me: "So I remember you're not religious. Did you have a bad experience in the past?"
him: "yeah- I grew up JW. It wasn't ..the best... Religion is just not my thing now"
me: "Yeah, well, we are all on our own Journey. Some of us have bad experiences with religion. I like that Jesus didn't necessarily come to bring "religion" and rules, but relationship.
him: "It's funny you bring it up... actually I've been thinking about it a lot lately. Because now that we have grandkids, I've been wanting to get back into, well.. just something... for them. "
... My kids, well, they are basically atheists because I didn't teach them anything because I had problems with it.. but they never had the choice really. I don't want my grandkids to be like that... I want them to have a choice., But I sort of feel like a hypocrite trying to tell my kids that since I was so against it all when they were growing up. I'm just not really sure what to do about that now"
me: You could perhaps pray and ask God to show you what to do... I'm sure He'd actually be really happy to hear from you"
him: silence then "hmmfff"
me: Remember the prodigal son story?" Where that son runs off and spends all his dad's money and is wanting to come home?
him: Oh Yeah, I know that story, I know all the stories.
me: Yeah, remember how it ends? He came home thinking his dad would be mad at him, but when he finally decided to come back, his dad saw him and ran to him and hugged him and welcomed him home.. that's how God is for all of us when we come to Him.
him: yeah.
me: well, there's this neat website that you might like to check out. It's called everyperson.com
It was written by an Athiest who had a lot of questions but ended but finding God in the end. You might like it
him- that sounds interesting. thanks for this, I'll check it out
me: would it be helpful if I prayed for you today before you do home?
him: no thanks.
