This is a blog to say I am going to continue blogging. I’m going to continue on the same vein, maybe weekly, maybe every other week as combined with other subjects. I will talk more about deconstruction and about deconversion. I will talk more about Christianity and the harm it does. I will talk more about myself and my journey. I will talk more about things I am hearing from others on social media, through memes or comments. Why? Because I care about those who are doubting or struggling with faith and those who have left their faith. I want to talk about what matters.
People have been praying for me, that I would return to Christianity, repent and come back to God. Some pray I would stop my speaking out and influencing vulnerable people. Sorry for disappointing you. I am not sorry, however, for being on this journey
I will say again, feel free to not read these. Read them at your own risk. These are my ideas and my thoughts. I don’t claim to know it all or to be all right. I am learning and growing. I am not following any person or teaching, while at the same time learning from lots of peoples writings and teachings. I am not overly skilled at arguing my points. I think my strengths are in simplifying some arguments, being honest and vulnerable and talking about things others fear to say or would rather avoid.
I love listening to others. Hearing stories and knowing we journey together. Some of you journey toward God which was my journey for a very long time. I journey to find myself. Sounds awfully selfish, but is it? As I find myself, I can be all I can be for those in my life. And is it wrong to want to love myself, to find peace, to find pleasure? Maybe you are thinking a Christian can find themselves and I didn’t need to leave Christianity to find all these things. If that was true, I don’t think I’d be where I am now.
I have some ideas for the blogs ahead. Stay tuned if you want. Sign up so you don’t miss any. You can also unfollow me. That’s ok too. And for all those that love me, but not what I am saying, thanks for your love. And for those that love me and support me, it means so much and I love being on this journey with you.
If you have responses to these blogs and want to talk about them, my preference is always one on one via Messenger or emails or text or even better, in person. Conversations in comments on posts make the algorithms happy and make me more popular, but in reality, I find them really difficult. People share their opinions in ways that make those that disagree feel belittled, hurt or anger builds. Strangers say things about each other without knowing each other's stories or lives and there is hurt. So I tend to shut things down because I think we all struggle enough without adding pain from social media conversations. I protect those who are vulnerable. These are very controversial topics. Listening to each other is important, but I've rarely seen helpful conversation in public comment sections where people differ in views.
I’m also working on a course on how to be a caring and supportive person. I’ll be blogging about that too. I will work on keeping these carefully labelled so you know when the content is religious and when it isn’t. I have technology challenges with the website, so let me know if something isn't working. Also, I will be combining my validheart and validart websites in the next months to save money.
If you are new to these, I have 25 blogs on my deconstruction/deconversion story. It's a lot of reading. It's been a good journey writing. Feel free to read whichever ones. For those that have been keeping up in reading this, I just want to say I am doing well! I am at peace. It's been hard but I don't regret this journey. Sometimes I am sad or lonely, sometimes angry, sometimes for days or weeks I barely think about any of this. Mostly, I feel whole and free. I've enjoyed the last couple months of not blogging, but at the same time, I have missed it. So I am back!
Next week, more on why did deconversion happen to me?
by Val Martens, Feb. 23, 2024
Want to chat informally with me about your experiences? Email me, message me or let's go for coffee. I'd love to hear from you.
Read My Faith Deconstruction Story here. More articles are found here
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