It Matters What We Believe

It Matters What We Believe
By Sophia Lyon Fahs

Some beliefs are like pleasant gardens with high walls around them. They encourage exclusiveness, and the feeling of being especially privileged. Other beliefs are expansive and lead the way into wider and deeper sympathies.

Some beliefs are like shadows, darkening children's days with fears of unknown calamities. Other beliefs are like the sunshine, blessing children with the warmth of happiness.

Some beliefs are divisive, separating the saved from the unsaved, friends from enemies. Other beliefs are bonds in a universal brotherhood, where sincere differences beautify the pattern.

Some beliefs are like blinders, shutting off the power to choose one's own direction. Other beliefs are like gateways opening up wide vistas for exploration.

Some beliefs weaken a child's selfhood. They blight the growth of resourcefulness. Other beliefs nurture self-confidence and enrich the feeling of personal worth.

Some beliefs are rigid, like the body of death, impotent in a changing world. Other beliefs are pliable, like the young sapling, ever growing with the upward thrust of life.

It is indeed important what (humanity) has believed. It is important what we believe.

(From Today's Children and Yesterday's Heritage)

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"On countless occasions when someone asks you what your church “believes,” it is appropriate to reply that “Churches don’t believe things. People do.” You see, it is so important “What” and “How” you believe that were I to hand you a scripted set of beliefs and expect adherence without rewrite, refinement, restatement and even outright rejection, then I would sin against the truest notion of the holy that I hold. Belief is for the believer. Belief is for the believer to discern and affirm and test." Rev. Mark Christian

This day is a gift. A gift of Love. A gift from God. A gift from Life itself. Let us then rejoice in it and be glad. For this is the day we have been given: to live in; to love in; and, in time to die in. Let us rejoice in the promise and possibility of this day. May all our beliefs start and end there. AMEN