Comments on: Simple Deep Faith and Love that Wraps around my Skin

By: Carol Peachey Martin

Carol Peachey Martin — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 01:37:40 +0000

I very much identify with your feelings, Luci. I feel grounded and at peace with the people I have chosen for my own. I also feel free and unrestricted and able to speak my mind when I want to. Prudence and care for other people’s ideas and opinions does keep me from spurting out everything I think and believe–but that’s my own choice to exercise self control over my own tongue, not bitter submission to people I don’t agree with.

By: Sarah W.

Sarah W. — Wed, 01 Mar 2023 19:54:29 +0000

Thanks for sharing! I’m not Mennonite, but I do come from a conservative Christian background, and as I’ve grown, I’ve made choices that many would probably label as restrictive, legalistic, etc. I just don’t see a conservative lifestyle that way. In fact, I have some friends who are also conservative Mennonites like you, and what I’ve seen in them is an overflow of love and joy. (I’ve also seen the other side in my dad’s family, where it’s just about tradition and not truly about Jesus. I think that is what makes the difference.) So it’s nice to see, in a world that seems to push against any sort of conservative values, someone who celebrates the joy. :)

By: Brendan Armitage

Brendan Armitage — Wed, 01 Mar 2023 18:20:16 +0000

I too am happy in my Mennonite faith.
It is a faith based on choosing as an adult to follow God’s teachings here on this earth.
There are certain churches that do have lots of rules, to be sure.
Prayer and time often help to discern as to whether rules are useful or harmful.

Menno Simons, for whom our Mennonite faith is named, was born a long time ago, in 1496. Anything “human” is going to pick up rules over time. It’s what humans do, I guess?

My Mennonite church tends to avoid a cappella singing, which I tend to enjoy. On the other hand, I enjoy the people and the fellowship.
There are trade-offs in every human experience.

At the end of a bunch of days, if you’re worse for a particular experience, then stop it. If you’re better for it, then keep doing it.
Listening to that wee small voice when you pray is often a good idea.

By: Denaye Wenger

Denaye Wenger — Wed, 01 Mar 2023 15:06:22 +0000

In reply to Sheila June. I resonate with your thoughts. Well said.

By: Sheila June

Sheila June — Wed, 01 Mar 2023 15:00:08 +0000

Marilynne Robinson wrote, “Grace is not so poor that it cannot present itself in any number of ways,” and though I don’t know in what context she made this comment, I often think of it when I read stories that don’t parallel mine. I, too, have found much to love in the Mennonite culture and I cannot help but love her people. That said, the Mennonites I most admire are the ones who go on loving in the same way they always have, when those around them make decisions they themselves have not and would not have made.

I like how you wrote of Christianity as being “deeply attractive.” Yes! In my own spiritual journey, these twin realizations have made Christianity more attractive to me: That God is not a Mennonite God. And that He’s the God of the Mennonites, too.