I love this story, but to me, the entire family are hypocrites. All high and mighty because they are Christians (and I'm saying this as christian myself!) and thinking he would be a better man as a Christian. He is already a better man than any of them, saving their behind when they have only given him reasons not to. What bothers me is that they all expect so much of Aaron, yet they do nothing to earn forgiveness. They apologise, but that does not right wrongs as severe these. They all try to justify their actions instead of saying ''I wronged you and ruined your life, furthermore you are now selflessly saving us, what can I do to TRY and right those wrongs? How can I TRY to EARN your forgiveness.'' Sorry for the rant. I do love the story however, even if I do not agree.

Can you please put up the rest of the chapters? Thanks.

Awww poor Aaron! He feels so alone. I really love this story and would love a happy ending for Rebecca and Aaron. Please update soon.

Where can I read the rest of the chapters? (:

Hey, wonderful story! First off, I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed this story, and also how much my brother was annoyed at me hogging the computer because of it C:

Secondly, when I first started reading this It kinda had bad vibes... or rather what I mean is that if I found any M related themes[like I began to suspect] I would have stopped reading immediatly. I just want to say that I am really really greatful that you never went into huge detail about Aaron's previous relationships and that you kept the speech in "quotation marks" without swear words. And you only ever said "He swore"[or something like it] when refuring to course language. I just wanted to say thanks, considering many authors do include those, but you didnt and condsidering the characters and their slightly unpleasant backgrounds, it may have been very easy to turn it into something far more mature. I enjoyed your story because it stayed within the rating you catorgorized it in. :)

I also wanted to let you know that if this story hadn't had a spiritual side to it, I probably wouldn't have read it. But by reading this, you've encouraged me to not give up hope for my Father. I'm still holding out for him to realise it's God that is most important.

As for critique... Well, there were a few grammatical errors throughout, but I get the feeling most of them, if not all, were simply typing errors.

Other than that, I personally thought you closed the story up really rather fast, and there could have been a tad more.

{Rebecca kinda did agree to marry him when she hadnt seen him for ages and nor could she have known whether he was completely serious about his faith. She obviously hadnt seen any changes first hand for proof. But Im a softy for happy endings, so Im not too bothered.}

Um.. and thats it... although I still dont have a very clear picture of what Rebecca looks like. Maybe you could have described the characters looks a tad more?[what was Beckys eyecolour?] Just a suggestion.

Anyways, I hope you continue with writing, whether it be this or something else.

God bless,

an anonomous reviewer, who hasnt made an account here :)

I have to admit this is the first religious story I've read and I enjoyed it.

There are few things I want to point out didn't agree with though. I am Christian so I can understand where the family relied on God but they relied on him for every single thing. It was like they couldn't do anything for themselves without his help. I really like Rebecca. She whined and cried too much. I had to agree with Aaron about her ready to marry a man she didn't love over the man she did because of religion. Everytime Aaron went to somebody with his problems they all told him God will help him instead of trying to help him themselves. They pretty much tried to convert him and not actually help him. He was not acting like a child but a man who was scorned. I have to agree with Emily C.. How can he trust Rebecca when she didn't tell him about his son when she knew there were problems between Aaron and his father. She also kept running away from him when he needed her. I never really wanted him to go running back to her...it feels so wrong

Other than those problems, the story was formatted the right length and there was barely and misspelled words.

I think i read through this story in quite a bit of confusion.

I can understand that as an author your values and beliefs cannot help but influence any story that you write.

My interpretation of Rebecca is somewhat different to many of your reviewers. I can understand how religion is important for her family and Alex. What i cannot understand is how she forces Aaron to comply to the religion or they could not be together! (although it she does tack on that she and Peter was friends) The story emphasises forgiveness; for Alexander, for Aaron, for Rebecca... However i believe that Aaron was unfairly forced to compromise. Rebecca and Alexander were the ones who lied to Aaron and kept him from his son for 10 years. However he was forced to convert in order to be with them. People can improve with love and support, as well as religion. I think to love someone does not mean they must comply with everything. What is wrong with Aaron and Rebecca been together is he does not become Christian? Rebecca can be juxtaposed to Aaron's mother; dont marry someone because she/he is poor/not Christian!

Not to mention Macy's position. It appears to allude in the last chapter that she was the reason Aaron's parents separated. Why is she the Mary Sue in this novel? Aaron's mother has had a hard life and that has shaped who she is too. I think she is unable to love Aaron because she is bitter, why was she not given redemption in the end?

