Growing in Faith
By Hilary M. West
Hilary is a senior with a double major in Journalism and Public Relations at Troy State University in Troy, AL. She is a member of Riverchase Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Alabama.

I used to absolutely dread Sunday mornings. Every week while I was growing up my father made me get up, go to Sunday school, and then sit through church for an entire hour! He told me that I was supposed to be learning about my faith and my Christian beliefs. I definitely learned what the Christian beliefs were, but somehow I missed the lesson on how to make my faith grow.

When I got into high school, I was still wondering how I could make my faith stronger. Nothing I heard in church or in Sunday school ever seemed to make to make a difference in my faith.

I started going on retreats with my church and with other churches within my presbytery. It was at those retreats where I truly felt something happening in my life. Not only was I learning about God, but I was also learning by example. At these retreats, it didn't matter who you were, or what you did in high school, or what kind of clothes you wore. All that mattered was that we had come together with one common bond: we were Christians and we wanted our faith to be stronger.

I first started going on retreats when I was in middle school. Listening to high school students talk about God, and hearing how they related their everyday life to God, was an inspiration. When I was younger, I dreaded church and its activities, because it was so serious and there was nothing fun about it. During these retreats, I learned that church activities could be fun, and also made my faith grow. Even the simplest things like doing energizers after breakfast were fun, and the laughing and bonding while singing songs was strengthening our faith and our will to learn God's Word.

I was finally able to talk to people my own age about my experiences, concerns, and disappointments that dealt with my faith. It was amazing to know that other people doubted the same things and struggled with the same things I did. By being able to talk to my peers, I felt like a weight had been lifted, because for a long time, I was afraid that having all these questions and doubts was wrong. By finding out it was okay to question, a whole flood of questions came to me and I was ready to learn everything. Just talking to other young people helped me to explore my faith and make it stronger.

As I started to get more and more active in my church youth group, I started to notice something changing. I was anxious to learn about God and what his Word was all about.

It was when I was chosen for Youth Council that I really started to notice the difference in my life. It was an enormous amount of pressure, because "I" was going to be the high school student teaching the middle school students about God and Christian faith. Not only did I need a strong set of beliefs for my own personal convictions, but now I had younger people looking up to me, expecting answers.

When I did my first retreat as a Youth Council member, I noticed that by listening to the younger people, I learned things that I had missed at their age. I found that I learned from them, and that by having them ask me questions, and me finding the answers, my faith was growing.

Going on retreats and other trips with people whose faith was like mine helped mine to grow. I learned that no matter how much you go to church and Sunday school, you couldn't make your faith grow. It matures as you mature, as a Christian. You learn about faith by example. You can't tell someone how to have faith. They have to experience it for themselves.

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