The Amazing Faiths Project

I rarely talk explicitly about my faith on this blog. If you know me, you can probably tell that my faith is not absent....it is just not out in the way many from the Bible Belt share it with quotes, italics, and scripture verses. I don't really have a problem with this type of openness, but I have always been a little more discreet. My issue with this began when I skimmed through the 2007
Oklahoma Blog Awards last year. Nearly every blog was drowning in Religious Cliche. I couldn't decide if this is just what makes and Oklahoma Blog an Oklahoma Blog or if you could only receive a nomination if you wore your faith on your sleeve. Not to mention the views shared were all strangely similar. Last week I found the link to the 2008 Okie Blog Awards.....same thing....REALLY? I read a lot of blogs written by people across the country. Many, many of them are people of faith, but few of them fill their posts with scripture and personal testimony's the way they do in Oklahoma.

Let me digress a moment. Last week I went to an event hosted here in Oklahoma City called The Amazing Faiths Project. It was publicized to the community as an Interfaith Event to bring people of all faiths together to share their experience with faith. We walked in, filled out name tags, and received pieces of of paper.  The paper was color coded and represented our faith tradition.  The Rabbi talked about the sanctuary and a little about the Jewish tradition.  Then we had the opportunity to go into the next room and form small groups.  The idea was to get in groups with various faith tradition.  We set a date to meet for dinner and answer questions based on our personal experience with our faith.  I found this event to be eye opening. Although there were not a lot of people there, a fair number of faiths were represented.  This is something that does not happen very often here in Oklahoma.  What I found especially refreshing, was the openness everyone was with one another.  People seemed very open to deepen their faith by learning about the traditions of others.  

Here is where these two situations collide and it hit me.....I need this type of environment for MY faith to be strengthened.  I don't mean strengthened in the "now I feel closer to God or Jesus" kind of way.  More the "I have a clearer sense of God and the many facets of God's love, and compassion through history."  This is where a small piece of clarity came.  It is comfortable for me to share my life through the lens of my faith as long as it focuses on what is generally acceptable around here.  Unfortunately, this story is only part of my story.  I suppose you want me to tell you what I believe.  Well, I am not comfortable with that now.  I hope that eventually I will be at a point where I can be more open, but for now....if you want to know, lets do lunch.

Spiritual Toys from Etsy

A Squinty Eyed Smile

The other day I saw my son make a face that I had never seen before. It was a squinty eyed smile that seemed a little out of context for what was going on. He did it again and I realized that this was a look that he has picked up from me….I caught myself doing it when I was thinking about how lucky I am to have such a special boy as my son….a look of endearment you might say. I was most surprised that I believe my 17 month old was using this same expression to convey the same message back to me.

This was a little blessing that I did not expect to get. Had my son not mimicked this expression back at me, I might not have ever realized I do this. This got me thinking, what else am I unconsciously or subconsciously teaching my children. What do my words, actions, and expressions teach my children about God, race, gender, education, money, love, marriage, etc.

I could go on and on about the way society carelessly goes about teaching children hate, cynicism, despair, resentment, etc. But I would rather focus on change and what I can do than the brokenness that is already rampant in our world.

I hope that I teach my children about a loving God and that God created us all equal, but how do you do this when we are all human with our own faults and stereotypes? I spend a lot of my time in self reflection and personal growth. I feel like this is one way to develop a sound and consistent value system for my boys. I still have a long way to go, but I hope that this is a start, and I spend time everyday being intentional about the way I live and the values I teach.