Faith, Fairies and Phonies

It seems like faith comes easiest to children. After all, kids put their faith in their parents and teachers all the time. It's easy for kids to put their trust in God too. Believing in God comes as easy as believing in the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus.  The difference? God is real.

Then when kids become teenagers faith becomes more difficult--because they see the hypocrisy involved in faith. If we lump faith in God with faith in Santa and the Tooth Fairy, then when we discover parents fibbed about the latter two we assume that God's a phony too.

How do you keep faith real? Did you believe in God when you were a kid? Did you dump God along with Santa and Ms. Fairy? Or did you hang on to God? If so, how did you distinguish between the two...