Codependency Support Group

As everyone has varying beliefs,and in essence "truths" that they belief,the answer lies within each individual and what they believe.

You have to seek deep within yourself for the answers. I did not grow up under any specific religion(since they all pretty much shunned my mother for being divorced with children). It wasn't until my late teen years,on my own,pregnant and alone,and finally losing my child from stillbirth that my feelings towards god and to god began surfacing. I've never believed in any faith or teaching,my faith comes through experiences,and having been shown that my feelings are still valid,I follow what's true in my heart.

I would suggest you take a trip,to somewhere you've always wanted to go or would like to go,and leave all your religious and non religious teachings behind. Take a trip that will challenge your mind and body,and spirit. I believe through this experience,you will come closer to the answers you're seeking.

Hugs,

I suggest that you try reading the entire Bible from front to back.

It seems outrageous to me that anyone would believe in a powerful creator and God while failing to read the Book.

I grew up being afraid of the Bible thinking that if I read the Bible then I would turn into a religious fanatic or that I then will have to become a Priest or a Nun or some thing scary, and that is not correct.

In this world we only have the spoken word and the written word as our ways of communicating. Pictures communicate in a slight degree but either we must hear it or read it or else we stay uninformed.

If one wants to know about God then read the Bible.

I also read other religions like the Quran and the Bhagavadgita and the Tao te ching too.

Some times to read the Bible then it is easier when you use a self help book that gives a motivation for reading the Bible and the one that motivated me to do it years ago was this one called; "The United States and Britain in Prophesy" and it is available for free online or they will mail it to anyone for free at this link below;

http://lit.pcog.org/Default.asp?si...

Reading the Bible concerning the prophesies is the most interesting way of all.

So read that small free book first and the Bible will be more interesting.

Just my suggestion.

Thank you for bringing this up because I also have this issue with religion. I believe my issue with religion vs spirituality is that spirituality encompasses all people and their concept of God,and religion EXCLUDES people of differing faiths. WARS are created over this...I think that is why the idea of a higher power as we may believe, became part of the twelve steps.I am not a well read or learned person, but I do add my thoughts with love.PEACE!!!!

Hopeful, Great insight about yourself and your belief system. I too was not raised with a higher power (God) but always felt connected to the planet. My CoDA sponsor said that Mother/Father Nature could be my higher power and from that moment of clarity on I was able to work the first three steps. YOUR higher power can be anything or anyone that you want help from when life becomes a bit challenging for you. Feel free to drop the word God and replace it with something more tangible to you! Work the steps as it will set you free.

I've actually read the bible cover to cover a couple of times at the church I grew up in. But for the most part it was like assigned reading from school. It didn't really give me any deeper insight into God. Maybe it was the people who were doing it with me, the teachers going over it with me, or just where I was in my life...I think I learn more about myself and the spiritual side of the world by observing the world and the people in it.

Don't let your childhood teachers dictate definitions - explore from your own heart. Heart is most important because minds can get all disconnected and fanatic and start killing people in the name of religion. No one connected to their heart would kill someone - its feeling you have to deny your feelings to be faithful to somebody's dogma that causes wars. My mom always says - God must love diversity - if you look at creation and the kaleidescope of animals, plants, oceans, deserts. So therefore, God must be okay with there being many paths to the same place - Higher Power, Spirit, All that Is, Father, Mother, Love - what is beyond words and language is known by the heart. That's just my humble opinion anyway.

I'm in the same place you are. i was raised in a strict, religious family and as a child i believed in a fire and brimstone god. As i got older and learned about all of the other religions in the world and did some reading about them i started to wonder who was right.

I'm at a place now that i am struggling with the concept of a higher power or a God, i want to believe because i think it would make life alot easier, but you can't force yourself to believe something if you don't feel it inside. For now what works for me is believing in the power of love and kindness. They are the things that make life worth living and right now i can believe in them.

I grew up with religious based abuses myself and I grew to hate God and the Churches.

But the thing that got me was that I have seen ghost before. I have seen and experienced spirits and nasty demons too.

In fact I find that everybody EVERYBODY everywhere has run into a ghost or spirit things and people will later deny it or rationalize it even when it is extreme.

One (of many) times me and my younger brother were kidding around and decided to conjure up a "demon from Hell" said he, and it conjured up and we both experienced it together and years later he denies it saying we must have been drunk or it was just a person faking it, but I do not make excuses for me.

Even now anyone can go to the old grave yards and find spirits, we all can conjure up demons or ghost with just a little effort.

So when knowing and believing in ghost then I saw it as imposible for me to deny that there was a King of spirits that people call God.

Being not sure of which God and which religion is some thing that I agree with.

I was christened Catholic, then raised in a Baptist church after my

In 'On Relationship' J. Krishnamurti again offers some insight:

"...ideas do not bring people together at all. An idea may help to form a group, but that group is against another with a different idea and so on until ideas become more important than action: ideologies, beliefs, organized religions, separate people."

Much of my understanding has come from meditation. For instance, if I am studying/relating to the Bible, I may start out with a passage that strikes accord with me somehow and then meditate on that... I often find that I come out with a totally different understanding than the one I started with. Of course, putting it into practice often presents an opportunity for yet another, deeper understanding. I think the "test" (for me) is whether my (spiritual) beliefs/practices have practical real world application which help me to pursue my (spiritual) "goals." This, of course, is also a slippery slope...

I think the fact that you are aware -- that you are tuned in and trying to figure it out -- is a very good indication that you are on a good path. I have found the path of my own personal spiritual journey has many twists and turns and changes as I go along. You never know where it will take you... travel light. :)

Dunno what happened there... Maybe I got a bit too wordy?

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I was christened Catholic, then raised in a Baptist church after my parents divorced. I tried to embrace the ideology/structure of my religious upbringing, but found myself frustrated by what I perceived as the dogma of organized religions.

In 'On Relationship' J. Krishnamurti writes:

"Religion then is not belief, nor dogma, but the understanding of truth that is to be discovered in relationship, from moment to moment. Religion that is belief and dogma is only an escape from the reality of relationship. The man who seeks God, or what you will, through belief that he calls religion, only creates opposition, bringing about separation that is disintegration. Any form of ideology, whether of the right or of the left, of this particular religion or of that, sets man against man, which is what is happening in the world."

That said, I often attend services at a 'Unity' church. The message is not taken from any one source -- religion or spiritual practice -- but instead attempt to incorporate them all. For instance, one Sunday the sermon was called 'Detach, Disengage, and Detangle' which had a message that I was able to understand very easily -- and even relate to in codependent terms. The message of that sermon has had real world, practical application and use in my life.