Eye Rollers (tweens)
Thoughts on Fear
We are all afraid of something. In fact, it’s healthy to be afraid of some things, it is part of what keeps us safe. Fear, however, has a way of getting out of control and when it does it is crippling. Our toddler fears strangers, but sometimes they fear everyone. Our tweens fear new situations, and sometimes even the safest places can be strange if they are new. Our teens fear failing so much they will not even try anything new. We can fall into fear as well, just watch the news one night and there is a list of things to fear a mile long. Fear can keep us safe, yet it can also trap us. Over and over again in scripture we hear God telling people not to fear. Don’t fear the stranger, don’t fear the new place, don’t fear failure, don’t fear speaking out and speaking up for what is right. We do not fear these things because God’s Holy Spirit is with us. God is with us, with our children, even when we are not. God is with our toddler at daycare. God is with our 3 grader on test day. God is with our tween in the new school. God is with our teenager as they make decisions about jobs and schools. God is with our college students as they step out into the adult world. God is with us as we worry, and as we seek to trust God and remember to fear not. Today is a day to remind our children of God’s love and care for them and may you be aware the blessing of God’s presence today.
Thoughts on Wonder
Babies change everything. Each new parent experiences that change. Every family knows the shift with the birth of a new cousin. All of a sudden the list of items we need to take with us to just get out of the house balloons to almost unmanageable proportions, as does the things we worry about. There is no doubt that the birth of Jesus changed the lives of Mary and Joseph. The birth of Jesus is the point that changes our world as well. We are invited into a deeper relationship with God through Jesus and we can share that relationship with our children. We are invited into a world of Divine Wonder. You can find it anywhere, in the warmth of the water as you shower, in the cloud of your breath in the cold air, in the rim of frost on the leaves. Wonder stalks us when we send a text, or type a report, or warm up our tea. In the movement of atoms and the shining sun, we are invited to sense of love of God who gives us these gifts, and came to us so that we could find them, even in the giggle of a baby. Pause and share the wonder with you children, whatever their ages.
Thoughts on Mortality
I recently heard about a book that was being banned from schools because it dealt with the topic of “Mortality”. It’s odd how some folks seem to think that if we don’t talk about death, it will somehow disappear. Much like the characters in the Harry Potter books fear to say the name of the evil wizard Voldemort, for fear that it will bring him closer to them, our culture fears to name death. Yet for the residents of Hogwarts, it is only when they are able to name Voldemort can they face their fear and eventually defeat their foe. Not naming death, not facing the reality of it, just increases our fear. As much as we want to protect our children, we do better to help them cope with death. Here are a couple of ideas to help you child if they are coping with the death a pet or of someone they know.
Young children-
Help them say good-bye, make a card or drawing, tell a story about the person and find a way to remember them, go to a special place to remember that person (in earlier times folks would take a picnic to the cemetery once a year, often on Memorial day.)
Older children-
Death often sparks the fear of losing a parent. Talk about the fear, and especially listen. Include in the conversation your guardianship arrangements. Do not promise that you will not die. No one knows the future.
Teens-
While everyone grieves in their own way, teens need to see how to grieve. Talk to them about how you have experienced grieving. What helped, and what didn’t. Give them space and revisit the topic from time to time.
This is a difficult journey. Be sure to ask for help and the wisdom of those who have walked this path before you.
Thoughts on showing love
My eldest is far away at college these days. We do what we can to show her our love long distance. The same goes for most of my family and many of my friends. We don’t see them often, yet that doesn’t mean that we love them any less. In a way, they are always with us in our thoughts and in our prayers. God is with us in an even closer way. The Spirit of God is with us even when we are unaware of God, even when it feels like God is far away from us. It is hard to wrap our minds around this, especially for our literal minded children. God’s presence and love is with us, is like gravity or the wind or the light of a faraway star. We may not be aware of it but God’s love is still surrounding us. There are other ways we may know God’s presence, though those around us who care for us, through the wonders of the river or a soaring bird, or our delight in a new song. These are all God’s gifts of love to us. These are some of the ways God shows God’s love and presence to us. Helping our children become aware of that love is an ongoing gift to them, the gift of knowing that God loves them and will always be with them.
