I have a confession.

I was raised in a Republican household. As an adult, I do not vote Republican.

Now, I don't write this to insult your politics, faith, or whatever else you hold dear. I write this because I wish I had known these things far sooner than I did.

When I was younger, I was enrolled in a CCD class through “our” church at the time. I was excited because other kids in my class also went to CCD and I was happy to be one of the “cool” kids. It was like happy hour for 10 year olds. For one of the art projects we had to choose an object and paint a word on it that reflected our faith. I painted in bright blue letters, “GOD” on a smooth, oval rock.

How remarkably telling that looking back, I couldn’t come up with a word that described my faith (tolerance, love, forgiveness, humility, acceptance); I just went with “God”… because that’s who we all answered to.