While procrastinating from my chores, I ended up somehow or another reading an article from Focus on the Family's website. Here: When Your Faith Expression Differs From Your Spouse I found this article fascinating. I suppose, in one way, it's just common sense to say that everyone worships God differently. However, at the same time, it made me realize that Paul and I are probably different when it comes to worshiping God. Not only that, but other people in general worship God differently from me. I need to be okay with that. As Paul and I struggle trying to find a church that "fits" for us, I need to remember that even if a certain church does not "fit" for us, it might "fit" for plenty of others. I should try not to criticize them as much...not an easy thing to do for someone as opinionated as me. :)
Anyway, I am eager to bring up this question to my beloved hubby tonight: "How do you express your faith?" It's odd, I mean, I have some ideas of how he worships God, but I am still curious to how he will answer. For me, it's easy. I worship God through song and nature. I sing all the time. Random, odd things that I make up on the spot, but singing nonetheless. Singing is how I express my emotions. I have always felt closer to God if I am singing or listening to a majestically beautiful song. Granted, I am picky about my songs. Perhaps that is because that is how I express my adoration for God. If we sing a song in church, it has to be perfect, and sadly, I don't find modern Christian songs to be perfect enough. So my way of praising and worshiping God has dwindled lately. I told Paul once that I feel like my soul is like a gas tank. When I hear and sing even one beautiful song in church, my "gas tank soul" goes from empty to overflowing. I often cry while singing in church. I get tingles. It is beautiful. However, when I go through service after service with weak-lyric modern songs, I feel like my "gas tank soul" is on empty. I feel as distant as can be from God. It's a struggle for me, but now that I have a piano and old hymnals in my house, I can make up for it at least a little.
I also worship God through nature. When Paul and I go on nature hikes or go fishing, I feel close to God. We just went on a walk the other day. It was on a trail in Milwaukee, but with trees surrounding us, I could at least pretend that we were far from the city. There was a tree along the path that was full of golden leaves and the sun was hitting it just right so it shined and shimmered like golden beauty at its' best. I couldn't stop telling Paul how wonderful God is and how amazing He was because he made such a gloriously golden tree. Paul humored me and listened, but this simple natural site was clearly helping me worship God more than Paul. And that's okay. Just because I cannot help but marvel at God whenever I see anything amazing in nature does not mean that Paul has to be the same way. And like the article mentioned above says, having different ways of worshiping God is a good thing. How cool is that?
At the end of the article was this: Spiritual Temperament Quiz. I took that as well. In a nutshell, it seems that my spiritual temperament is: naturalist, enthusiast, and contemplative. What about you? What is your spiritual temperament? How do you express your faith? I am deeply curious about this. So please, if you feel comfortable, comment below and let me know!
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