[Dear Lord, let me keep this short because Lisa gets a lot of comments and she has a baby to care for! :p]

I did not know a thing about Orthodoxy till I started reading your blog.  I found it on the BIG FAMILIES ARE GREAT! blogring and thought, “How interesting,” because I had never even given Orthodoxy a thought (except for when I watched ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ and Chavah married the Russian Orthodox boy!):lol:  I will be honest with you, Lisa—in the Protestant churches we have been part of, Orthodoxy is looked at as a “state religion,” something like the Church of England and you know how Protestant America feels about church and state!  And a state religion is viewed as something that people are part of out of habit and there’s no possibility that they might actually have a living relationship with God through Christ.  My great-grandmas on my mother’s side were both Godly Polish Catholic ladies that have been “excused” for their Catholicism by the Protestant relatives because they both came from Poland as children and so they couldn’t “help” their religion.  It is all caused by misunderstanding and it drives me crazy.  We judge and accuse and forget we are to love mercy and walk humbly.  We had a guest speaker at church on Sunday, a missionary to Africa, and I will tell you that it is a miracle my husband didn’t punch him right in the nose six or seven times.  There are many churches where this man lives (primarily Catholic and Pentecostal) and he has decided they are all dragging people right to hell and he has to get those churches empty in short order.  As I said, I have a Polish Catholic heritage on my mother’s side.  My husband has a flamin’ Pentecostal heritage on his father’s side.  Needless to say, it wasn’t difficult for us to find the missionary offensive.  I was blessed to miss the entire service because Simon is nursing constantly these days.  My husband was fuming.  My HOPE is that other people were too.  I guess we’ll find out.  But it is easy to judge when you keep yourself apart from everyone who isn’t exactly like you.  Instead, when we start to love others, we find we like them , too, and that there is so much we share in Christ that the rest of it doesn’t matter so much.  A little education goes a long way because it leads to understanding.  Thank you for your willingness to educate.  ~Kristyn

(I guess it did get long.  Sorry!) 

As you know, me too!  I thank God you wasted some time on me