I want to say on social media that I am blessed to have my daughter, but I am not religious and find it awkward when people respond saying that they are sending prayers my way. I appreciate the sentiment, but I'd still like a non-religious word that holds a similar connotation.
Learn English – Non-religious word for “blessed”
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Both my children, and my four nieces and nephews, all have 2-3 godparents each.
All except one of the godparents are also aunt/uncle to the protectee, if it were felt necessary to avoid the word "god". But despite the fact that all bar none of the godparents are staunch atheists, I don't recall anyone ever objecting to the standard terms godson, goddaughter, godparent.
So far as we're concerned, a godparent is primarily someone charged with taking "greater-than-might-otherwise-be-expected" responsibility for the child's development of a "moral compass". There's often an implication that the godparent is first choice for "adoptive parent", if the biological parents meet with disaster - but that's got no legal significance in the UK, so it's really just a symbolic role.
As @John Y says, for many today the god in godparent has no more religious significance than the x in xmas, or the christ in for chrissake. So I would cite the fact that we don't bother to popularise an alternative "secular" term as evidence that most people simply don't feel a need for it.
Yes, it is offensive and you should probably avoid using it:
- (taboo, offensive) an extremely small person, who will never grow to a normal size because of a physical problem; a person suffering from dwarfism.
(OLD) Fiera an I Midget:
- (from midge, a sand fly ) is a term for a person of unusually short stature that is widely considered pejorative.
Wikipedia
The following extact offers an interesting insight on the meaning and usage of midget vs dwarf:
POLITICALLY CORRECT OR JUST CORRECT
When the topic of disassociating people with dwarfism from the word midget comes up, people often begin the rant of “The world is too politically correct”, “You can not say anything any more” and so on. This has always been fascinating since this seems to happen only with smaller minority groups such as the dwarfism community. When dealing with other larger minority groups, that have large numbers in society and pose a threat either by force, financially or through boycott the rants seems to silence.
The fact is that until a few decades ago, even in the medical world, the word midget was in common use: Some physicians employed the word to refer to persons who were small and proportionate, most often as the result of a growth hormone deficiency. Dwarf was used to differentiate this category from individuals who were small and disproportionate, most often as the result of various cartilage and bone disorders; their conditions were known medically as forms of skeletal dysplasia.
While proportionate dwarfism is quite rare today because of medical advances, people still refer to individuals who are small and disproportionate as “midgets”.
If the word were still considered acceptable today, the reference would in fact be incorrect. Yes incorrect..Not politically incorrect.
Many times, when justifying the reasons that the “M” word is considered offensive, a comparison is made to the “N” word. This comparison often brings up the argument of one can not compare the history of both these words. While this is true, as it is with any offensive and hurtful term, they are all labels which at times becomes a person’s only identity and offers a less of a chance for them to succeed in life.
(www.udprogram.com)
Best Answer
From a religious point of view, being blessed has two parts. The first part is to have been endowed with divine favor. The second part is to be joyful for having received the blessing.
No doubt that as a new father you feel any one of these, from the second part: overjoyed, jubilant, exultant, elated, gleeful, delighted, or wonderful. None of these attributes your feeling to any outside influence. With these words, a thesaurus can be used to give you additional ideas.