(((Religious enlightenment )))) It was Sunday afternoon. I was watching the children play outside, when my second child, Ryan, called out and said, “Mom can I go out and play with Rebecca and Muhammad?†I replied, Of course you can, be careful crossing the street. As he started out the door, my husband came from the back room, and said, “ Where are you going Ryan ?†He replied, I am going to play with Rebecca and Muhammad. My husband immediately said, Absolutely not, I don’t want you playing with those Kids. The look on Ryan’s face was one of overwhelming fear. Then he said, Go back to your room and find something to do. I could hear Ryan crying as he walked away, I just sat there, wondering, ‘What is wrong with this picture?’ The more I thought about what just happened, The angrier I Became, until finally, I decided to talk with his Father, I said, What are you doing, and what did you mean by THOSE kids? Just how did you mean that? Of course, I knew; yet I needed him to admit what he had just done, unprovoked at that. He said, You know what I mean. I said, “No, I don’t. Tell meâ€, He said, My children are Christians, and I don’t want them playing with Kids, from other religions, there always trying to push there beliefs upon us, theres plenty of christian children to play with! While going back to the front of the house, I could still hear Ryan crying, This wasnt the first time, his father had scared him like that.. The other children were still outside playing. and things had just seemed to settle down, when outside in front of the house, I heard the children screaming at one another, Just as loud, as their little voices would let them. I sat and watched to see if anyone was going to intervene. No one did, so I decided to go outside and see what was happening, Rebecca was screaming at Muhammad, saying “You can’t call God that, There is only one name for God.†and its Moses My mommy said that all those other names, for God and religions, are not real.†I separated them and told them, to go home, as they were walking away, they kept yelling back at one another. she would scream Moses and he replied Muhammad it went back and forth all the way home. By now, I was so overwhelmed, I just went back to my room and sat in disbelieve, as I now started to cry.. Something needed to be done, I just didnt know what. So I prayed, In a somewhat angrily fashion and said, God or whatever you call yourself, may your will be done. Upon waking the next day, I decided to have the neighbors over for dinner, to get to know them and talk about what had happened, This was difficult right from the start, I had to plan around three different Sabbath days. Finally we all agreed on Tuesday , I did not mention the incident,…While waiting for Tuesday, there seemed to be a tension in the air, like I had never seen before, Finally it came, and the knock on the door, told me they had arrived, I opened it up and seated everyone at the table and went through formal introductions, Mr. and Mrs. Nasser,, This is Mr. and Mrs. Abdul,, and we our the Christianson’s, Next we quietly thanked god for the food, you could feel the religious tension at the table, I was so scared, you know what they say about discussing religion, while trying to make friends, It’s usually a disaster, finally I opened up the conversation and said Mr. Abdul are you from the Sunni tribe , and Immediately, we were in trouble, a angry stare came over his eyes, he said know I am a Shiite, and things went silent again, things could not have started any worse, So after that,, I just said,, are you aware of what happen, between Rebecca and Muhammad the other day, and I started to explain, The dinner table, was becoming tenser, by the moment, Then everyone started to talk over one another, releasing there repressed religious frustration, so much so, that everyone was now yelling at each other, pushing their belief’s upon one another, saying you cant call god this or that , and our way is the only way, it did not stop, and sounded so familiar,, It proceeded through the entire dinner, it was a complete and utter religious, disaster and on the verge of going nuclear !, It appeared, that the whole night had been a loss, when all of a sudden my 5 year child, wandered into the room, And said “Mommy, am I adopted†I thought, what next and were did that come from, as did they?, I said Jacob why do you ask this, the room was completely silent, as we patiently awaited for Jacobs answer, he said the man on TV said, we our all sons of Abraham , you could have heard a pin drop, while starring at each other, we had all drawn the same conclusion, that god had just used a 5 year old child, to point out our shortcomings, For the rest of the dinner, we sat quietly in self reflection, looking at what we had done, to ourselves and our children, and then finally, I suggested that we should pray, we decided to hold hands in a circle, while little Jacob was tugging at are feet, Dear god please forgive us, and remove our shortcomings, then we said to eachother, will you please forgive me, and each of us replied, yes I forgive you, then one by one, we all repeated, Dear God please forgive me, for the things I have taught my children, since that day, we have begun to forgive each other, we started to live our lifes, as if we were one family, that had been given a great gift. As we all knew threw Gods grace, we had been cleansed of our shortcomings !
Posted on: Sun, 20 Oct 2013 06:27:26 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015