{"id":18,"date":"2011-07-01T06:15:24","date_gmt":"2011-07-01T10:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayspirituality\/?p=18"},"modified":"2014-03-28T10:32:52","modified_gmt":"2014-03-28T14:32:52","slug":"continued-intro-to-cheryl-petersen-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2011\/07\/continued-intro-to-cheryl-petersen-4.html","title":{"rendered":"Continued Intro to Cheryl Petersen, 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

If I thought college was an eye-opener, being married was an eye-bugger outer. What on earth made me think I was ready to get married? Group think? TV fantasies about being married? Anyway, I was a married woman in 1983 and the first year completely stunk (Doug was older, ready to be married, and had the wits to be very patient with me). Providentially, I could dimly see that divorce generally did not suit society well, therefore, I reluctantly chose to turn the tumult into tranquility and this required spiritual growth. It took years, but I eventually found a peace. No human situation is ideal. It was the spiritual engagement that proved to be the only source of peace, so I continued my search for spirituality while we lived on a hill and farmed with the Petersen family (Doug has 2 brothers and a dad who all farmed together).<\/p>\n

I attended Christian Science Class Instruction, taught by a respected Teacher of Christian Science in the year 1984. At this time, I also thoroughly analyzed the rumors surrounding Christian Science, such as the popular buzz that Christian Scientists don\u2019t go to doctors. Fact is, Christian Science is a study, not a set of do\u2019s and don\u2019ts. This fact was broadened to include all religions and I learned not to judge a religion by a person, or a person by their religion.<\/p>\n

Doug and I attended a non-denominational church in Kennewick, along with, First Church of Christ, Scientist, Pasco. The church services in and of themselves weren\u2019t fabulous but church offers the opportunity to build relationships and share ideas.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Red roses Doug sent me last week for our 28th wedding anniversary<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I studied Mary Baker Eddy\u2019s writings, especially Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,<\/em> and found the principles discussed in the book to be useful, so I decided to join First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Pasco. I read the church\u2019s By-laws and signed an application that basically agreed I was a high moral citizen who was committed to not smoke, drink, or be using medications, in other words, on the verge of ascending. This stipulation wasn\u2019t humorous at the time, or even noticed as strange, it just so happen that smoking and drinking never appealed to me, and I didn\u2019t need medications, so signing the application along with its stipulation didn\u2019t appear constrictive or ridiculous. But, the church routine helped ground me spiritually.<\/p>\n

Doug and I then had 2 children and made the bold decision to farm on our own, so we moved to Kennewick, Washington, to an orchard and, shock of shocks, we lost the entire first year\u2019s crop to weather damage. I struggled and struggled, emotionally and metaphysically and in prayer. Finally (it took almost a year), I saw how rich we were in family love, so in order to put to use the good I do have, we applied to become licensed foster parents.<\/p>\n

We fostered childre<\/a>n on and off for 15 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If I thought college was an eye-opener, being married was an eye-bugger outer. What on earth made me think I was ready to get married? Group think? TV fantasies about being married? Anyway, I was a married woman in 1983 and the first year completely stunk (Doug was older, ready to be married, and had…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":429,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[22,21],"class_list":["post-18","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-smorgasbord","tag-rumor","tag-tv-marriage"],"yoast_head":"\nContinued Intro to Cheryl Petersen, 4 - Everyday Spirituality<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Continued Intro to Cheryl Petersen, 4 - Everyday Spirituality\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If I thought college was an eye-opener, being married was an eye-bugger outer. What on earth made me think I was ready to get married? Group think? TV fantasies about being married? Anyway, I was a married woman in 1983 and the first year completely stunk (Doug was older, ready to be married, and had…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2011\/07\/continued-intro-to-cheryl-petersen-4.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Everyday Spirituality\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-07-01T10:15:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-03-28T14:32:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayspirituality\/files\/2011\/07\/flowers-anniversary1-225x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cheryl Petersen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cherylpetersen\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Continued Intro to Cheryl Petersen, 4 - Everyday Spirituality","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Continued Intro to Cheryl Petersen, 4 - Everyday Spirituality","og_description":"If I thought college was an eye-opener, being married was an eye-bugger outer. What on earth made me think I was ready to get married? Group think? TV fantasies about being married? Anyway, I was a married woman in 1983 and the first year completely stunk (Doug was older, ready to be married, and had…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2011\/07\/continued-intro-to-cheryl-petersen-4.html","og_site_name":"Everyday Spirituality","article_published_time":"2011-07-01T10:15:24+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-03-28T14:32:52+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayspirituality\/files\/2011\/07\/flowers-anniversary1-225x300.jpg"}],"author":"Cheryl Petersen","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@cherylpetersen","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2011\/07\/continued-intro-to-cheryl-petersen-4.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2011\/07\/continued-intro-to-cheryl-petersen-4.html","name":"Continued Intro to Cheryl Petersen, 4 - Everyday Spirituality","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2011\/07\/continued-intro-to-cheryl-petersen-4.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2011\/07\/continued-intro-to-cheryl-petersen-4.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayspirituality\/files\/2011\/07\/flowers-anniversary1-225x300.jpg","datePublished":"2011-07-01T10:15:24+00:00","dateModified":"2014-03-28T14:32:52+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/#\/schema\/person\/5f61c15bc03b38172723cefb1475d1bb"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2011\/07\/continued-intro-to-cheryl-petersen-4.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2011\/07\/continued-intro-to-cheryl-petersen-4.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2011\/07\/continued-intro-to-cheryl-petersen-4.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayspirituality\/files\/2011\/07\/flowers-anniversary1-225x300.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayspirituality\/files\/2011\/07\/flowers-anniversary1-225x300.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2011\/07\/continued-intro-to-cheryl-petersen-4.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Continued Intro to Cheryl Petersen, 4"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/","name":"Everyday Spirituality","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Cheryl Petersen","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/#\/schema\/person\/5f61c15bc03b38172723cefb1475d1bb","name":"Cheryl Petersen","description":"Cheryl Petersen engages and advances divine Science, interpreting harmony to the universe. Cheryl's book is, \"21st Century Science and Health.\"","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.HealingScienceToday.com","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/healingsciencetoday\/","https:\/\/x.com\/cherylpetersen"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/author\/cherylpetersen"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/429"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2532,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18\/revisions\/2532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}