Megan's prayer: Steven Curtis Chapman's "Still Listening"

The years can take us far away
From the simple child like faith
But I am longing to return
To the place where I first learned
That God is great, and God is good

Being around children the majority of my day has somewhat helped to soften my image of the world, and to be much happier with the life I have. My first graders are just constantly joyous - whether I am showing them a map or reading a story to them - they are overcome with such excitement they have a hard time containing it. Many of them don't contain it - they talk, or yell, or laugh - or make some outburst that disrupts the class from learning. Since I am supposed to keep the class in order and teach the children, it is my job to quite them down, and refocus them.

I think I need to occasionally let them go - let them just explode and bask in the joy of learning. Every time that I quiet them down, they lose some of that child-like joy and love for learning... it's becoming a chore, not an exciting adventure.

I think in the same way, my faith has lost the child-like quality it once had. The "care-free, give my all to God" faith seems to have been slowly replaced with a more sensible, and quieter faith. While it seems to be that this is the type of faith adults are supposed to have, I don't think it is what I want.

I want to be like a child again in my faith. I want to love unconditionally because I think that there is no bad in the world. I want to absolutely adore God because He has done so much for me. While I probably should have a bit more substance to my faith, I think that if I would be able to bring back that feeling of overwhelming joy to my faith I would be much happier in my faith life.