It’s there….
How can you as a parent ensure your children grow up with a basic understanding of your strong moral and spiritual values?
I grew up listening to my parents and family say that God exists. When you are younger, you have little choice in the matter really about what to believe because your parents can do no wrong, right?
So i went along to church every Sunday, listened to the sermons and teachings, sang the Sunday school songs with the other children and watched curiously whilst people raised their hands to the heavens crying out to God with intense emotion lost in worship, and thought, this couldn’t be all an act right? There must be a God? Is it just me, or have you ever wondered this?
As the years went by, I felt a growing desire to find out more about God myself. Why did God allow such bad things to happen in the world & why did so many Christians that claim to follow and worship him, still go back to their normal selfish, mean-spirited judgmental selves on Monday morning? I certainly didn’t want to fall into that category. I had so many questions and at times I was so conflicted, I even questioned if God even existed.
However, when you realize that you woke up this morning, that you are healthy and you have a roof over your head and food to eat unlike many others, you feel humbled. When you think of so many situations that worked in your favor, so many prayers that were answered, so many incidents that could have gone horribly wrong and you somehow survived, you cant help but feel incredibly blessed. There is so much in life to be thankful for.
I look around me and think of the planets, the universe, the laws of nature, the moon, the sun, the stars, how everything has been perfectly placed there by design. I think of our amazing complex bodies, the miracle of life, the capabilities it has to heal and restore itself, including my faith and I am sure there is a GOD.
It wasn’t until years later, when going through my own personal ups and downs in life, that I felt IT. I don’t know how to explain what the IT was, but IT was definitely there. IT was a knowing; a peace; a feeling; a sense of comfort and protection from a higher power. I found myself, reaching for my bible, reading the prayers my mother had taught me; listening to the uplifting hymns and songs I’d hear my family sing and going back to the IT to spiritually refuel.
You see, I remembered how my mother used her faith to carry her through times of trauma, knowing there is a God who loves us unconditionally and allows us to go through tough times for a reason in order to grow is a comforting feeling. Now a mother myself, I know that my children will be faced with similar challenges in life that unfortunately, I will not be able to save them from. The greatest lesson that i can pass down is to encourage them to have faith and carve out their own unique relationship with God and find their IT.
Lesson:
Faith is like wi-fi. It is invisible, but it has the ability to connect you to what you need.