@Robert - I’m always envious of your gift for communication. If only I could express the things I profoundly believe as well as you do!
“I have a family member who is terminally ill and while I enjoy every moment I can spend with her, I fear the time she will be gone. I don’t believe in God, but I’m actually grateful she does because it gives her great comfort. When she doubts, I try to encourage her to listen to her “heart" and not to what I might say or think.”
I’m so glad you mentioned your mum. I’ve had some LingQ absence, and wasn’t sure if she were still with you – she’s been on my mind the past couple of weeks, and I wasn’t sure how to ask without causing offence. You may remember previously some months back I said I was praying for your mother (like some others on here). Please believe me when I say my heart goes out to her.
Oh Robert, reading your comment above brought tears to my eyes. I’m so proud of you that you tell her to listen to her own heart. That you have the sense not to try to destroy the things she profoundly believes in. What would be the point of that, anyhow?
If I had a terminal condition, I couldn’t think of anything crueller than if my own family members mocked to my face what has brought me great strength and joy in my life. (I don’t have cancer, but my world has been turned upside down permanently because of a health condition). Though some cannot accept my spirituality (if I just use myself as an example) which frustratingly goes beyond the limits of what I can articulate, moot, put under a microscope, quantify etc - I know they value my intelligence and behind-the-scenes life contribution.
Isn’t that what really counts, for believers and non-believers alike: having compassion and integrity, and doing what is in your power to do for the good of others to alleviate suffering etc, if at all possible? I see you understand this.
From what you’d previously shared about your mother, it seems she is a woman of great character. And I’m certain she is enormously proud of you, even as she prays for you with a mother’s heart.