Thoughts on Tweets, Facebook, cell phones and friendship
I grew up long before tweets, or cell phones or even computers, back in the dark ages, my kids would say. I’m a digital immigrate, trying to keep up with the world my children have grown up in. This world allows us all to keep in touch in new ways, to maintain friendships in new ways. I can chat with my college friend Teresa in Japan or Facebook with Jeremy in Australia. This is great! Until it’s not. We all now navigate terrain that can strengthen a friendship or blow it to bits. Adults have had practice with both, yet there are times we struggle with them as well. For our pre-teens and teens this can be even more difficult. The digital world increases the impact of words. Out in the cloud they can last forever. What we say can be wonderfully supportive or devastating.
Throughout the Psalms and Proverbs we are reminded that what we say has an impact on all those around us. Our words can be honey or poison. Perhaps the one quote that has helped me think carefully is the following:
“Before you speak, think- is it necessary? Is it true? Is it kind? Will it hurt anyone? Will it improve on the silence?” (Sri Sathya Sai Baba, Indian Spiritual Leader)
Perhaps we can help to model this for our children, and help them to learn to live it out.
Thoughts on Being Right
We all want to be right. We want to have the knowledge and expertise. We want to have the confidence to raise are hands and answer the question. Yet sometimes there are not clear cut answers to a question. That middle space, the gray space, is one of the hardest places to be, especially when our children ask the question. As our children grow, more and more of their question about faith and ethics and how the world works fall into that gray space between the black and white questions of their earlier years. How we respond and how we equip them to live in that place where there are no perfect answers is critically important. Here are a few markers along that path:
Thoughts on Being Church
Church was not part of my childhood. I stumbled onto Jesus in my early teens and went looking for others who knew something about God. Gratefully and graciously, I wandered into a community that was willing to take in an enthusiastic teen. As much as I’ve come to love the stained glass and the hymns and the organ music, the heart and soul of church are those who gather to seek God. We are seekers on the way. The wonderful thing is that as we are looking for God, God is looking for us, coaxing us, cajoling us into God’s embrace. The gathering together of those seeking God enables us to learn from each other, support each other, laugh together and cry together and vent the inevitable frustrations that life gives us. We have the opportunity to give that gift of community to our children as well. Not only be going to church on a Sunday morning but by spending time with others who are seeking to know God. So take some time to come to worship on Sunday morning, and take some time to get to know another family on Sunday afternoon. Take time to talk to someone you do not know well at coffee hour. Be brave and share part of your journey with Christ. For wherever two or three are gathered, God is there.
Thoughts on Christianity in 15 words or less
In a recent article in the Christian Century Magazine, the author asked a number of prominent authors and theologians to sum up Christianity in 7 words or less. Tackling this daunting task they came out with a number of interesting phrases, Martin E. Marty came up with “God, through Jesus Christ, welcomes you anyhow, and Beverly Roberts Gaventa with “In Christ, God’s yes defeats our no, Walter Brueggemann’s gospel is dense: “Israel’s God’s bodied love continues world-making.”. Perhaps my favorite was one be Scott Cairns which echo’s Eastern Orthodox theology, “Christ’s humanity occasions our divinity”. As you can tell there are not hard and fast answers and each one reflects the experience of those writing them. So here is your challenge, in 15 words or less, tell me what you think Christianity is all about. I’ll give you a hint, if you ask your kids they will help you figure out what is most important to you. Just to get your started here’s mine, Jesus draws us into the Heart of God, to bring God’s love to all. (with one to spare! But it took a number of tries. )
Try it as a family activity and see what your tweens and teens come up with!
Thoughts on Joy
I recently ran across this quote “I want a life that sizzles and pops and makes me laugh out loud. And I don't want to get to the end, or to tomorrow, even, and realize that my life is a collection of meetings and pop cans and errands and receipts and dirty dishes. I want to eat cold tangerines and sing out loud in the car with the windows open and wear pink shoes and stay up all night laughing and paint my walls the exact color of the sky right now. I want to sleep hard on clean white sheets and throw parties and eat ripe tomatoes and read books so good they make me jump up and down, and I want my everyday to make God belly laugh, glad that he gave life to someone who loves the gift.” ― Shauna Niequist, Cold Tangerines: Celebrating the Extraordinary Nature of Everyday Life
I dearly love the idea of God’s belly laugh. It’s easy to forget to live the life we have. We often find ourselves drowning in the demands and minutia of our lives. Our kids can find that too. My youngest is now in 7th grade and the demands are crazy. I’ve watched him getting up at 6am and working constantly until bedtime, no time for play, no time to wind down, barely time to eat or breath. Small wonder he has had a tough year. We all need space in our lives to sing out loud, to dawdle, to waste time, to paint your chair green, to love our gift of life. So my question to you is, how do you enjoy the gift of life you have been given? How do you give your children the time to enjoy it as well. Do something today that is not productive or useful. Do something for pure joy.
