9 yo adoptive daughter:

[fshrink]

- "Will you go to church with me tomorrow?"
Me: "Nope."
- "Please..."
- "No. I don't believe in god honey, so that would be lying."
- "But I want to be your daughter there too."
- "And me I want my daughter to know that there are people who think differently and to make her own choices. Which I will respect"
- "Pllleaazeee... (beginning to cry)
- " Nope."
- (pout)

This was the first time since we met that the issue was broached explicitly. I will not go into explanations of why she goes to church because it's complicated. My point is that she took me by surprise: I had to think fast and this is waht came out... At some point her pull was so strong that I almost accepted... Little brat!

[trotsky]

1. Excellent response.

Especially considering it was spur-of-the-moment. Great lesson for her to learn.

[onager]

2. I think you did the best you could...

under the circumstances. That's got to be a tough one.

Somebody wrote an article once that I can't find right now...of course. They had raised their kids as atheists, and had several.

When they moved to a new town, naturally all the neighbor kids came over to play. One day the parents overheard one of them tell their kids: "You're nice enough to be Christians!"

[Gelliebeans]

3. great job

I thought your answers were truthful and that is very important.

[Taxloss]

4. "That would be lying"

Perfect. I wonder how many poepl in churches across the world are lying. millions, and not just Christians. Far from it.