I think many of us develop our faith as a result of hind-sight coupled with the practice of prayer and meditation. \u00a0I certainly didn’t “come by my faith” naturally. \u00a0I didn’t grow up in a family where it was openly practiced or even discussed. \u00a0At family gatherings my uncle said grace before eating but he was chosen only because he occasionally sobered up by reading the bible. \u00a0No one went to church on a regular basis. \u00a0No one. \u00a0I was in a church youth group in high school but I was the sole representative for our family at Sunday services.<\/p>\n
Fear absolutely ruled my life for more than three decades and my scanty involvement with church didn’t alleviate it. \u00a0I think fear ruled the lives of most of the members of my family even longer. \u00a0I would venture to say that my dad died still fearful. \u00a0He had turned to prayer finally, according to my mother, but I didn’t sense that he was comforted by it. He still seemed agitated most of the time about some thing that wasn’t going according to his liking.<\/p>\n
Perhaps my dad’s real problem was lack of acceptance. \u00a0He prayed but maybe he was too specific, too willful and didn’t appreciate that God was in charge of the time table. \u00a0Praying for God’s will rather than our own opens the door to understanding what faith actually means, I think. \u00a0And it’s a far different prayer. \u00a0Getting comfortable with “what is,”<\/em> rather than agitated about “what is not,” <\/em>makes sense to my simple way of thinking now but I wasn’t always in this place of acceptance. \u00a0It has taken decades of work in two 12 step programs to embrace acceptance the way its meant to be embraced.<\/p>\n If I want to experience peace in my life, and I do<\/strong>, then I have to give up creating chaos where none need exist. \u00a0God has my life under his control and He has sent the Holy Spirit to guide me quite specifically into and around the curves and road blocks that are common in this world of the ego. \u00a0My work is quite simple: let Him <\/strong><\/em>be in charge and I will arrive where I need to be.<\/p>\n Understanding what faith is from this perspective and allowing it to work for us <\/strong>makes any of the snags in the day tolerable, even gratefully accepted, knowing they are the threads that are giving color to the stages of our life. Perhaps it’s the coupling of maturity with hind-sight, but I love being able to “revisit” where I was and truly see where I am now. \u00a0The growth I observe assures me that what I wake up to tomorrow will likewise be a reflection that is rich in experience.<\/p>\n We are lucky, so lucky to have such a simple blueprint for making progress in life. \u00a0And our faith and willingness to accept what is serves as a \u00a0great role model for others.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I think many of us develop our faith as a result of hind-sight coupled with the practice of prayer and meditation. \u00a0I certainly didn’t “come by my faith” naturally. \u00a0I didn’t grow up in a family where it was openly practiced or even discussed. \u00a0At family gatherings my uncle said grace before eating but he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-what-i-believe-you-and-your-higher-power","category-your-experience-strength-and-hope"],"yoast_head":"\n