Thoughts on A Boring life
Sometime in July the litany begins. “But it’s boring, there is nothing to do, can’t we (fill in the blank).” It’s hard to shift gears so completely. During the school year every minute of the school year is consumed with something, school and sports and homework and chores and music practice. All of us, both kids and parents, long for a break, a breather, maybe just a bit of boredom. Now it is here, time to do whatever we will, but we are out of practice. We have forgotten how to let go of our schedules, how to stop. We all need that time, time to play and be ourselves, to find out what it means to interact with others and to be alone. We need a Sabbath time, even when it is boring. It’s hard for us to slow down, to put aside the constant demands that seem to surround us. A boring day is a gift, a day to let go of constant stimulation. Science tells us that constant excitement puts a stress on all our bodily systems that eventually causes them to break down. Perhaps what we all need is a regularly boring day. So I wish you a genuinely boring day (even if the kids complain).
Thoughts on taking a risk
September always feels like the beginning of the year to me. The summer lull is over; programs and plans are gearing up. In the midst of all these beginning, I find myself thinking about one of my husband’s favorite sayings “anything that is worth doing, is worth doing badly”. It sounds strange at first but think about it. Taking a risk, trying something out, means that we will be doing something new. We will not necessarily have the skill or experience to do this new thing well or even close to well. We may even mess it up. Yet if something is worth trying, it is worth making the attempt, even if it means we may fail. After all, everyone has to start somewhere! As the school year starts children and teens are headed back to school. They will be facing new classes, new classmate and new challenges. It can be overwhelming. We have the opportunity to help them take a risk, try something new or even just talk to someone they have never talked to before. We also have the opportunity to take a risk, to try something new, to keep learning and growing. Just remember “anything that is worth doing, is worth doing badly”. Every journey starts with the first step, and even if you trip, there is an opportunity for the second step.
Thoughts on Abundance
There is an old joke that goes like this Three scientists came to God and declared “We can now create life!” “Really?” replies God, “Show me how you do it.” One scientist scoops up a handful of dirt to begin. God reaches down and slaps the dirt out of his hand saying “Get your own dirt.”
This planet of ours is remarkable. It’s chalked full of living things, spiders, whales, carrots and redwood trees, not to mention bacteria too small for us to see and creatures in the deep oceans we have yet to discover. Our world is overflowing with life. God’s abundance is on display everywhere we look. We have been gifted with not one kind of bird but millions, not one kind of vegetable but onions and broccoli and green beans and kohlrabi and fiddleheads and romaine and cauliflower and peas. It’s time to notice the abundance of life all around us. It’s time to take our kids for a walk and watch the squirrels stocking up for the winter, to gather acorn caps and marvel at their tiny swirls, and notice the dew clinging to the spider’s web. It’s time to scoop up some soil and find the tiny insects crawling around the miniature rocks in God’s dirt. We live in a universe of abundance, created out of the abundance of God’s creativity and love, let’s give thanks by pausing to look at the wonder of it all.
Thoughts on believing
Someone recently asked me “How do I believe when I cannot see or hear Jesus or God?”. It’s certainly each of my children have asked me in one form or another. The question got me thinking about a book that a friend gave me many years ago. The book was entitled Faith is …. ,it was colorful and each page held one thought on what faith is. I’m not sure I remember any of the definitions but it got me thinking. So here is my version of what faith is.
Faith is knowing that reality extends beyond my five senses.
Faith is trusting that what I experience is real.
Faith is believing that I can trust the experience of others.
Faith is working on the assumption that God loves and cares for us.
Faith is not the opposite of doubt, but of hopelessness.
Faith is taking the next step even when I don’t know the end of the path.
Faith is learning to listen with my heart.
Faith is a gift that grows in me.
Faith is a way of life.
Faith is holding onto what God, despite everything.
So I’m wondering, what would be your answer to that question “How do I believe when I cannot see or hear Jesus or God?”. How do you define faith?
