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Greetings brothers and sisters

I was hoping that I might hear from some of you concerning a matter that has been very heavy on my heart. My mother is a strong Catholic and I have tried to share the Bible with her on many times but she refuses to hear anything. She prays to the dead saints, and Mary. She believes in the catholic priest hood and that you must confess and do penance in order to receive forgiveness. I have tried to share sermons from this web site and the Bible with her but she rejects it all. Things came to a head not to long ago, she told me at that time that she refuses to talk with me about the Lord in any way. She does not want me to share with her or tell her anything about her faith, she does not believe the Bible is the final Word when it comes to her faith she believes she must follow traditions and the Catholic Church. I tired to share with her that Jesus is the only way to the Father and Heaven, but she refuses to listen. She only wants to talk to me about how my children are doing and how my life is, but there is to be no talk of the Lord or in her words religion of any kind. My problem is that I feel guilty when I do talk to her. I feel like I am sinning against Jesus by carrying on conversations that exclude Him??? Jesus is my Lord, my savior, apart from Him I have no life but she does not understand that. I love my mother but I love Jesus more and I really don't know if I should continue to talk to her on these terms?? Thank you for your time and God Bless you all

God Bless
Mary Jane

Sister try prayer. You might have prayed before but now pray to God making him your last resort on the matter! There are lots of things you said about your mom. But Is there any thing impossible for the Lord!!! He can melt your mom's heart and he will! I see how he melts the heart of my husband! I see how he melts my own hardened heart! Sometimes we think it is our preaching that melts peoples’ hearts. Sis. you have said enough about Jesus to your mom now pray that those words you say to your mom in the past hold their ground in her heart the Holy Spirit who is able to convince her will come to her heart and change her in a way that IS NOT KNOWN TO YOU! Don't engage her anymore with these talks and start praying casting the matter unto the feet of your heavenly Father and you will see his mysterious works. Saving your mom is not your job it is the job of the Holy Spirit.

Your sis. Mek.

Praying is definitely a good idea...
This is a difficult situation. You must not compromise your conscience- follow the Holy Spirit. I have found that if I cannot speak to someone on the subject of Jesus Christ that conversing with them on a regular basis does nothing but harm to my character. The Bible has much to say on whom to and not to talk and associate with.
I hope to take my own advice soon... there are several of my acquaintance, including family, that are not Christian... and I've been bashful about the gospel.

dear mary jane,

you have tried to talk and your mom is shut off toward you. all you can do is pray more, trust God and let Jesus live His life through you. at some point, she will see that your Jesus is so much more real than her dead saints and mary that she prays to. let her see Christ living His life through you by loving Him supremely and loving others as yourself. that my friend, will be way more of an example than anything else. just continue to pray. :-)

Mary Jane,
I will also pray for your mother. My parents are unsaved, so I understand where you are coming from.

Mahoney wrote:
Good morning Mary Jane,

They were not ready to hear from one of their children. I had all this zeal and I knew that Jesus was the only way, and yet I lacked wisdom, so in some ways I closed doors that might have been open if I were gentler.
Ask God to change you and show you how you can love her in tangible ways. Let God open up the doors for you to share the Gospel, and pray that God would bring people into her life that might have a greater chance of reaching her than you. (sometimes family will not listen to family...especially children to parents)

Just some things I have learned.

Mahoney

Thank you for sharing that. I too have had to learn the hard way with my parents. I try not to preach to them and I just keep praying that I will live my life in such a way that they see how He has made me different. I just pray for them and believe that God can turn them back to him...even when it doesn't look like it will ever happen.

They dote on my children and I am praying that maybe God will use them to influence my parents for Christ as they (my kids) learn to love and worship Him.

Thanks again for sharing...
Sorry I went on and on, Mary Jane!

Greetings brothers and sisters

Thank you all very much for your responses. Prayer is always the best advice one can give. I have actually spent the last 8 years living my life not directly saying anything to her about her faith (been rather a bit of a chicken)but trying to demonstrate Jesus love to her. It was not until several months ago my heart became heavy as I was praying for her that I needed to confront her, she is in her seventies and has had cancer as well as other health troubles. As I prayed I began to feel the Lord press on my heart that I needed to be truthful to her and share with her the truth about the Catholic church not just ignore it or pretend that it was her faith in the church that was going to save her. During one of our phone conversations she told me that I was trying to take her faith from her, that I was trying to take Jesus from her. She believes that Jesus and the church are one and the same, even though I have shown her in the Word that this is not the truth. In the end she told me that if she goes to hell because of her faith in the church then that was alright with her because she feels she is right. So in this her heart is sadly truly harden at this point and my struggle with her is the way she has said to me that I can not speak to her about her faith in a man made religion or about who Jesus really is only talk with her and involve her in my life on her terms that makes me feel like I am compromising, which I know is sin. For me knowing that our time here is short, I keep thinking how can I sit and talk to her about gardening, or cooking, or even the children when her eternity is in danger, when she is lost and so very deceived. It just breaks my heart the thought of my mother spending eternity separated from God suffering the torments of Hell and yet that is the path she is on. I also know in my heart that if she does die rejecting Jesus that it was her decision and in the end I guess my heart filled desire was to make sure she had been shared the truth, that she had at some time heard the gospel and not just the traditions of men and false religion.

I am beginning to see and understand this scripture more clearly.
Matthew 10:32-39
32"Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. 33But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.
34"Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to turn
" 'a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law -
36a man's enemies will be the members of his own household.'[e]
37"Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

God Bless you all and please know that I will be praying for you that mentioned you are in similar situations, and again thank you all for caring and for allowing me to share,
MJ

If she is rejecting Gods' Word, then she is rejecting Jesus Christ. You are not alone with family members not being saved, you probably may already know that. In my earthly family out of all my (aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers, mom, dad, grandparents, step-dad) I don't think any of them are saved and have truely repented from their sin my grandma even got angry with me and told me something like don't preach to my cousin. My family can curse Gods' name and then laugh afterwards, it is sad and terrible. So I would suggest or agree with others on here to take it to God in prayer. Pray for the conviction of the Holy Ghost to come upon her. Perhaps you might want to fast and believe God to give you a Spirit of prayer that the Spirit of God may groan through you and you can prevail in prayer on her behalf for the power of God to come all over her. You should seek Gods' wisdom as to how He wants you to go about it. It can be tough bearing the burdens of your family members eternal salvation, so if we are bearing a burden that is not ours to bear perhaps we should ask God and continue to ask God for the faith and grace to leave that burden at the cross and trust Christ with the outcome of our loved one. Also He won't take away free-will either, I just hope even a small portion of my family will be saved; they are deceived, may God open there eyes and the eyes of your mother. There is nothing to hard for God, He is mighty! So just ask Him for the grace to trust Him with your mothers' eternal destiny and try and enter into some deep intercession on her behalf.