Sorry if i appear confrontational. THere is just several facets of unfairness i feel that adding a Christian morality and belief system has induced.

I really like your story but for that Christian thing. Every time I try to read I feel it's so hard to swallow I have to stop. Is it an attempt at brainwashing? No offense intended, but all this talk about how God can save us makes me sick. People can pray to God but he's never done anything to help them at all. It's better to help oneself than waiting for some non-existent God.

I love the ending to this story. Great job sticking with it.

:-D

Where do you get all this scripture advice? It ROCKS!

heyy i would just like to say thank you for writing a story about christianity and doing it with a stong hold on everything and its nice to know that someone else thought of what happenes when a non-christian and a stong christian lock heads

Wow! This story was absolutely amazing. I think I read in one of your A/Ns that this was the first time you've ever shared any of your writing with anyone? If so, then... wow! I don't know what the rules are or anything since you've already put it on the internet, but I definitely think this is good enough to be published.

I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to write this and allowing God to speak through your writing. This story touched me deeply. I was crying through a lot of it. I've always had a close relationship with God, but lately I've just been so busy that I haven't really made time to spend with him. This story reminded me how important it is to make time to spend with him every day and to seek his gidence in everything, no matter how small. It also reminded me that it is important to always be a good witness not only with words, but with actions as well. Sometimes, I get so bogged down with work, that I forget that we should always have a joyful spirit. Thank you for reminding me.

I hope you don't mind if I share this story with some of my family and friends. I think they would love it as much as I do. I'll try to get them to write you a review too.

Thanks again for writing this. God bless.

Hi there,

I just wanted to leave a review before I finish your story.

First, I think the plot is interesting and you've done a pretty good job of keeping so many characters involved.

However, I do think there are some things that should have been changed. First, Rebecca keeps saying "I'm sorry" like a little mouse...she and Macy both need to say how they were wrong and it was horrible of them to keep the son away..that was NOT a Christian thing to do.

Second, she can still be his FRIEND, she doesn't have to keep freaking out around him...a GOOD Christian would try to be friendly and open and talk about their faith, not jump away and cry the whole time.

Third, I'd like to see more interaction from the brothers...especially the oldest.

anyway those are my thoughts, off to read more!

Hi there. Well done on the story. I can see how it could mean a lot to you, which I'm sure it did (since you told us in your profile). I really liked how the pace of the story is realistic. Sure I got really frustrated when it was 4 chapters of the same conversation, but that's what happens in real life.

I honestly don't like Rebecca though. There seemed to be nothing to her character except for the fact that she loves her son, and she's a Christian. It's been said numerous times that she's the only one Aaron can trust, yet there has been no reason shown why Aaron, or any rational person, would still trust her after keeping his son from him. There were no character traits shown which, in my mind, justified that. Especially if Aaron is as untrusting as the story depicted him to be.

I also found the Christian aspects of the story really really hard to relate to, even though I used to be a Christian and had to deal with quite a bit concerning faith. They didn't seem to be able to deal with the situation in any other way that didn't involve the word Christ. But then, everyone's path to Christ is different. I really hope I cause no offence in any way to your personal faith. Any thing I say is related only to the seeming plausibility of your story. From a critical point of view for the story, it was really hard to believe. It almost seemed as if none of the characters were able to make any actions on their own, instead always just resting in God. In my experience with some truly amazing Christians, they didn't constantly pray for God to do things. They went out and did those things, with their faith in God. Or maybe because a large part of the story is spent in dialogue or prayer. But that really gave the impression that it was a very passive family, who needed God for strength, instead of needing God for God.

Sorry for the ramble, but I guess I just got really angry with the fact that the entire family can cut him off for 9 or 10 or 11 years (I'm not too sure which one you ended up deciding on. It's quite a long story to edit!), seem to Bible bash him. Okay, admittedly they didn't actually. But the shift from almost no mention of Christ, to religion and faith being in almost every chapter towards the end gave that impression. I guess it depends on who you were writing this story for. If it was for yourself, or those who went through a similar path, then a job well done. If it's for the general masses, it was hard to relate to.

Eek I hope you didn't think this was too harsh. It wasn't meant to be harsh. I guess it's the topic of faith and spirituality that generates this much thought. It would actually be pretty cool to be able to have a proper conversation with you about this piece. But being the safe internet users that we are that probably won't happen.

I actually have more to say on this piece, but considering that this is starting to feel like an essay I better leave it. Best of luck to you in all that you do.

Cheers,

Emily