We are all afraid of something. In fact, it’s healthy to be afraid of some things, it is part of what keeps us safe. Fear, however, has a way of getting out of control and when it does it is crippling. Our toddler fears strangers, but sometimes they fear everyone. Our tweens fear new situations, and sometimes even the safest places can be strange if they are new. Our teens fear failing so much they will not even try anything new. We can fall into fear as well, just watch the news one night and there is a list of things to fear a mile long. Fear can keep us safe, yet it can also trap us. Over and over again in scripture we hear God telling people not to fear. Don’t fear the stranger, don’t fear the new place, don’t fear failure, don’t fear speaking out and speaking up for what is right. We do not fear these things because God’s Holy Spirit is with us. God is with us, with our children, even when we are not. God is with our toddler at daycare. God is with our 3 grader on test day. God is with our tween in the new school. God is with our teenager as they make decisions about jobs and schools. God is with our college students as they step out into the adult world. God is with us as we worry, and as we seek to trust God and remember to fear not. Today is a day to remind our children of God’s love and care for them and may you be aware the blessing of God’s presence today.
Thoughts on Wonder
Babies change everything. Each new parent experiences that change. Every family knows the shift with the birth of a new cousin. All of a sudden the list of items we need to take with us to just get out of the house balloons to almost unmanageable proportions, as does the things we worry about. There is no doubt that the birth of Jesus changed the lives of Mary and Joseph. The birth of Jesus is the point that changes our world as well. We are invited into a deeper relationship with God through Jesus and we can share that relationship with our children. We are invited into a world of Divine Wonder. You can find it anywhere, in the warmth of the water as you shower, in the cloud of your breath in the cold air, in the rim of frost on the leaves. Wonder stalks us when we send a text, or type a report, or warm up our tea. In the movement of atoms and the shining sun, we are invited to sense of love of God who gives us these gifts, and came to us so that we could find them, even in the giggle of a baby. Pause and share the wonder with you children, whatever their ages.
Thoughts on Mortality
I recently heard about a book that was being banned from schools because it dealt with the topic of “Mortality”. It’s odd how some folks seem to think that if we don’t talk about death, it will somehow disappear. Much like the characters in the Harry Potter books fear to say the name of the evil wizard Voldemort, for fear that it will bring him closer to them, our culture fears to name death. Yet for the residents of Hogwarts, it is only when they are able to name Voldemort can they face their fear and eventually defeat their foe. Not naming death, not facing the reality of it, just increases our fear. As much as we want to protect our children, we do better to help them cope with death. Here are a couple of ideas to help you child if they are coping with the death a pet or of someone they know.
Young children-
Help them say good-bye, make a card or drawing, tell a story about the person and find a way to remember them, go to a special place to remember that person (in earlier times folks would take a picnic to the cemetery once a year, often on Memorial day.)
Older children-
Death often sparks the fear of losing a parent. Talk about the fear, and especially listen. Include in the conversation your guardianship arrangements. Do not promise that you will not die. No one knows the future.
Teens-
While everyone grieves in their own way, teens need to see how to grieve. Talk to them about how you have experienced grieving. What helped, and what didn’t. Give them space and revisit the topic from time to time.
This is a difficult journey. Be sure to ask for help and the wisdom of those who have walked this path before you.
Thoughts on showing love
My eldest is far away at college these days. We do what we can to show her our love long distance. The same goes for most of my family and many of my friends. We don’t see them often, yet that doesn’t mean that we love them any less. In a way, they are always with us in our thoughts and in our prayers. God is with us in an even closer way. The Spirit of God is with us even when we are unaware of God, even when it feels like God is far away from us. It is hard to wrap our minds around this, especially for our literal minded children. God’s presence and love is with us, is like gravity or the wind or the light of a faraway star. We may not be aware of it but God’s love is still surrounding us. There are other ways we may know God’s presence, though those around us who care for us, through the wonders of the river or a soaring bird, or our delight in a new song. These are all God’s gifts of love to us. These are some of the ways God shows God’s love and presence to us. Helping our children become aware of that love is an ongoing gift to them, the gift of knowing that God loves them and will always be with them.
Thoughts on Tweets, Facebook, cell phones and friendship
I grew up long before tweets, or cell phones or even computers, back in the dark ages, my kids would say. I’m a digital immigrate, trying to keep up with the world my children have grown up in. This world allows us all to keep in touch in new ways, to maintain friendships in new ways. I can chat with my college friend Teresa in Japan or Facebook with Jeremy in Australia. This is great! Until it’s not. We all now navigate terrain that can strengthen a friendship or blow it to bits. Adults have had practice with both, yet there are times we struggle with them as well. For our pre-teens and teens this can be even more difficult. The digital world increases the impact of words. Out in the cloud they can last forever. What we say can be wonderfully supportive or devastating.
