Ventage Tuesday: Have a little faith in me

Angie suggested we all take some time to talk about faith this week. It's one of the ways we Ventage girls are different. But here's the thing I love about my girls: we are good at agreeing to disagree. So while some of us choose to wear polka dotted pants and some of us think they are the most ridiculous things ever, we still love each other. And while Sundays will find some of us at church and other meditating, it's all good. I think our group works because we see each other as whole people. We know enough good about each other that when we see something we don't understand or don't agree with, we see it as a teeny tiny part of a whole person who we love. That makes the differences no big deal.

The aspect of my faith I want to share today isn't so much about my relationship with God, but rather about how my relationship with God impacts my relationship with others and my view of the world. If there is one thing I believe without a shadow of a doubt, it's that God wants us to take care of each other. Love thy neighbor. I believe that God meets our needs by using the people in our lives to help us. I believe God uses my Ventage girls to get me through the day. I believe God uses my boys to show me so much about myself both good and bad. And I believe He uses me to help others. Sometimes, on my most sleep deprived days, I can't imagine I'm very useful to anyone, but God works in mysterious ways.

I think this idea that God wants us to take care of each other can be forgotten in the day to day stuff. It's hard to "love thy neighbor" when your neighbor isn't doing things the way you think they should. It's much easier to try to make them fit into a mold or give them a label. But I don't think God works through labels. He works in spite of them. He works when two very different people find common ground. He works when we see a need and find a way to meet it for someone, even if that someone doesn't look like us, doesn't come from the same kind of family we do, doesn't believe what we believe. I believe God wants us to spend less time talking about what makes us different and more time celebrating the things that can bring us together. I believe God is glorified when we say, "How can I help you?" and not "You need to do it my way."

For more thoughts on faith, visit my friends Angie, Barb, Em, and Katrina.