I started this post last night only to wake up and see David at David’s Daily Dose having a post with a marching band theme. This is not the first time this sort of thing has happened, making me laugh with questions.  

There are so many topics I have for this post am not sure where it will go because my brain erupts like a volcano, and then I run it through Grammarly to fix the commas.

The first is that I survived the week with my babies. It was questionable, and we did an art project. I tried to be a hero and do a handprint craft alone, looking like a crime scene. It is currently hanging on the refrigerator at my house and will be laminated for future reminders that we should never be afraid to ask for help. I also am excited to have watched the rapid progression of one of the babies starting to crawl to holding my fingers and taking steps. I could not send a video to her mom for some reason, so I hand-delivered her at dismissal and said, “Watch this”.

“Oh no. Is it good or bad?”

I put her down and held her little hands, and she started walking to her Momma, who wanted to cry and held back. I was just as proud.

The second is continuing my new adventure in online dating because it is hilarious! One man with the weirdest profile messaged me, “Question”. I was so curious what the question would be, so I responded only to be asked, “Why are you single?”. My response was, “Because I am not married.”  

I have always been against dating websites/apps but have realized that they can be highly entertaining if you know who you are as a person and in Christ. Also, because I only go to work, my chances of finding someone is incredibly slim. I have written about the experience with “Mustache Man” and ended up calling it off. However, Mustache man was a true gentleman, and I say that genuinely. He set a standard for a man’s attitude toward a woman, but he was a churchgoer and not a Christ-follower where we did not talk about God, and I was suffocating. He was truly one in a million in the sea of online dating. So many people put Christian, but they are not so.

Adding to that, another man messaged me, and after scoping out his profile which stated ‘Christian’, he was pretty cute, and I responded.

He was divorced, which raised a few flags, but I extended grace and messaged him back because you never know someone’s story.

After sending a few messages back and forth with me mentioning God and how important He is to me and thinking it was going well, his response was “to each their own,” which was all I needed to know. I was honest and clearly stated I was looking for someone I could share my faith with, and he responded that he was a good person and did not want me to confuse that with him not being so. Because I have heard that A BILLLLLLLION times and have the PTSD to prove it, I said it just would not work with me, but that he seemed nice, and I wished his faith had not “dwindled”.

Was that the wrong thing to say?

He responded that he felt judged and I should not have said he was a nice person if I did not want to get to know him. However, I already knew him by scripture: “There is none good. No, none righteous”. I hesitantly responded that I was unsure how he felt judged but stated what I was looking for. I asked if he would be interested in reading his bible and praying because I was not out to change anyone but said what I wanted in someone.

His response was neither answering my question nor looking somehow to move forward perhaps. Instead, he defensively ‘yelled’ and called me a nice person, adding, ‘good luck finding your person’. He sounds like a great catch.

Wisdom blocked him immediately, knowing better than to argue with a fool. I could only laugh and text my friend, “They’re all the same”—the spirit of unbelief. I can smell it a mile away, and this has stuck with me a couple of days now because I can’t help but think how this hurting man is on a dating site wondering why he is divorced while yelling at potential mates. It’s genuinely funny. He had given me his phone number early on, which I never used, but I thought about texting him AFTER he yelled at me to continue this lovely conversation. I did not. 

A few years ago, I found the “man of my dreams” who turned out to be stuck in a religious cult. I knew the season was between God and me because of the tornado that was my life since getting saved. This man was the perfect test because he was everything I had been waiting for, but the problem was the religion he was in. I will not name it (, but if you want to turn this into a game, take a few clues and “Name that Cult”) stated one had to be water baptized to be saved. I went to a few of their church services and like it at first. They do not play instruments to go with the scripture of making a melody in your heart. I appreciated the lack of “concert” like other churches, but knew something was amiss. This religion created a doctrine from the book of Acts creating errors out of every verse. It was so intense I couldn’t read the book of Acts for a while without yelling randomly because I argued so much over the scriptures they were taking out of context. Seriously, it would trigger something, and next thing you know I’m defending my beliefs in Walmart when someone is just trying to get some Oreos and I see water in their basket. During this season of my life, I learned who I was in Christ and what spiritually blind looks like. I learned that just because God is opening YOUR eyes to His word doesn’t mean He is opening someone else’s eyes (no matter how many times you have the same conversation about water baptism while screaming on the phone in the backyard… ask me how I know).

Anything that states, “Jesus died, but …” says his sacrifice was not enough, and man can save themselves. Anything that adds to the gift of salvation is a work, lessening the cross and saying their duty is better than God’s grace. 

“That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”
– Ephesians 2:7-10  

“John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire” – Luke 3:16

They even argue the thief on the cross was water baptized. I read every single account, not only realizing we are all the thief on the cross but how could one of the most powerful stories of redemption leave out the minor detail that he was water baptized before being hung on the cross if it is required for salvation? Are you shaking your head or pulling your hair out at this point? I tore apart every comma, period, and word in every gospel account, but as you read this post, you can see it was God opening my eyes to His truth, and it had nothing to do with cult man. Cult Man was the catalyst God knew would get my attention is ripping the scales from my eyes.

I wondered how anyone could have so much nerve to judge someone’s salvation without knowing anything except they were not water baptized. In the midst of all of this mental anguish of proving my faith (obviously to myself), there was a man named Cornelius. This became such a battle that I loved this biblical character and stated I would name my firstborn Cornelius after the centurion in the Italian band who was not water baptized.

Every time I read Acts 10, I smile, imagining Cornelius in a literal marching band and then smile again when he was baptized with the Holy Spirit without a drop of water touching him. If I were to start a cult, I would make one after Cornelius where everyone had to be part of a band if I were going to take scriptures out of context. “That’s insane, Aimee!” Is it? How is it any different than any other scripture molded to fit whatever thought someone has?

Nevertheless, Cornelius was the leader of a group of men as in a band of brothers, not a drum major in a Mardi Gras parade. The truth hurts sometimes. To summarize Acts chapter 10-11, an angel was sent to Cornelius, and an angel was sent to Simon Peter. 

“And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat. 14 But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean. 15 And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.” – Acts 10:13-15

There was no longer anything unclean. There was no longer Jew or gentile, but salvation was for anyone who believed that Jesus was the Christ and the Son of God.

“And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God.” – Acts 10:45-46

“And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning. 16 Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost. 17 Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could withstand God? 18 When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life. ” – Acts 11:15-18

I added to my dating profile: Think hard before you send me scriptures taken out of context.  

I am not very good at dating at all, it seems, and am ok with that.