Throughout the Psalms and Proverbs we are reminded that what we say has an impact on all those around us. Our words can be honey or poison. Perhaps the one quote that has helped me think carefully is the following:
“Before you speak, think- is it necessary? Is it true? Is it kind? Will it hurt anyone? Will it improve on the silence?” (Sri Sathya Sai Baba, Indian Spiritual Leader)
Perhaps we can help to model this for our children, and help them to learn to live it out.
Thoughts on Being Right
We all want to be right. We want to have the knowledge and expertise. We want to have the confidence to raise are hands and answer the question. Yet sometimes there are not clear cut answers to a question. That middle space, the gray space, is one of the hardest places to be, especially when our children ask the question. As our children grow, more and more of their question about faith and ethics and how the world works fall into that gray space between the black and white questions of their earlier years. How we respond and how we equip them to live in that place where there are no perfect answers is critically important. Here are a few markers along that path:
- “I don’t know” is a perfectly acceptable answer, especially when followed by “Let’s find out.”
- Keep the conversation going. Explore the question and ALL the potential answers.
- Acknowledge that some issues are just hard, that some questions do not have good answers. Wresting with the question is part of being a practicing Christian and a faithful follower of Christ.
- Use your resources, including other parents, your priest, your parish, and other reliable sources.
Thoughts on Being Church
Church was not part of my childhood. I stumbled onto Jesus in my early teens and went looking for others who knew something about God. Gratefully and graciously, I wandered into a community that was willing to take in an enthusiastic teen. As much as I’ve come to love the stained glass and the hymns and the organ music, the heart and soul of church are those who gather to seek God. We are seekers on the way. The wonderful thing is that as we are looking for God, God is looking for us, coaxing us, cajoling us into God’s embrace. The gathering together of those seeking God enables us to learn from each other, support each other, laugh together and cry together and vent the inevitable frustrations that life gives us. We have the opportunity to give that gift of community to our children as well. Not only be going to church on a Sunday morning but by spending time with others who are seeking to know God. So take some time to come to worship on Sunday morning, and take some time to get to know another family on Sunday afternoon. Take time to talk to someone you do not know well at coffee hour. Be brave and share part of your journey with Christ. For wherever two or three are gathered, God is there.
Thoughts on Christianity in 15 words or less
In a recent article in the Christian Century Magazine, the author asked a number of prominent authors and theologians to sum up Christianity in 7 words or less. Tackling this daunting task they came out with a number of interesting phrases, Martin E. Marty came up with “God, through Jesus Christ, welcomes you anyhow, and Beverly Roberts Gaventa with “In Christ, God’s yes defeats our no, Walter Brueggemann’s gospel is dense: “Israel’s God’s bodied love continues world-making.”. Perhaps my favorite was one be Scott Cairns which echo’s Eastern Orthodox theology, “Christ’s humanity occasions our divinity”. As you can tell there are not hard and fast answers and each one reflects the experience of those writing them. So here is your challenge, in 15 words or less, tell me what you think Christianity is all about. I’ll give you a hint, if you ask your kids they will help you figure out what is most important to you. Just to get your started here’s mine, Jesus draws us into the Heart of God, to bring God’s love to all. (with one to spare! But it took a number of tries. )
Try it as a family activity and see what your tweens and teens come up with!
Thoughts on Joy
I recently ran across this quote “I want a life that sizzles and pops and makes me laugh out loud. And I don't want to get to the end, or to tomorrow, even, and realize that my life is a collection of meetings and pop cans and errands and receipts and dirty dishes. I want to eat cold tangerines and sing out loud in the car with the windows open and wear pink shoes and stay up all night laughing and paint my walls the exact color of the sky right now. I want to sleep hard on clean white sheets and throw parties and eat ripe tomatoes and read books so good they make me jump up and down, and I want my everyday to make God belly laugh, glad that he gave life to someone who loves the gift.” ― Shauna Niequist, Cold Tangerines: Celebrating the Extraordinary Nature of Everyday Life
I dearly love the idea of God’s belly laugh. It’s easy to forget to live the life we have. We often find ourselves drowning in the demands and minutia of our lives. Our kids can find that too. My youngest is now in 7th grade and the demands are crazy. I’ve watched him getting up at 6am and working constantly until bedtime, no time for play, no time to wind down, barely time to eat or breath. Small wonder he has had a tough year. We all need space in our lives to sing out loud, to dawdle, to waste time, to paint your chair green, to love our gift of life. So my question to you is, how do you enjoy the gift of life you have been given? How do you give your children the time to enjoy it as well. Do something today that is not productive or useful. Do something for pure joy.
