Faith Brings Me Home

Many years ago as a small child I was taken to church and introduced to religion. It was not a matter of whether to be a religious person or not, but you did it because it was the way of your family. I do feel like that is important in order for families to find values to support the development of a family. I often questioned whether the church was doing the right thing or not. As I grew up and went to college, then things like hypocrisy made me begin to look into what it was all about. I see now that my questioning was mild compared to how most young people see that Christian faith today. Even though some of them come from homes of faith, then many of them do not know what to believe or how to believe. They simply see Christianity as not being real. I ask myself with my life experiences....why do they not believe? It had become a lifestyle for me. You went to church, and you prayed, and most became baptized or as they call it saved. Why do I believe as I do today?

One day at work, I was in a hurry to get in my car and go 43 miles to work commuting from one state to another. I was a mother, and parent and school teacher. That day I went to work, I never knew I would have stepped into my automobile and found out there was no gas. My car was basically empty on my gas gauge. I had no money on me, and no check-book or credit card to use. I had no choice but to get in my car and begin to drive, as I reflected in my mind. I had started on a trip to go 43 miles home and on empty. My light came on my car for having an empty gas tank by the time I had reached 2 miles outside of town. Back then, there were no cell phones in my car. I could call no one to come and help me. I realized the danger of being stranded in the wilderness with no money, no gas, and being late in the day. What was I to do? Life never prepared me to think like this. Then a small voice in my mind asked me a question. It said do you have faith? I was thinking about my faith. Where was it today with no gas in my tank. I said to myself, "God I am stranded and I need your help!" At the moment, I decided it was either I was going to be stranded or take my leap of faith. My car kept on going, and I coasted it up and down hills without putting on the gas peddle. I tried to use common sense, but I knew it was going to happen to me before long. I kept driving onward and onward. I got to my city and the state, and I wondered how that was possible. I could see my neighbor-hood coming up and a gas station was in front of me. My car coasted right into the gas pump and the engine stopped. I got out and asked the store to let me use their phone, and I called my husband, who was only a few blocks away to come and fill my tank with gas. How did I ever reach that station to coast in without any gas?

I have to say that putting faith in my tank was some life experience, but it does not end there. My daughter was only a small baby then, but in using my faith I taught her that sometimes moms have to do strange things like praying for miracles to happen. Putting your faith in the miracle is important. One day this scenario happened in a strange way again. I came out of the bank with my 8-year-old daughter in the car, and I started to crank that car up in the parking lot. My gas needle said I had no gas in the car. It would not crank up to move my car to go home. My daughter looked at me, and she said to me, "Mom remember the time when you had no gas and you came home to me 43 miles on a prayer?" I looked at her, and I held her hand and we prayed by the same faith I had before for my car to crank. Low and behold my car cranked, and I went ten blocks to the gas station, and I made it. We often are in a hurry and forget to check the most important things like gas in the tank of your car. I think I have to count my blessings for sure, because someone taught me that faith matters. I hope this will be one of those times that you do not forget that he is there for us, and sometimes the asking teaches our children to have the faith to endure life's struggles. Faith has a lot to do with the outcome of our lives and what happens every day of that life.

I am challenged by young people or old who do not have the thought of there is really someone there to listen to your needs. I cannot give to them my heartfelt experiences. It was grown within me from an early age. It is not about sitting in a church or going every Sunday to worship. It is about knowing whether you are on a road to somewhere all alone that someone will be there and you are not alone. The spirit teaches you how to deal with life's crises. I would say to listen to your thoughts, when they come and you realize they are not yours, but someone attempting to direct your mind. I had no magic happen, when I was baptised. I thought it would, but the real meaning behind my faith was having faith, when I was alone.