A Christian confronts my 13-year-old daughter [View All]

[kag]

My family had a marvelous vacation in the UK this summer. We stayed for a few days at a very touristy hotel with lots of international guests.

One morning my kids and I were eating breakfast at the hotel buffet, and having a lively discussion about religion. There was a couple sitting next to us who I could tell were, if not listening, at least hearing our conversation because they were close enough and they weren't talking to each other much.

Now if you've every read my journal you know that my children (now 13 and 15) tend toward Atheism, but still question, study and debate issues of religion. My daughter is a recent convert to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, and my son simply likes to study different world religions, and revels opportunities to debate them.

Well, at one point in the conversation my daughter began a sentence, in an almost-inappropriately loud voice, with "The reason I'm an atheist is because..." and I don't even remember the rest of the sentence. I could feel more than see some raised eyebrows at the next table.

A few minutes later I asked my daughter to get me a drink of water from the buffet station about five feet behind her. When she returned to the table, my son and I noticed that the woman who had been at the next table stopped Natalie to talk to her.

When she got back, my son and I were practically crawling over the table to ask, "What'd she say? What'd she say!?"

"Well," my daughter answered, "I noticed she was wearing a cross on a chain around her neck, so I figured she was Christian. She just told me that God has performed many miracles in her life, so she knows that he is real. She just encouraged me to keep an opened mind about it." Bless my daughter's heart (so to speak) she just nodded politely, and came back to the table. I couldn't decide whether to be annoyed at the woman for confronting my daughter (after all, her admonition to "keep an open mind" was pretty innocuous), or just proud that Natalie handled it so well.

Before I could get another word out, my son fumed, "Mom! Next time let ME get you a glass of water!"