Amish Woman Shares Her Heart

August 15, 2012

Our ministry received the following letter from an Amish lady who reads our publication, The Amish Voice.  She speaks for so many who are stuck in man-made systems -- systems that lead only to death and continued separation from God.

Dear Joe Keim,

I love studying the Bible, especially the New Testament.  My husband and I both read your Amish Voice, (but he’ll never guess I replied to one of your articles).  My husband and I can’t discuss how we understand the Bible because we understand it so differently….and he gets mad if I disagree. I don’t know how to put it down in few words, but I do not believe the preachers in our community teach the Bible as it is meant to be taught. Too often, way too often, they use the scare tactic---scare you into believing them and our man-made church rules. For years I have not agreed with our Amish belief. I think either the Preachers & Bishops don’t understand their German Bible or hold the Amish tradition higher than Jesus teachings.

There are also good people in our church and I love all of them, even if I don’t agree with their belief. Jesus will set us free if we believe in Him. The church ties you in a narrow tight bundle -- and why are so many Amish people not happy. Sometimes, I almost can’t take it any longer -- how many of our teachings go against Jesus’ teachings. I am afraid we are the Pharisees! I am comforted that God sees in our hearts, and if we believe in Jesus as our Savior, in the Holy Ghost and Spirit, we are set free. I can feel it! Wonderful!

I wear only shades of blue, gray and brown dresses, cause that’s what my husband makes me do -- not cause I only believe in those colors. They won’t do a thing for me. Dressing modestly will -- it is Jesus’s teachings. A certain color will not. I could go on about this. But I try to dress so to be at peace with our church, but in my heart I don’t believe other modest ways, colors and styles are wrong cause they are not!

If I voice my true thinking to my Amish lady friends, they become real quiet. I discuss my thinking with my good English Christian friends, but not in the presence of my husband. EH! He would be so mad! I try to please him the best I can and I feel bad that I cannot ever tell him anything, but he will not be told by anyone, not anyone. He believes he must honor his parents but didn’t Jesus say, “Wehr Fater or Mutter mehr liebt den mich ist meiner michtwert.” (Translated in English: “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me…Matthew 10:37”) I think about that. Jesus’s teachings come before our earthly parents.

I’ve wondered, should Jesus come now, or had we lived in Jesus’s time, would we have been so “right” that we wouldn’t of believed in him either? If I read the Bible, and study it, it teaches me many things. I read in English, behind my husband’s back for the most part, though he sees my English Bible lay at times. He fully believes we should read only (or atleast) mostly German, and just as much in the old as the new. (in German).  Oh I get so much more out of it in a language we can understand.

There is so much more that I could say. I know one thing, I want to forgive my husband and anyone and everyone -- it sets me free! What a better feeling then to be free to love the Lord and praise him!! I love people and life.  Every day is a new day.

Please do not ever try to write to me. Oh my, that would never work! I signed my name as L.L. on my answer sheet.  That is my maiden initials. I cannot give you my name for the sake of peace. I didn’t grow up at here, but in another state, and married a man in this community where I now live.

Please forgive me for not signing my name. I am doing this for the sake of peace in my home. If I really knew I’d be completely safe….but then, God knows, and he is in charge! Don’t take me lightly, my husband cannot know!

God Bless you! I did not write this to run my husband down or go against him, just to express myself.

Please understand. I know he’s trying hard to do the best he knows, or how his Dad had taught him. He’s just so mixed up.