: that Covid is real but the stats can't be trusted. That a lot of the measures put in place were to reduce transmission and stabilise hospital pressure, but that aspects of the lockdown may have been exploited by some less ethical agents. It's a very gray area and the only thing we can rely on for truth is God's Word. I have spent months praying and researching whether to get the vaccone (secular data but mostly information from the Christian scientific and medical community). I just cannot get too bothered about it, and I am someone who gets strong convictions about certain things. I feel like I have a good relationship with Jesus and that I am in prayer and in the Word all the time. I just do not feel convicted about this. My reasons for processing are these: I live in a different country to my parents. My dad is high risk and I havent seen him in a year. My family want me to be vaccinated as a precaution. I dont want to make an arrogant decision based on what I think I know, and end up with his I'll health on my conscience. I am planning to have a baby this year hopefully. I would rather get vaccinated before I get pregnant, in case the pressure to have it increases during a pregnancy. For me it's better to have it before hand. I dont want to get covid with a new born to care for either. I have researched it and the vaccine doesnt cause infertility. As I live in a different country to my parents, I dont want to have to have a nasal swab and need to quarantine etc each time I go home. I am aware of the potential side effects. I am aware of the aborted fetus cell line use in some of them, and I have researched the moral implications at length. For many reasons that I won't elaborate on, I have made my peace with that and feel no moral responsibility (as much as I abhor abortion). I know it's under an experimental licence but I also know that the work preceding the current vaccinations hasnt been pulled out of thin air. I have prayed and prayed and researched and considered and thought, and cried out to God and even wrote Jesus a letter with all of my concerns, and I just feel peace going forward. I believe that God will protect me from any long term effects and that I am making a decision on the basis on what I know, while accepting that I dont know everything. I have invited the Lord into every aspect of my decision making and have ultimately asked Him to black the vaccination from happening if it is outside of His will. I just dont know how to tell my friend but we work together but in different departments so she might hear from someone else. I think it will really upset her. I think she thought I felt the same as her and she may feel even more isolated as one of the few colleagues who arent getting vaccinated. I'm actually scared to tell her because I know she will take it badly. She will be very worried for me and I dont want her to start sending me all of the articles and videos she watches especially as I dont agree with some of her views on science. I feel a lot of anxiety in telling her. Sorry for the long post but i am definitely very nervous and would like some advice please. *edited to add that my friend is a Christian and the one who brought me to Christ 2 years ago. I have held her on a pedestal for some time and thought she had all the answers. Deviating from her advice feels scary as she was the one I always turned to for Biblical info. Thank you if you have read this.

Thank you so much to everyone for your replies! We have decided to expand our family and I am not stressing out over it. If I have to let the potential baby get sprinkled while I internally say 'lalalalalala' during the Baptismal promises I might just do that!

My husband is an atheist from a nominal Catholic family. My in laws like things to be done by tradition. Hubby thinks it's all made up mumbo jumbo but goes along with certain things to keep other people happy. He refuses to come to my Evangelical church and says he wants nothing to do with it. He is happy to get a potential baby baptised into the Catholic faith as nobody in his family really takes God very seriously.

We were both Catholic when we got married. My husband doesnt believe in God at all and I got saved 2 years ago. All the Catholic stuff that we did was for tradition and just because 'that's what you did'. I dont believe that I am under any of the bonds of my previous Catholic sacraments. The unequally yoked thing is a different story however.

