Courtney Ellis

Today I’m excited to welcome guest blogger Dana Herndon, writer at An Ordinary View, middle school teacher, and mother of three.

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1 (NKJV)

This is one of my favorite verses. A simple, yet complex explanation of faith. Because that is how faith is. So simple, yet so complex.

Just look at the second part of the verse, “the evidence of things not seen.” Faith is not a concrete noun, yet it is the concrete evidence of things not seen. The holy and spiritual things. Faith goes hand-in-hand with trust.

Have you ever done a trust fall? You stand with your back to a group of people and fall backwards trusting they will catch you. You have to have faith that the people behind you are going to catch you, even though you can’t see them.

My kids like to do trust falls with each other, but they have a hard time putting 100-percent of their faith in each other. Usually for good reason. A few of those trust falls end up with one kid on the ground and another laughing hysterically.

Parenting also requires a tremendous amount of faith.

My oldest recently got her driver’s license. While I remember relishing this freedom and loving my newfound independence when I was her age, I am not so crazy about being on the other end. I require her to text me when she arrives at her location and keep me apprised of everywhere she is driving.

(And she has been thoroughly threatened about ever having that phone out when driving. She will lose her car, phone, and pretty much all her freedom if she ever uses her phone while driving. Phones are so distracting, everyone needs to put them away while driving. End rant.)

Her first solo trip was just around the corner to the dollar store. I stood in the driveway and watched her drive out of the neighborhood, my stomach in knots. She texted me when she arrived at the store.

15 or 20 minutes passed and she wasn’t back. My mind immediately went into worst-case-scenario mode. She was only going to pick up one thing! Where was she? An elementary school is right across the street from the store and they had just released for the afternoon, so she waited until the traffic died down a little before coming back home.

My daughter graduates from high school in one year. Then it is off to college, where I am sure she won’t text me about her every move. (I shouldn’t ask her to do that, right?) I have to have faith. I have to entrust my children to the Lord. He loves them more than I do.

Does having complete and utter faith in the Lord guarantee smooth sailing and that nothing bad will ever happen?

No, and to be honest, I have a lot of trouble with that. However, faith is built on trust and trust is built on knowing someone personally, which means I have to spend time with the Lord daily. I need to dig into His Word, pray, and stay connected. Having a personal relationship with the Lord makes parenting a more faithful task.

I will still run down the list of safe driving rules before my daughter drives away. I will sometimes watch as she drives down the road. I will probably always worry about my kids—that just comes standard with parenting—but the Lord gives me assurance.

Faith in Lord is similar to the trust falls. We step out on faith and trust him to be there. And he will be there. He is not like us; he would not trick us into trusting him and leave us in the dirt.

Dana Herndon is a writer and middle school teacher in Georgia. She and her husband love to spend time with their three children. They enjoy coaching sports and going to the beach. Dana’s favorite things are reading, watching Food Network and HGTV, and paddle boarding. You can follow her blog at danaherndon.com.