Day 26: Blog Challenge

Day 26 - A picture of something that means a lot to you

Oy! I typically try to stay away from this type of response because #1 it's not tangible, #2 my faith is personal to me, and #3 it's a widely debated topic. I'll be the first to tell you that I can't recite scriptures and I'm definitely not one to preach to others about Faith/Religion/Christianity/etc. I don't tell others that my faith is better, stronger, more than theirs because I don't think God intended for us to judge others in that way. These are my opinions and thoughts; it gets me through, so please be respectful.

For as long as I can remember every Sunday consisted of pancake breakfast and church. Choir started at 5 and youth group followed prompty at 6. I can't say I looked forward to Sundays growing up, but I knew better than to ask to stay home. In college, pretty much the only time you saw me enter a church was on Easter and Christmas. Somewhere along the way, I began to appreciate a Sunday morning service. It grounds me, centers me. For an hour, I get to sit...me and my thoughts, uninterrupted.

Here is the thing, the stories in the bible are great (well I assume they are). I have a hard time applying them to my everyday life.  I don't feel I need to know everything about the bible in order to be a good Christian and have faith. My faith is mine. My faith is in knowing that God loves me unconditionally. My faith is in knowing that I can mess up over and over and over (and trust me I do) and asking for forgiveness is just that e.a.s.y. {forgiving myself is a whole 'nother story}! My faith is in knowing that God is only going to give me what He wants me to have and not what I want. 

Take my sister for example...for the last five years she has struggled to have a second child. I mean struggled ... emotionally, physically, spiritually. Imagine wanting something so badly and having absolutely no control over it?  It didn't matter what medical procedures she had done, the numerous medications prescribed, the endless array of doctors she visited ... it wasn't happening. For whatever reason having a child during those five years was not a part of His plan. And just when she began to make peace with this...well, I couldn't be happier to tell you she's currently 13 weeks along. It is all a matter of God's will, not ours.

And so ... it's my faith that means a lot to me.