"Do you believe in God?" I asked one of my teens this summer. "I don't get it all..." he answered slowly, "It doesn't all make sense to me."

Oh baby, welcome to the club. I cherish the honesty in that statement. Who, after all, does "get it all"? People who say they understand it all scare me. They're just a little too RIGHT, if you know what I mean. (Dana Carvey as the Church Lady on Saturday Night Live always comes to mind.)

We don't need to "get it all." We never will. We're only asked to have child-like faith. Children believe in things without first-hand evidence. They believe simply because they want to believe. No proof required.

Something sad happens as we age, however. Our skepticism grows and grows. We start to require proof. We demand answers and explanations. Like this letter that was left on my bedside table recently,

"Mom, why do you/the toothfairy always give me 50 cents. Can I have a dollar or two?"

Skeptism drizzled off the page. Who leaves me money? Is it Mom? Or is it the tooth fairy? Why is she so cheap? Mom is cheap. That might mean Mom is the tooth fairy. That settles it. My mom is the tooth fairy. (Note: we never once told our kids there was a tooth fairy, we simply left them a paltry few coins to celebrate the new hole in their mouth.)

We want to know...is this real or isn't it? Parents, seeking to be imaginative and cute, muddy the pure water of our children's believing hearts. They're just not sure what to believe. Early on, Dave and I commited to always telling our kids the truth and nothin' but the truth. To my knowledge, I only slipped once. But it was a biggie. When my kids were little, they wanted to know what happened to their baby teeth after they fell out. I made up a fairy tale in which their tiny little teeth got thrown in the ocean and grew into beautiful pearls. In reality, I flushed them down the toilet. Who knows? They say all paths lead to the ocean...they could have become pearls. However, as you might have noticed, this was not the whole truth. It came back to haunt me.

One child was born skeptical. He decided to test the pearl theory. He saved a tooth, put it in a jar in his bedroom, and watched it every day,waiting for the transformation. All he learned is that Mommy tells tall tales or is perhaps a big fat liar. (And we all learned that a tooth in water starts to really smell over time.)

My own personal Doubting Thomas. Do you have one? Are you one? Doubting Thomas got the bum rap in Scripture because he demanded proof. He was out of the room when Christ came back from the dead. He didn't believe his friends when they told him about it. He said he'd need to see --and feel!-- for himself. I can relate.

John 20:26-29

A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe."

Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!"

Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."


Jesus came in through the walls and said, "Peace be with you!" It's the equivalent of saying, "Relax." He did not take the time to explain how he came in without opening the door. It was information they didn't need to know. Just relax. And believe. You'll be blessed.

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. You see, I think Jesus purposely didn't explain every little thing. If we knew it all, we wouldn't need faith. Faith is believing what we do not see. We don't have to have all the answers. We can come to the Lord with the tiniest smidgen of faith. We can say, "Are you the Lord, or aren't You?" He's delighted to enter into the Grand Conversation with us. So, as I say to my son, "You don't have to understand it all, Honey. Stop doubting and believe."

And yes, Julia, your mom is the tooth fairy at our house, and fifty cents is all you'll ever get for a tooth.

I like small closets. I'm in the minority. But I've only recently converted. I used to dream of more closets, bigger closets, built-in, custom-designed California Closets. What changed my mind?

1. I read that a most purchases in America are simply replacements of stuff we already own. That kind of made me mad. What is our problem that we aren't happy with what we have? Why all the compulsive upgrading? I confess I'd like a new tea kettle. Mine is sort of funky and I don't know how to clean it very well. But it works. It's a pot to boil water. It's fine. Fine.

2. I know from experience that the more space we have, the more space we fill. The more we fill, the more we have to care for. Yet, we're not happier. We're frustrated. We can't find what we're looking for. We're swamped with stuff. Stuff, stuff, stuff. It even sounds like too much.

Many with stuffed closets need more space. They rent a new closet, a 16 x 20 closet, called a storage unit. I refuse to get a storage unit. R-E-F-U-S-E. In our country, this puts me in the minority. I read "Americans are storing more stuff than ever. One in 11 American households, according to a recent survey, owns self-storage space—an increase of some 75 percent from 1995." (Tom Vanderbilt, Slate Magazine, July 18 2005).

I want to want less...and be content with what I have. My new prayer is Proverbs 30:8-9. I pray it with hope and in praise of small closets.

Give me neither poverty nor riches;
feed me with the food that is needful for me,
lest I be full and deny you
and say, "Who is the LORD?"
or lest I be poor and steal
and profane the name of my God.

I'm getting really sick of Satan.

If you don't believe there's a Satan, then you don't believe the Bible. Harsh, but true. Not only does he exist, but we're living in his world. I hate that part, because I'd like to be living in God's world. But God's world is heaven, and He's still preparing a place for me there.

Christ said his kingdom is not of this world. That's okay, I can live with that. I know I'll be there one day, but for now, I'm stuck here. Yucky planet earth. Run by a nasty dude.

Here's the problem with the king of this world. He's a liar. A dirty, rotten liar.
He's so good at lying, He's the king of lies. King Liar. Jesus said, "He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies." John 8:44

King Liar. He's speaking lies to you right now.

So my challenge for us is to figure out, "What are the lies that I believe?"
Once we identify the lies, we can root them out, just like pulling nasty weeds in the garden. And once you root out the lies, you can replace them with truth.

Here's an example. I often feel like no one likes me. Sad, but true. I start to think everyone else is getting together for dinner and not inviting me. I imagine they talk about me when I leave the room. Lots of times they say, "Who does she think she is?" Sometimes they say I look like I've put on weight.

Who is whispering that in my ear? King Liar. "You're not welcome. Everyone else is invited but you."

I have a choice to believe the lie, or root it out, and replace it with truth. These days I fight back. I say, "I'm loved with an everlasting love. I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. God has a plan and a purpose for me." And my favorite,
"GET BEHIND ME, SATAN! I'm a daughter of The King!"

Satan plants seeds of doubt. It's been working for him since the beginning of time, when he caused Eve to doubt. He said, "C'mon, did God really say you couldn't eat that fruit?" He made her doubt...her doubt turned to action...and sin entered the world.

It's okay to doubt. Doubt isn't the sin. Our very own hearts lie to us at times. (Jeremiah 17:9). But identify the doubt, the lie, and root it out. Then find some truth and plant it. And please, daughters of Eve, don't let the doubt turn to action. That's just what King Liar wants!

P.S. Thanks for all the votes on the word "crap." I'm trying to clean up my act. I didn't realize it was a 4 letter word!