I'm married with two children. Husband is a non believer raised in Catholicism and both our children were baptised into the Catholic faith before I got saved. It's just tradition where I live. Everyone gets their baby baptised no matter their true beliefs. Husband was always adamant that we were finished having children. I always prayed that if it was God's will for me to have another baby, the idea would come from my husband. To my utter shock, my husband has said that he would actually like to try for another. I was delighted by the idea until I realised that there would be immense pressure from our families to have the baby baptised in the Carholic church. To not do so would create immense family discord. My husband said that he isnt risking a family fall out over something so silly and that the baptism is the least of his worries. My husband thinks all religion is made up nonsense so it doesnt bother him to go through the motions to appease his family. He doesnt understand why it would be an issue for me. My family and in laws have zero interest in what the Bible says so no point showing them the Scripture. I dont feel strong enough to fight against everyone on this and know it would ruin my entire pregnancy, should I conceive. I feel like my only option is to not try for another baby to save myself the enormous stress of not baptising the baby in the Catholic faith. Fwiw: if I could find away around it, or some way to compromise I would, but cant think of anything.

Praise God that you got out of that situation! And yes, it definitely focused me on God for sure. God has pretty much been my only consuming thought outside my main responsibilities to my family and at times it has been intense, like I couldn't switch off from Him.

Thank you! I told my husband about Lee Strobel and my husband said 'he sounds unstable' and I gave him a copy of 'A Case for a Creator' which he flicked through disinterestedly and put back on the shelf, never to be touched again ? I will check the other person out, thank you!

As many of you know, my husband is a non believer. When I got saved 2 years ago, he was horrified. He didnt believe in any kind of spiritual dimension at all: he wasnt even 'agnostic'-just a non believer through and through. He wanted me to see a psychologist and thought I had lost my mind for the simple reason that I believed the Gospel and changed my life. He has since mellowed but in a kind of 'you do you' sort of way. He wants no part in my faith, and conversations on faith have to be carefully worded and often come to an abrupt end. I have been doing a 21 day partial fast for him. I know that fasting is not a way to control God or manipulate an outcome, but I do know its Biblical to fast when prayer alone is yielding limited results. I get up early, have coffee and dont consume anything except water until 5pm, at which point I eat normally. I pray as much as I can, mostly about and for my husband. Today was the last day and I had to break it a few hours early as my husband made lunch and I didnt know how to get out of it without lying. He didnt know about the fast as we have both been so busy with work the past few weeks, eating at separate times etc. Anyway, it's done! I did the 21 days and really enjoyed it! I wanted to share this with you all ad I have few believer friends to discuss these things with. What kind of results have you seen, either in others or in yourself after a fast? How has it changed your walk/persepctive/life? What has been your general experience? Have you felt any pushback from the enemy? How do you view fasting's impact on the spiritual dimension? I am just interested to hear everyone's view and experience. Thanks so much!

There are so many Christians with a strong relationship with the Lord. I know that God impresses certain things on me. He does the same with others too, and yet their 'message' can be totally different to mine, even when it's about the same thing. I know a lot of people say that God has shown them that we will be raptured out of the world very soon, before the Tribulation. Yet in my spirit, I feel that the pre-Tribulation rapture is false doctrine. My closest Christian friend (I have very few) strongly believes that the pandemic is a worldwide hoax and the vaccines are part of an evil plot, and are nothing but wicked. Having prayed and fasted to find my answer to this situation, I feel that God is leaving this up to my own judgement. I have read up on several scientific websites written by scientists who are Christian, and they have explained the science in light of Scripture and I feel that this is a neutral area with very little moral/spiritual significance. I dont feel that having the vaccine is Satanic. Scripture tells us that God will give His wisdom to those who humbly seek it. I have humbly sought it and this is what He has told me. So how is the wisdom that He has given me superior or inferior to the wisdom that he has given others? I know there will be many who respond to this with an opposing view...but why is their insight from the Lord different to mine? They will believe that their view carries more weight because God told them, but God told me too, and I walk with Him closely. Does this make sense? People talk about a great deception coming in the last days: I feel that this will be a religious deception, not a deception pertaining to worldly things. There are so many Christians who feel convicted of one thing and others who feel no conviction at all. So, what is this all about? How come there are so many discrepancies?

