A serious post of Faith

Lately, when I wake up to get the day rolling, it is still dark outside my bedroom window. With the grandsons here the past 10 days, we have been burning the proverbial candle at both ends, so on this particular day, hubby let me sleep in until just before the last bus arrived.

I woke up to the picture above. The back window in our room is so high up that there has been no need to curtain it, and on this morning when the sun was shining, I was so glad for the view.

The leaves are turning all around us, but there is something spectacular when a body can wake up to the grand beauty that God provides for us. While the old window is nothing spectacular, the view was stunning to my morning eyes. I grabbed my cell phone to snap this picture, just so I would be aware of the beauty. I said a quick prayer that I would be mindful of who and what God put into my path that day, and jumped into the shower.

It was after I downloaded the pictures that I realized I had captured something more more than I bargained for that morning. The simple word, "Faith."

Since my folks named me after an old author whom my mom loved to read, Faith Baldwin, I have always been asked if my father was a preacher. No, just a kind and loving man who always showered me with way too much attention (but don't tell him that, because I am still loving the attention today!) And for some reason my mom loved the name Faith.

When I was born at just over 6 pounds, I was deemed too tiny to carry the name given me, Faith Ann Elizabeth, so the nurses convinced my mom to drop the Elizabeth and just call me Faith Ann. I hated it throughout my childhood, and always wanted my name to be something fancier, like Katherine, Julia or Angelique. As soon as I got married, I changed my name to just plain FAITH.

That worked while we lived out of town, but as soon as I came home, every one who knew me still called me Faith Ann. They just didn't get it that I was grown up now, so couldn't they honor my grown up name, just plain FAITH?

When I started writing serious stuff for the newspaper, I officially included my first name, maiden name and married name, mostly to honor my father and grandmother,(also a writer) but once again, trying to upgrade the image of my name to one of more importance, or significance. My even newer grown up name.

I have plaques, crosses, pictures. FAITH is a big thing right now, like Angels, LOVE and peace. But to me, it seemed to single me out as an oddball, a religious freak, or just plain weird. Names in my neighborhood were not as unusual as mine. And I felt like it defined me as a person. An odd one. It has taken me so many years to realize how ridiculous all this thinking has been. My heart inside always felt so puny, so non-important, so PLAIN. Just plain FAITH.

Looking at the beauty just outside my morning window, seeing the FAITH brought on a new feeling inside me. Through all the years of my life, God has spoken beauty into a shell of a person. He redeemed me and called me His own. He took a stubborn and weak woman and made me strong. He put a love and worth in my life because He created me to be more than anything or anyone I could be on my own.

And, I know now, as an adult, that God blessed me when He allowed my parents to call me Faith.

What more could I ever ask for than just plain FAITH? In all HE does, in all HE is, and all HE wants to do in me...

Faith, when making hard decisions.
Faith, when all the world seems to crumble around me.
Faith, when times are hard and life seems cruel.
Faith, when loss or disappointment wants to consume me.
Faith, when the ones I love suffer.
Faith, when pain breaks my spirit.
Faith, when those I love are far away.
Faith, when things are good, or bad.

Thanks be to God, who allowed the SON (Jesus) to shine through my window. My heart now is thankful for being just plain Faith. Make my life full of FAITH...in YOU!