?????Doubts?????

This coming week, we are preparing for a "Doubt Night." This is going to be a time where the youth volunteers and I will become an adult panel and address several questions that our youth have been asking on cards and putting in the doubt box.

Here are a few questions that have mad thier way int the box:
Which religion is right? Is it ok to have friends that are not Christian? Are you ever really forgiven?

I am so excited about this! Not because I have all the answers, because I don't, but because I want them to understand that it is, not just ok, but I believe nessecary to question "Why do I believe this?" about everything. This is not to make them give up on faith, but to strengthen it.

A couple of weeks ago in Sunday School, we were discussing the question: "When does faith become yours?" or essentially when does the faith that you have grown up with, when do you take it as your own?

What was great is that they worked themselves to the answer that at the point that they no longer just accept what people say as true and right, but they start questioning if it is true and seeking others and God for answers. They felt that at this point your faith starts to become thier own.

What was also interesting was that several felt that faith can never fully become your own because faith MUST be a communal thing. They felt some things must be a group issue or group belief.

I am still questioning this myself, but I think that I believe this to be true.

It is questions, in my opion, that help us truely understand our beliefs and why we believe them. I have much more to talk about with this, but I will save it for another day...