Posted by:
SusieQ#1
(
)
Date: July 23, 2014 12:50PM
Yes. That's exactly what a lot of people would say, no matter the religion.
My position is that that it's perfectly OK, and expected, actually, in a very long life, (like myself) to have experiences of any kind, sacred or otherwise, that are personal and not talked about, ever. I have them. I won't ever talk about them.
I will eventually probably forget anyhow! :-)
One of my favorite sayings is: In 20 years who will remember...!?
I have lived my life to this point understanding that all of it was filled with experiences that taught me something important, which included a huge variety of lessons for living.
I am not ashamed of my life, not when I was LDS or before or after. I do not "do regrets" either. That was the past, it is over, gone, done. I do not live there anymore!
I learned something from those experiences and am moving forward, not going back. No rehashing my choices either. No putting myself down for anything. Nothing is a waste either.
We all get the same thing: we live, we die, we do stuff in between. There are no wouldas, shouldas, couldas, what if's.
I stayed in the LDS Church until it became clear that I needed to change my mind and make a different decision. I grew up with the adage from the women in my family etc. "It's a woman's prerogative to change her mind."
Fortunately, I had a husband (of over 36 yrs at the time) that understood, on his level, (usually had the reasons mixed up, but that was OK).
He asked: "What do you need from me."
I replied: "Just live the 11th Article of Faith"
We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.
And he did.
Then we went forward. Was that a sacred experience? You bet it was. But in this case, I am willing to share it if it is of benefit or helps someone else.
This resulted in our agreement: "agree to disagree".
No regrets, no shame, no chastising, no self incrimination, etc.
We went forward.
Did we both have sacred experiences we did not share with the other person or others? You bet we did!