Thanks for a perfect Sunday-morning devotional, Jennifer. It occurs to me that some choices are out of our hands: you did not select your parents, or Rochester, New York. The Heavenly Father selected them for you. Along with the nature you received at birth, God mixed in the language of faith with which you were raised.

I love this: "I have come to believe that who we are informs how we relate to and interact with God," precisely because "who we are" is a partnership between God's choices and ours. Also, I'm considering how I can decorate my office with the phrase, "there are as many lexicons of faith as there are faithful people." I'm glad that you are not only a stranger in a strange land, but that you've found peace--and God's presence--there.