Words of faith

This speech was originally given at the Portsmouth United Methodist Church by me on June 25, 2011 as part of our church's Faith in Action series. I give a speech every month about practical ways you can share your faith with others. If you ever have a suggestion, please let me know in the comments!

As some of you may know, I have a fascination with words. I love to read, love to write and words are such a part of my being that it's difficult not to pay attention to a word when it jumps out at me. Earlier this year, I came across a website, MyOneWord.org. This website's goal is to encourage people to choose one word that the person will use to form their entire year around. The idea is that instead of a New Year's Resolution, you choose one word and use that word to change the world around you. Being a word-lover, this really appealed to me. And so I started searching for my own word. At first, I thought my word would be something fun like "Family" or something important like "Peace". Maybe even, being the mother of a newborn, "Sleep". But none of those words would stay with me. All this time, God kept pointing me toward another word: forgiveness. Now, I'll admit, I kept thinking "I really don't want that word! That's too hard. I want something fun, like KNIT! or PARTY!" So I sort of ignored Him and tried to find another word. A few weeks later, still word-less, I saw an announcement in the church bulletin for a Bible study group focused on, you guessed it, forgiveness and I said "All right, all right, I get it, that's my word!"

Now, I wasn't looking forward to owning this word. See, for me, and I'm sure many of you feel the same way, forgiveness isn't an easy word and it isn't a fun word, but I knew that it was the word He wanted me to have. So, for the past six months, I have been owning this word. You would be amazed how often a word comes up in your life once you pay attention to it. I find that it creeps into my world in little ways; in songs, in conversations, it's everywhere. Last week, my husband and I were having a tense night. The kids were tired and pushing buttons left and right and by the end of the night, I was grumbling at my husband and we close to not speaking. As I was walking upstairs to get ready for bed, my husband was sitting on the couch. As I passed by him, God said to me in this soft voice "How can you treat someone you love like this?" And there it was again, that word: forgiveness. I'll tell you I felt about two inches high for the rest of the night.

I can hear you thinking, what does this have to do with faith? To quote Matthew, 6:14, "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."

I learned quite a few things about forgiveness during that Bible Study. For me, the major theme was that it's very difficult to really extend forgiveness without having faith. When you're confronted with forgiveness, whether it's forgiveness you're extending or you're hoping someone will extend to you, faith allows you to understand the meaning of forgiveness. When we are the ones extending the forgiveness, our belief in the Lord gives us the capacity to understand how we have been forgiven and sometimes that understanding makes the forgiveness just a bit easier to extend. I won't say that forgiveness is easy; sometimes it's simpler to stay mad or in other cases to not ask for forgiveness. But in almost every case, if you are able to keep in mind what your faith has taught you, that you are already forgiven by a God who loves you and gave His only son for you, it is becomes possible to move toward forgiveness.

Where life resumes.

Wow. So, apparently it takes about two months for me to get my bearings. I've officially been at home for two months today and I'm just getting back to the point where I can function as a non-mother-person. It's been a roller coaster ride, but most days I'm glad I'm on it and am trying my hardest to stay sane. I feel like I have a million things pulling me in three million directions, but such is the life of every mother I guess.

There are a few things that I've realized in the past week or so and one of them is that I need to get my head cleared in a major way. So, I'm hoping now that the new computer is set up, blogging will begin again! I don't expect it will be pretty, but I think that's normal. Personally, I'm tired of the sheen that the internet seems to put over everyone else's life. I have been searching for authenticity and although the internet is certainly not the first place I should be looking, it's the most accessible place for me right now and that's caused so much heartache for me. To combat that, I'm going to try as hard as I can to be authentic, to be me here, there and everywhere. Yes, I admit that's sort of not really possible on a blog, but you'll have to deal if you're reading this. Unless you want to come over and just hang out to vet me and all. Please, feel free. Except on Fridays because I'm usually busy then.

Faith in a box

This speech was originally given at the Portsmouth United Methodist Church by me on March 26, 2011 as part of our church's Faith in Action series. I give a speech every month about practical ways you can share your faith with others. If you ever have a suggestion, please let me know in the comments!

A few weeks ago my older sister, who lives in California posted a link on her Facebook page. My sister has been a professional belly dancer for over 10 years now.  The link she posted wasn't her usual information about upcoming dance classes or hand-made costumes for sale.  It was a collection of photos of a burned-out apartment.  The photos were striking.  Most of them looked as though they'd been shot in black and white due to the amount of smoke and soot damage the apartment sustained.  One of the most memorable photos, for me, was of a child's bedroom. The only recognizable thing in the photo was a charred changing table standing alone in the middle of the room. 


The woman who lived in the apartment was a friend of my sisters.  Actually, to say she was a friend is probably an understatement. I've never met the woman, but I know that she has had a profound impact on my sister's life.  She was a driving force behind my sister becoming a professional belly dancer and instructor and throughout the years, my sister has mentioned this dance teacher many times, always with reverence and awe.  She had influence in my sister's life far greater than I can imagine.  So seeing those photos and knowing that they had impacted my sister gave me pause.  But it was seeing that photo of that baby's changing table that brought tears to my eyes.

God was watching that family on the night of their fire.  I never heard the full details, but I know that everyone involved escaped physical harm.  From what I understand, the family was getting ready for a blessing, reading the Koran and smelled smoke or heard a fire alarm.  They got out in time, but subsequently lost practically everything.  Like me, she has a little boy and I couldn't imagine how difficult it must have been to see all her baby's belongings destroyed.  I thought about what it must be like to have to care for that baby while trying to rebuild a life around him.

So, I did the only thing I could think of to help: I sent a box of clothes to her.  
Now, just as an aside, I have to thank my lucky stars that I have the smart husband I do because otherwise I would have sent the boy a shirt with a fire truck on it.  That's probably not what the mother was in the mood to see.  Along with the clothing, I sent a short hand-written note telling her that my prayers would be with her and her family. 

When Pastor asked me to start a monthly series about ways to share your faith and speak to the congregation, I was nervous about accepting.  Pastor had no way of knowing, but a few days earlier I had been having one of those conversations with God where you ask Him what He wants you to do with your faith.  I always dread asking those sorts of questions because most of the time, He answers pretty quickly and sometimes it isn't what I want to hear.  But I knew that Pastor approaching me was part of the answer I'd been asking for and so I accepted whole-heartedly. Sharing your faith isn't always easy and it isn't always obvious.  It can be something as small as sending a box of clothes (without a fire-truck shirt) to a stranger who's lost everything.  Or it can be something bigger.  My hope is that over the next few months, I help you explore ways to share your own faith so that you can grow in God and perhaps help others to do the same.