Thank you everyone for the encouragement. I will reply properly later but I want to touch on the fact that I am doing something counter cultural for Jesus' sake. For those who dont know, my husband is a non believer but I told him my views. He said I'm turning into a weirdo ? anyway, it's hard to draw lines in the sand with a liberal, non believer husband who himself commented that I was doing yoga myself, not so long ago. Surprisingly, everyone has been so respectful of my views (except hubby who thinks I'm mad) but its true: if I cant fight the small battles, I wont be able to fight the bigger ones.

Benefitting from something doesnt mean it is good for you in the long run. There are health benefits to cannabis, alcohol, even sex...but this doesnt mean that they are always necessarily prudent. I know of many people who experienced demonic oppression after yoga and it's not something I feel comfortable with at all.

Namaste means 'the divine in me greets the divine in you' and is far too deeply rooted in Eastern spiritual religious practice for me to feel comfortable with. The sun salutations are part of a prayer to a Hindu god and the movements are designed to activate certain energies through the poses. Hindus themselves will tell you that yoga is a spiritual practise and was not intended as a simple exercise. Every physical movement in yoga has a spiritual meaning. I used to do yoga before I became a Christian and have researched it lot since, and now that I have left it behind, I see how dark yoga actually is. It isnt simple stretching as lots of people believe. It is underpinned by so much paganism and I believe it has no place in a Christian's life. I have seen the teacher's cv and she is extensively qualified in yoga, as well as other Eastern modalities such as meditation and a Chinese energy practise I cant remember the name of. Something like qingong. I am happy for children to learn about other faiths as a means of understanding what other people believe, but to take part in what is essentially a religious worship is too far.

My kids are 3 and 5 and attend the international private school I teach in, in Europe. The school doesnt subscribe to a faith, although children from aged 7 can opt in to Catechism lessons. Children who dont do this, have light activities based on citizenship to do. The school teaches about Diwali, Chinese New Year, Hannukah and celebrates Christmas in a 'Santa' kind of way. The school used to provide swimming lessons for all the school and this has stopped since Covid. School had to provide an alternative, and this is yoga. Absolutely every child in the school has is doing it, except mine. The lessons started today and a colleague told me that children in my son's class were doing sun salutations and saying 'namaste'. My kids have to sit out of these lessons (in a different room) and be labelled as outsiders far younger than I ever wanted them to be. My immediate boss and pretty much everyone knows my views, and they respect them, but I feel I need to take this a bit higher to our overall boss who signed this off. I just dont know what to say. My min issue is that this has kind of been forced on me and has made me be in a position where I have to make my kids the odd-one-out. It's just unfair. I just cant get the Scripture about bowing to false gods out of my head. I just cannot entertain the thought of my kids doing it. Nobody is making them but the whole thing feels unfair. Any ideas?

Nearly 20 years ago, long before I got saved, I had a kind of breakdown. I started drinking heavily, got depressed and got into suicide ideation. I stayed in bed and slept all day and felt I would be better off dead. At this time, I started having nightmares about Satan. I could never see him but could feel him. The worst was when he came up in my face in the form of a big white blob. In these dreams, I would cry out for Jesus (sometimes for Mary as I was raised Catholic). I would become aware that I was in a nightmare and would pray to wake up, and as I did, I would wake up, panting with my my heart racing. Later in life, I heard about sleep paralysis but thought it was being awake and unable to move, rather than knowing you are in a nightmare and being unable to wake up. Lately I have been wondering if my experiences 20 years ago were in fact spiritual rather than psychological as I believed at the time. Things got so bad that I walked to a university chaplaincy and knocked on the office door of a Catholic priest who worked there. He heard my confession and the nightmares stopped. I am not Catholic any more as I believe it to be a false doctrine, but this confuses me too, unless it really was just all psychological. Has anyone else experienced the same? Just wondering what it all meant then.

Thank you so much to everyone replied. I feel like a burden has been taken from me and I can co tinue to pray for her knowing that God will provide an opportunity. Thank you.