Thoughts on A Boring life
Sometime in July the litany begins. “But it’s boring, there is nothing to do, can’t we (fill in the blank).” It’s hard to shift gears so completely. During the school year every minute of the school year is consumed with something, school and sports and homework and chores and music practice. All of us, both kids and parents, long for a break, a breather, maybe just a bit of boredom. Now it is here, time to do whatever we will, but we are out of practice. We have forgotten how to let go of our schedules, how to stop. We all need that time, time to play and be ourselves, to find out what it means to interact with others and to be alone. We need a Sabbath time, even when it is boring. It’s hard for us to slow down, to put aside the constant demands that seem to surround us. A boring day is a gift, a day to let go of constant stimulation. Science tells us that constant excitement puts a stress on all our bodily systems that eventually causes them to break down. Perhaps what we all need is a regularly boring day. So I wish you a genuinely boring day (even if the kids complain).
Thoughts on taking a risk
September always feels like the beginning of the year to me. The summer lull is over; programs and plans are gearing up. In the midst of all these beginning, I find myself thinking about one of my husband’s favorite sayings “anything that is worth doing, is worth doing badly”. It sounds strange at first but think about it. Taking a risk, trying something out, means that we will be doing something new. We will not necessarily have the skill or experience to do this new thing well or even close to well. We may even mess it up. Yet if something is worth trying, it is worth making the attempt, even if it means we may fail. After all, everyone has to start somewhere! As the school year starts children and teens are headed back to school. They will be facing new classes, new classmate and new challenges. It can be overwhelming. We have the opportunity to help them take a risk, try something new or even just talk to someone they have never talked to before. We also have the opportunity to take a risk, to try something new, to keep learning and growing. Just remember “anything that is worth doing, is worth doing badly”. Every journey starts with the first step, and even if you trip, there is an opportunity for the second step.
Thoughts on Abundance
There is an old joke that goes like this Three scientists came to God and declared “We can now create life!” “Really?” replies God, “Show me how you do it.” One scientist scoops up a handful of dirt to begin. God reaches down and slaps the dirt out of his hand saying “Get your own dirt.”
This planet of ours is remarkable. It’s chalked full of living things, spiders, whales, carrots and redwood trees, not to mention bacteria too small for us to see and creatures in the deep oceans we have yet to discover. Our world is overflowing with life. God’s abundance is on display everywhere we look. We have been gifted with not one kind of bird but millions, not one kind of vegetable but onions and broccoli and green beans and kohlrabi and fiddleheads and romaine and cauliflower and peas. It’s time to notice the abundance of life all around us. It’s time to take our kids for a walk and watch the squirrels stocking up for the winter, to gather acorn caps and marvel at their tiny swirls, and notice the dew clinging to the spider’s web. It’s time to scoop up some soil and find the tiny insects crawling around the miniature rocks in God’s dirt. We live in a universe of abundance, created out of the abundance of God’s creativity and love, let’s give thanks by pausing to look at the wonder of it all.
Thoughts on believing
Someone recently asked me “How do I believe when I cannot see or hear Jesus or God?”. It’s certainly each of my children have asked me in one form or another. The question got me thinking about a book that a friend gave me many years ago. The book was entitled Faith is …. ,it was colorful and each page held one thought on what faith is. I’m not sure I remember any of the definitions but it got me thinking. So here is my version of what faith is.
Faith is knowing that reality extends beyond my five senses.
Faith is trusting that what I experience is real.
Faith is believing that I can trust the experience of others.
Faith is working on the assumption that God loves and cares for us.
Faith is not the opposite of doubt, but of hopelessness.
Faith is taking the next step even when I don’t know the end of the path.
Faith is learning to listen with my heart.
Faith is a gift that grows in me.
Faith is a way of life.
Faith is holding onto what God, despite everything.
So I’m wondering, what would be your answer to that question “How do I believe when I cannot see or hear Jesus or God?”. How do you define faith?