I used to think I could/would only date people who had the same beliefs I did, but time has a way of changing things. My first boyfriend I met at my grandparents church, shared the same beliefs as mine, but after a year of dating stated abusing drugs, then me. While he has now turned his life around, been clean for over a year and working a steady job, and I am happy for him, I learned a valuable lesson there. Not to say that people who share my beliefs can't be good partners, but
that shared beliefs does not guarantee a healthy relationship. The boy who I dated last (and hopefully will get together with
) didn’t share beliefs with me at all, but our relationship itself was very, very good. I was raised Christian, but don’t practice Christianity per
se, and describe myself as more agnostic than anything. He is more spiritual, and believes in reincarnation and the trying to make peace with one’s own soul, which he allows could be done with religion but not so with him. We’ve had a few moments in our relationship where are beliefs clash when we first started dating which I got upset about that because he was doing what he hates Christians doing so much: trying to force his beliefs on others by being extremely disrespectful to those who have religion. We talked it out though, and have mutually agree to be respectful of all people’s beliefs.
As for children, we talked about that as well. We both support the idea of allowing our children to choose there own beliefs when they feel ready and want to. If they want to go to church with mommy, fine (I don’t even attend church right now, and I don’t know if I will by this time but I acknowledge that I might). If they want to stay home with daddy, that’s also fine. We also plan on exposing our children to beliefs other than our own as well, its important to me that my children make the decision for themselves.
Wow, I wrote quite a book....Sorry
