Day 7 - Beginnings - On Faith

I've been thinking about faith.  It has been part of me for most of my life.  I was baptized in water as an infant, but my faith began a few years later.  It was the day I recognized that I could talk to God, and I felt He was hearing my prayers.

As a small child, I heard prayers being said and was prayed with.  I wasn't sure exactly how I should pray.  I had a little book of prayers that I loved.  It held all kinds of prayers for children.  One night I took it to bed with me.  I propped it open on my pillow, elbows on each side of it, hands folded.  With head bowed and peeking through my fingers, I began to read, Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.  As I read those simple words, I felt that God was there with me, listening.  Not only listening, but caring.

After that night, I began to speak to God from my heart.  I remember the night I prayed God would let me live with my Grandma and Grandpa.  I loved my momma so much, but she worked long hours, and perhaps I was picking up on her unhappiness.  Something had changed.  I didn't know it for a long time after, but my mother had cancer. God answered my prayer in a matter of days.  Momma sat me down and asked if I'd like to live with my grandparents. I was filled with joy and excitement!  It was my first palpable answer to prayer!  God had heard me!  He became real to me in a way that I'd not known before. Just so nobody misunderstands, the answer to prayer was not the cancer, which she had been fighting already, unknown to me. It was feeling God had seen my loneliness and confusion, in our situation, and placed me where I needed to be.

Every person's faith has a beginning point.  A defining place that stays in the core of their being.  No matter how many trials have come my way, I still find peace through my faith.  It carries me through the storms of life and increases my joy in the tranquil times.

© 07JAN12 ajj