Faith Like A Child

I love to watch Spring unfold. The energy new life seems to bring as flowers bloom and grass greens and yes, even as those pesky weeds take over my lawn. I love the freshness in the air. The warmth of the sun and the breeze. I love the freedom the late sunset allows, and the smell of my house with the windows open.

I love all the symbols of Spring as well. Brightly colored blooms, fluffy yellow chicks, endless candy eggs and jellybeans. I love shopping for Easter dresses and planning for egg hunts and watching my girls dye eggs while the dye clings more readily to sticky fingers than to carefully boiled eggs.

Most of all, I love celebrating what Spring and rebirth and Easter truly means to us - the resurrection of our Lord and Savior.

I know I don't write much about my faith here. It's not because I am wishy-washy in my belief, or because I don't find it important. Rather, I tend to be somewhat private about my journey. The perfectionist in me tends to lean to the belief that I need to have it all figured out before I can speak to it intelligently. Clearly, that will never happen (the all figured out part), and I'm finding myself more and more challenged to just be open with my thoughts and beliefs, even if I don't understand it all.

I'm learning this through my princesses. If there's ever a time with faith and belief and knowledge intersect and reach a pivotal moment in a life, it's when you become a parent. We are always teaching our children something. Teaching them to share, teaching them to be polite, to look both ways before crossing the street. We constantly answer questions, some we don't know the answers to (exactly how far IS the earth to the sun anyway?). I am stumped, alot. And that fear of not knowing the answers has at times impeded my ability to teach my children about God and faith. But what I've been discovering recently is that you can't really "teach" faith. You can't force your children to have it. They already do.

When you're watching your child learn about God, you see the true embodiment of faith. They don't need all the answers. Somewhere along the line, with all our focus on education, we come under the false assumption that we have to know everything there is to know about God in order to believe in Him. But if we knew everything about God, then He wouldn't be God. Watching my princesses grow in their understanding and faith in the resurrected Christ has strengthened and renewed my own faith. I know the phrase "faith like a child" is somewhat cliche, but I've seen it demonstrated over and over in my home through my princesses and I know it to be true.

This Easter has been one of the most real, vibrant, and faith-building Easters I've experienced in my entire life. I've seen love lived out. I've seen people being the church rather than doing church. I've seen lives transformed and people coming to the realization that knowledge won't get you there. Faith in ourselves, in our ability, in our minds is weak, for we are limited. But faith in an almighty God, THAT is power. And faith is only faith when we DON'T have all the answers.

I am imperfect. I make mistakes. But I know my God didn't send his Son to die for perfect people. By His grace and faith He is transforming my life and the lives of my children. And I see it more clearly each time I let go of the need to know WHY and HOW, and like my children just rest in the peace and satisfaction that He Is.