I'm the kind of person who's open about her faith. If you've read my first book, Wrong, you probably remember the religious aspects of it. More often than not, you'll find me wearing the cross necklace I got when I was baptized. More than any of those things, though, my goal is for people to be able to tell I'm a Christian without having to see or read it somewhere.
The other week I was getting to know some of my classmates. I was filling out one of those questionnaires that help share a little bit about who you are when I saw the question. "Favorite bible verse?" it asked. For me, the answer has always been simple; for as long as I can remember, I've had the same favorite verse. 1 Peter 5:7- give all your worries to Him, for He cares for you- has always spoken volumes to me with my anxiety and OCD. However, over the past few months, I've been strongly drawn to a few other verses as well. I felt guilty, though; almost as though I was betraying "my" verse.
The thought of changing the verse I called my favorite seemed impossible. I'd wonder if I would even really want to. Part of me was afraid of losing the verse I'd identified with for most of my (admittedly short) life. The other part of me was afraid that I'd say the same verse was my most-liked one forever.
I had a thought: why was I stressing so much about picking a favorite verse? We pick favorite verses to share a bit of our faith with people. Other than that, it doesn't mean anything. God never says, "Hey, I really need everyone to choose one verse to be their favorite." We're never told that we have a limit on how many verses we can be really fond of. There's no real reason we can't love a lot of verses, or have favorites instead of a favorite.
So if someone came up to me within the next hour and asked what my favorite verse was, I'd tell them it was 1 Peter 5:7. While that still means a lot to me, and shows a lot about me, it isn't the only verse I really like anymore. To me, that just shows how my faith has grown. The more I learn about God's word, the more stories, verses, and passages I'll find that resonate with me, and that's incredibly exciting.