Being raised in a conservative Baptist church, my religious training started when I was two weeks old and my parents dedicated me to God. As I grew up, I never questioned my family’s strict, yet inconsistent, hypocritical moral code until I became a teenager. Even then, I never got into any serious trouble as I left home at seventeen to marry. My first husband and I raised our children in an independent, severely fundamental, Baptist Church where everything was taboo. Sin was spelled “f-u-n” so, if there was fun to be had, we couldn’t join in. When my marriage ended 22 years later, I began to question everything I had ever been taught and found that many of my religious beliefs no longer served me.

That was a turning point in my life. Some fundamentalists love a martyr to the point that they teach codependency, female subservience, and total allegiance to their leaders. I had been taught that a wife should submit to the rule of her husband, to never question God or her pastor, and that all the circumstances in my life were not my fault—it was simply God’s will for me to suffer. I was disempowered to believe that I was not responsible for my miserable life, so I kept waiting for God to bail me out or change my situation.

I felt like a misfit because inwardly I didn’t really agree with the doctrine of my religion. I often tried to balk the system when certain “rules” were being mandated to the congregation. I was often rejected or asked to leave a fellowship for voicing an opinion that questioned authority of the leadership or the validity of the church’s rules and regulations. You can imagine how greatly I repressed my spiritual gifts while in this religion. I had dreams with premonitions, prophetic visions, apparitions and visits from the deceased, and some very bizarre physical manifestations while in intercessory prayer!

Shifting from Saint to Sinner

By this time, my son had met and married an eclectic Pagan woman. That totally blew my mind because of all the preconceived ideas I held and the things my religion had taught about people who were not Christian. Surely, this Pagan gal was possessed of the devil and going to hell! But Amanda was such a beautiful person inside and out. How could she, the woman my son loved so much, possibly be a bad person? Spending time with her opened my eyes and my mind. Not only was she an honest, committed, loving soul, I came to find out that she didn’t even believe in the devil! Gasp!

After that, I researched and studied all types of religion and found both truth and myths in each one. I found that the Bible had been altered many times to serve the agendas of politicians and leaders of the early Church and Roman government. That knowledge gave me “permission” to keep exploring without worrying that God would strike me with a lightning bolt. I ended my relationship with religious establishments and sought my own path to find the connection that already existed with my Creator. That connection was not based on rules or doctrine. As I moved away from the system of religion, I began to trust my intuition and heed the inner voice that I had been ignoring for years. I began to take personal responsibility for my choices, and I regained my power as I exercised my free will rather than allowing people to walk all over me.

Shifting from Grand Mal to Grandma

I began my metaphysical studies in 2001. That is the same year my first biological grandson, Sidney, was born to my son, Zeb, and his wife, Amanda. Little did I know how much that sweet child would influence me to allow my spiritual gifts to start flowing once again.

Sidney manifested psychic gifts at an early age. In fact, Sid was able to communicate with me telepathically from the time he was born. He exhibited the gift of premonition at about age nine months, He was able to see spirits and used a magic potion to heal a crippled dog at age three. When he would spend the night at my house, he would wake up and tell me about his astral travel. But to top it all off he channeled his higher self at age three!

We were driving down the road when he said, “You and grandpa were married once, weren’t you?” “Yes,” I said, “and we have two children: your dad and Aunt Say-Say.”

“You were supposed to have three,” he said in a very grown up voice.

I immediately remembered the time in 1978 when I thought I might have been pregnant. Back then, home pregnancy kits weren’t that reliable and they were expensive. I was about to schedule a doctor’s appointment to have a blood test, but I never got that far. I started bleeding and having terrible cramps, so I assumed I was not pregnant or else I was having a miscarriage, but I never knew for sure until Sid said, “You wouldn’t let me in.”

Oh, my god, I thought to myself. I was pregnant! I did have a miscarriage. Sidney is the soul who would have been born to me years ago.

“Oh, Sidney,” I said. “I’m sorry my body told you not to come then, but I am very glad you are my grandson now.”

“You let my daddy and aunt Say-Say in,” Sid insisted.

I gulped to keep from crying. “Sidney, you are a special child with supernatural gifts. If you had come to me as my son in 1978, I would not have been able to nurture you in your spiritual path. I would have done everything to stop you from being who you are. It really is best that you are with me now and not back then.”

None of this stuff was referenced in the Bible that I had so tenaciously clung to for 40 years. I had to shift my thinking in order to accept this “old soul” (as he called himself) into my life.

I learned so much from him that I wrote a series of stories for and about Sidney. He is the inspiration behind The Sid Series ~ A Collection of Holistic Stories for Children. I invite you to read the book and share the stories with your children and grandchildren. http://TheSidSeries.com

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Yvonne Perry is a freelance writer and editor, award-winning Amazon.com bestselling author, podcast host, blogger extraordinaire, newsletter publisher, Internet marketing guru, and an outstanding keynote speaker. She is a graduate of American Institute of Holistic Theology where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Metaphysics.