My faith in the begining

Faith is a personal journey. Each of us has to our own path that fits well with our families and lives. I believe that there is more than one path, religion to God. Today I would like to share with you how I came to God. It is only a puzzle piece to the whole story. Before I found God I lost him. It is true, I have always had a feeling that some supreme being was out there watching over all of us, and I personally was not alone in this world. A few years ago, about four since you asked my husband had cancer. As a result he started researching religions. He is a very meticulous man (One of the many reason I love him) he watched documentaries, he read books, he looked for the beginning until he was satisfied. He also discovered Asherah, God’s wife. There is a story that in the early Jewish religion that all of the priest that worship Asherah were taken to the top of a mountain and slaughtered ending the teachings of God’s wife for political reasons. When I learned about this I realized that all religion is manmade, I felt torn apart. Broken. I struggled for a very long while whether God exists at all. I told you I lost him. I no longer want to celebrate arbitrary holidays, that had lost all many and seemed to become over night about greed. At the same time our family was attending church irregularly. Churches that our friends liked. Churches that did not fit us. Not that anyone of those churches were wrong, they were spreading the word of God and praising him, helping each one of those people to grow. I felt lost, completely and utterly lost. Then Rob and I were asked to go to a small group about marriage. We agreed. This is where I begin to see the beauty of the Holy Spirit. It was through those women that spoke about God that I found the light. God is in each one of us, and if we let him he will work through us. I also joined a MOPS group around this time and again I found God not in the words of the bible (I have 6 versions) but in the hearts of the women at my table and around me. These women who were grateful for life, and were kind to me showed me who God wants us to be. I also watched The Case for Faith and found that faith is a choice. We can choose to believe or we could choose not to. It is a choice. I know believe that all Holy works were inspired by God by written by man. Man is flawed and cannot fully understand the Glory of God. We cannot know the truth. Why else would there be so many beautiful religions that Glorify his Name. None of them are wrong they are each only a small piece of the puzzle, none of them are perfect. We can only strive to do what is virtuous and honor God with our actions towards one another. Because you never know when you inspire an Atheist to believe, you never know when your hope raises another person’s heart .  You never know when or where but as long as you are striving to be better in the name of God he will work through you.

As you know we are working on becoming Catholic. One of the reasons that we chose this path is because the Church allows people to take a journey. Before you can be baptized, confirmed, or take part in the Communion you have to take a class to be sure that you want to commit to the Catholic Church. Many of the other churches we went to in search of the “one” would baptize anyone who wanted to be saved, and you could be saved by raising your hand. There is nothing wrong with this God is supervising and loves all of his children. God knew that I needed to take a slower path, I needed to come to him slowly. Now we have been attending Mass for 2 ½ years and at Easter we will be Catholic. That is not to say that our journey is over, no quite contrary it is only beginning.

Why am I writing to you about my faith today? I wanted to share part of my story, and I wanted to remind you to be gentle and kind and loving to others. Of course I know that you are wonderful as you are. Sometimes we can say things that seem very small but can cause great joy or distress. Be mindful of others. 

I hope that your week is bright with the sounds of Love and Laughter. Be well my friends.

Faith

I watched a movie awhile ago called "Faith like Potatoes" and I have been thinking of that movie this morning. Well and faith in a garden. We all need faith in something God, our co-workers, our kids, our parents, our family, ourselves, a small seed to grow into a fruit bearing tree that can feed both a family and our friends and we need to believe in our parenting skills because otherwise we would go nuts. We look and we search for reasons to believe in something. I have friends who believe that there is no God, and even that is a belief in something. It is a choice an individual choice, a personal decision to believe in anything. So if we are all searching, why do we as humans judge others for being different from ourselves? Here is the thing you can be an Atheist, a Baptist, a Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim, Islam, Jehovah Witness, Jewish, Non-denominational Christan, Buddhist, or any of the other religions that I can not think of in this moment when it comes down to it we all have to believe in something that can not be known for sure until the very end of our lives. We can not base our beliefs on the crazy extremist out there because they do not represent the mass of people who believe in that religion, but we can not condemn them either. We are all part of the human species, regardless of your personal outlook we must try to reach an understanding and promote peace. We can only start with ourselves. Peace and change starts at home. Don't judge your friends and neighbors ability to parent, earn money, or just live. We all struggle with something bigger then ourselves, every one of us. More then likely you will not know what anyone else struggles with. So don't push your style of life on to others, don't put another person down, don't try and discourage the people around you. Because if you do you will be left alone. It is hard to be alone. I want to be honest with you. I struggle. I struggle everyday about being good enough, strong enough, smart enough, and my list goes on. I am doing the best that I can, but I think I am not. I want to be a better person. I want people to leave me feeling better about themselves. I do not want anything back. That means you too my friend. I want you to know that as long as you are trying to be the best you can be that you are doing great.

Believe it or not this post was meant to lead into the garden. So today my faith is like planting a garden it is a small seed that I hope will grow to feed my family, and one day maybe your family too. A seed is planted, my seed is HOPE.

This is my friend Big Red. He is very territorial to the point he attacks his reflection in the windows of the house and the car mirrors on a daily bases.

I love his bright color. This live oak is all his. I have never seen another bird in it.

This is one of our Olive trees. This little two foot tall tree will grow into a ten foot tall tree that will bare up to 45 pounds of olives in one season. Yeah I think faith is like and olive tree.

Last year we planted garlic. They did not grow very big so we replanted them and here they are trying again. I am hoping that I will be able to use them in spaghetti sauce next year.

This fig tree started out as a branch that Rob cut off of our original fig tree. This branch took root and wants to be a tree. Faith is like this Fig Tree. If you work hard you can grow and change.

My friends I hope that you can see the beauty all around you. Maybe it is a bird that hangs out around the house or maybe it is the frost you find on your windows in the early morning, maybe it is as simple as seeing your children smile. We all are capable of becoming the people we want to be. You are worth it, you are good enough, you are strong enough. Just believe in yourself and you can.

I hope you week is filled with Love, and Laughter. Be well my friends.