Hey Kids,

Saturday of my Birthday Week. Last day, I promise. All week I’ve been listing things I’m thankful for and things that make getting older worth the effort.

Saturday- My Faith.

Faith means a lot of things to different people. To me it means those things that I believe, hope, or count on deep in my thoughts, emotions, and feelings. It extends beyond the question to which religion you subscribe. It’s more than a set of do’s and don’ts. It’s the feeling of how and why.

Manti Utah Temple which some of my ancestors help to build

I’ve been raised Mormon and I cherish the heritage that gave me. Beyond belonging to a group of people from a particular family or country, I belong to a history of people who chose to be together, who struggled together, and who put their faith in things beyond the conventional possibilities. I’ve been blessed with this association for my entire life. (Sometimes plagued, I confess.)

As a child I learned to trust the happenings around me. Persevere and move forward, better things await those that do.

As a teenager, I kept myself out of a lot of trouble (not all). Some that might’ve affected my life in undesirable ways.

I remember as an 18 year old, new to the construction site, I was designated to hold the weekly football bet money. Several hundred dollars were put in my trust, over the weekend, not because they knew me, but because they knew I was Mormon. It taught me to be true to what I claimed as my values in all times, especially when others counted on it.

My Faith took me to France and Switzerland and taught me French. A lesson I will never forget.

My Faith has given me the encouragement to carry on through in justices in the world. A belief that the ultimate justice would be based on how I acted on a day-to-day basis and not in a tally for tally, eye for an eye method in what was fair in the world. It gave me a compass.

My Faith has allowed me to ask questions, to challenge my own Faith, to dig deep for answers and when lines don’t meet, dig deeper, to relax when things aren’t perfect, and believe and hope that one day it will be.

I’ve stated a very big, private part of me in just a few sentences. I don’t mean to trivialize it but to just give a small glance into why I think it’s the growth of that faith that I look forward to as I get older. I wonder what questions I don’t even know how to ask yet.I fear and anticipate with hope to see what Faith has to offer in the future.

At least, that’s what I believe anyway.

Day 82