A friend of mine sent me an e-mail with the following in it:

allright brother,
 
so how do you keep your faith up?

I replied with the following:

Interesting question.  Personally, I hit my knees nearly daily, I keep a prayer in my heart, and when I talk in my head I’m usually talking with God.  I read scriptures daily, I actually read from three different books of scripture daily, one of them being Proverbs which I read twice a day.  I also read with the family daily.  In those readings we read from one book of scripture, one self improvement book, and from a nice historical fiction novel.  Then we pray together.  After that, and before we go to bed, my wife and I have prayer together.

Faith is something that happens step by step, here a little and there a little.  It comes over time.  It happens whenever you look out at a sunrise or a sunset and realize that none of this is a mistake, that all of this was created, and that you couldn’t have done it.  It happens when you look up at the stars at night and understand how little you know and how much is still out there for you to learn.  It happens whenever you look into your children’s eyes, or your wife’s, and see the love that is there and the love you have for them.  These are the tangible things.

Faith happens when you plant a seeds in the ground and some grow while others don’t.  At those times you realize that no matter what you do you are not in control.  Faith is believing in what you don’t see.  It’s seeing what you want somewhere out ahead of you and knowing that you will get there, someday.  It’s a journey that is filled with all the pitfalls of life.  But most of all it is in perseverance and not in giving up or giving in.  Faith is going on when everyone else tells you to quit.

Faith was when, during my darkest hour, when everyone else was telling me to quit and go home, I made a stand and although I lost a lot I’ve gained so much more.  Thanks be to God the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ.

Tags: Faith Hope Prayer Love Life

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