What is true religion?

Sometimes I wonder about my inadequacy as a mother leading her children to Christ.

If my faith hasn’t changed who I am inside, then what possible good can it that faith be for my children?

I don’t want my faith to be a doctrinal statement of faith, passed down like a cultural tradition. If this faith is not an active, vibrant, life-transforming faith it is like sawdust in my mouth.

This is what I want to know:

1. Can faith in Christ transform the drunkard from a man of spirits to a man filled with The Holy Spirit?

2. Can faith in Christ heal the abused child, bandaging those wounds until the scars become a source of strength?

3. Can faith in Christ spur a man to provide for his children?

4. Can faith in Christ quell sexual lust and instead, bless a marriage with fidelity?

5. Can my faith in Christ take a word of criticism toward my husband and transform it into a gentle word of love?

This is the kind of faith I am interested in.

If my faith in Christ is not a life-altering, life-transforming, powerful antidote to the the ravages of sin---then I might as well throw it out with the trash.

I want my children to come to Christ not because I took them to church every Sunday but because I showed them through my own life how the very hand of God wrought a miracle in me.

I want my children to come to Christ because they can see some reflection of Christ in me, not because I drilled religious duty into their personalities.

Can God to take my inadequacy as a weak human being and be it ever so dimly, shine some small reflection of Christ through me?

For me, that's where the theories of religion intersect with the reality of a life lived by faith.

How has faith in Christ changed you? Please share!