WHO'S MOTHER NATURE?

In the last couple of blogs Mike and I have written about our journeys into faith. There’s been a lot of excitement for us both about being on this new journey and even more amazing is that we’re walking through this together.

A huge realization for me has been that while we can show our girls the way, they are already halfway grown. They have ideas of their own. The last X number of years of their lives have been one way, and now their parents are changing direction, so to speak. They need to find their path. As parents, we can lead them, but there is nothing more clear to me than they have to find their way. If we push too hard, we run the risk of turning them away altogether. I’ve recently been spending time with someone who raised their children with faith. They went to a faith-based school, and most of their life was spent focused on God. As the children aged, they turned away from the church, and it’s no longer a part of their daily, let alone weekly, life.

I spent 47 years floating. Floating between what I believed, and what I didn’t believe. Floating between something I had fabricated in my mind to give me a sense of peace and understanding about the world we’re living in, and simply just not knowing what to believe.

But I have always known I believed. Believed in a higher power. I didn’t have any true spiritual leaders in my life. I didn’t have anyone who convinced me to believe in something bigger than myself. I had to come to my spiritual realization on my own. For years I've been seeking, and the answer was there all along. It’s pretty simple actually. God created everything around us. Look around you and be amazed by His incredible creations.

The wonderful dance of nature so that we might coexist with plants for example. We need oxygen to survive. Plants create oxygen. We breathe out carbon dioxide, which the plants need to survive. ISN’T THAT AMAZING? People are uncomfortable with the word God. Or at least I used to be. Mother Nature seems to be a favourite instead of God. Mother Nature caused that huge storm. Who’s Mother Nature? What's her story?

For now in our home, as Mike and I become more grounded in our faith, we are sharing with the girls as much as we can. We ask them to come to church with us, but they aren’t made to feel they have to. We just started praying at the dinner table, and that’s something they can participate in, and gain confidence in the power of prayer, regardless of their personal beliefs.

Lately we've observed the girls are catching themselves when using the Lords name in vain such as "OMG" or "Jesus", and they are changing their language all on their own. They may come to embrace Jesus as Mike and I do, but when they do, I know it will happen on their own time.

Shannon, The Herdmother