Posted by:
SusieQ#1
(
)
Date: December 29, 2010 03:45PM
You know the kind I mean: the gals that stick with you through thick and thin, are always there for you, love you unconditionally -- the kind of girlfriend that you can share anything with, anytime. Do you still have those kinds of girlfriends, if you left the LDS Church?
I realized early on that I didn't have what I would call girlfriends, in that sense, when I was a member. I had lots of friends and acquaintances that were women, usually associated with the auxiliary I was assigned to, in a "Calling", at the time. But that was the extent of it. So much of Mormonism has to do with being assigned friends of some sort, as in Visiting Teaching and Home Teaching or by association because of serving together.
Since leaving the LDS Church, I realize I still have a few girlfriends from my youth (some for over 60 years), and several others from after I left the LDS Church from a stint as a Queen Mum of a Red Hat Chapter in our area. I still have some LDS friends in that group. But the closest friends, seem to be non LDS now days.
The older I get, the more I find I have a sincere need for the old fashioned, honest to goodness: girlfriends! I didn't realize that when I was a member of the LDS Church, though.
I think some of the LDS women are sincere, long standing girlfriends and have been for years. But I never had that experience.
What do I mean by: Girlfriends --- well, these are women who have been through life experiences very similar to mine, often going through them at the same time. There is deep acceptance, warts and all. There is an openness and honesty and sincerity and willingness to be available, that I never experienced with LDS women when I was a member. In fact, I found some of them too hung up on protocol or to busy to be available.
Maybe it's just me, but do any of you women have honest to goodness girlfriends from years and years that are LDS, even though you are not longer a member?
Or did you loose your girlfriends when you left the LDS Church?