Thoughts about faith

"Whenever you work toward a worthy goal, you exercise faith. You show your hope for something that you cannot yet see." - True to the Faith. I never really thought of faith in that way. Its silly that I havent because I guess thats the whole definition of faith, but I think I am begining to understand it a little more. Faith is the feeling that you have when you first start something. Its the begining of a project where you haven't had any results yet but you hope that there will be. For example, when you like a boy and you start to flirt with them (for the lack of a better example). You don't know for sure that they like you, but you hope that they do. Because you have hope, you act on that hope by exercising faith by flirting. The hope is the thought and faith is the action. Knowledge is what you gain after all that you do and you realize that you were right all along. In the scriptures they refer it to a seed. Whenever you are planning on planting something you are hoping that it will grow. If you didn't hope that it grew then you wouldn't plant it. You have faith so you plant it and nourish it. The hope gives you the courage to exercise faith and therefore receive the fruits of your labors when the plant grows and blossoms.
In that context, everyone has to have faith to do anything. You have to have faith that when you get up in the morning that your legs are going to work because you get up and step on them. You have to have faith that you will be able to breathe when you sleep when you close your eyes and relax. You have faith that your car wont blow up when you get into the car and drive away. Even in the beginning, when you turn the key, you are exercising faith because you began with hope when you thought about turning the key, and it was the faith that caused you to put the key into the ignition and turn. It makes a lot of sense to me now. I understood it for a long time but I guess I didn't quite let it sink into me the way that I have let it now. I realize that I need to exercise more faith. That's probably why I don't finish things because I lose my faith. I doubt that blah blah blah or I doubt that he will blah blah blah etc. Its letting go of doubt and taking that "leap" of faith. There is no real evidence that your faith will be rewarded, you just do it.
If you think about it, faith is a very courageous feeling. If you were a coward, then you wouldn't have the faith. You would be too afraid to do something that there is no evidence of. (which is the very definition of faith). It is also essential because nothing would be able to function if you didn't have some sort of faith that your labors would result in anything. Faith is the driving force of the whole universe. Faith is what keeps us going, its what keeps us alive, its what makes the world beautiful. Its not just a religious thing either, it is connected to everything. I never really understood just how important faith is.

Ps. The picture that I found was after a long tedious process. :) I am so picky. I started out looking under the topic "faith" and all I found was a lot of cheesy pictures and pictures of Faith Hill (the country singer). Then I looked under plant/seed and there were a lot of pictures of people holding dirt and a seedling, which I thought was too Twilightesque (blech). So, I decided on this picture because its a Oak tree seedling. I think its cute, especially with the bigger oak trees in the back. Shows that we all got to start somewhere. :)