What I’m Reading: Faith and Hope

I am the youngest of three and the only girl in my family. It was rough growing up with two older brothers who thought they knew it all and believed there was little use for a sister other than trying to traumatize her with scary stories, spiders, and snakes. I was the annoying one who wouldn’t leave them and their friends alone. In my defense, their friends were the only ones that came to the house. Who else was I supposed to play with?

Like most siblings I’ve met, we saw each other through the lenses of our own experiences. My oldest brother was the one who got rewarded for grades that my other brother and I got naturally. My middle brother was the one who got away with anything because my mom and dad thought he was perfect. Both of them got to do fun chores because they were boys, while I got stuck inside washing dishes and cleaning toilets. Of course, to them I was the little princess who got off easy due to being the only girl and the baby of the family.

These perceptions mixed with our differing personalities created plenty of drama while we were growing up. They can still create drama now, though it’s less frequent and far less intense than it was when we were children.  Now, it tends to stay at fun-loving ribbing and recounting the woes of childhood. But back then? Our differences could have started a new world war.

Faith and Hope, the sisters in Amy Anguish’s book by the same name, are just like the rest of us. Faith sees her younger sister Hope as one in need of growing up. When Hope is all-but forced to spend the summer with her, Faith steps into the role of mother whether Hope needs one or not.

Hope doesn’t need a mother. She needs a new job that fits with her plans for her future. She especially doesn’t need a mother like Faith whose dreams have effortlessly fallen into place for as long as she remembers. There’s nothing more frustrating that struggling to see your dreams become a reality when everywhere you look you see them coming true for others.

Their differences create tension and drama for the sisters as they struggle to learn how to get along as adults living in the same home. But things are not always as they seem, and the close proximity forces Faith and Hope to see things below the surface in each other’s lives. As they gain new understanding of the events going on in each other’s lives, Faith and Hope have a new opportunity to learn how to appreciate each other and forge a friendship that reaches beyond their differences.

It’s an opportunity we all have in life whether we have siblings or not. Biases based on our own perceptions are easily seen in siblings, but they enter into all areas of life. At work and church we see people and make assumptions. This person is unfriendly and to be avoided. That person has everything they’ve ever wanted handed to them on a silver platter and doesn’t know how to work for anything. We look at one facet of their lives and determine whether they are worth our friendship, trust, and time.

While we do this, they do the same with us, and we all miss the opportunities God may be trying to give us. Differences don’t have to be bad. Working together with other personalities can provide balance we lack. And that cranky person we avoid like the plague? When we take the time to get to know her, we may find she’s overworked and underpaid and feeling like she’s in over her head. Alleviate her suffering or simply walk beside her, and you may find a completely different person than you originally thought existed. You may find a friend to walk beside you too.   https://www.amazon.com/Faith-Hope-Amy-R-Anguish/dp/1945094834/