The best bargain: Faith is free!

I am always looking for a bargain yet sometimes forget that the greatest things in life are free. The past few weeks my family was dealing with a difficult situation, it was one of those things that seemed devastating. Yet, in reality, it wasn't. We spent a lot of time wondering why it happened.  We also spent a lot of time praying and are very blessed to have the wonderful support of our family, friends and church to help us get through it.  As always,  God's plan worked and we are happy with the resolution of our situation.  We were reminded that God will never give us more than we can handle. Last week, my cousin experienced a terrible tragedy, something that I can not imagine, something truly devastating.  I quickly realized that my "difficult situation" was nothing. 

I didn't grow up going to church, my parents talked about God and definitely believed in God but it just wasn't something we did. During college I started attending church occasionally with some friends, we didn't go every week but went somewhat frequently. I met my husband my Senior year of college, when we began to get serious and talk about marriage we started attending church together.  After we were engaged and had been attending church together for several months, I began the process of becoming a Catholic, my husband 's religion.  I enjoyed learning more about Catholicism and the Bible in general.  Needless to say, even though I always believed in God, I found my Faith later in life. We had both of our girls Baptized in the Catholic church and attended Mass weekly, last year I attended adult education weekly and learned so much than I could have imagined, now that our girls are older and are beginning to learn I am continuing to learn and grow my Faith with them.


Sometimes I am reminded that our Faith, the greatest gift of all, is free.  And only gets stronger the more that we rely on it.  I am so thankful that God lead me to someone who helped lead me to my Faith. There is not much I can do to ease the pain of my cousin and her family, expect pray for them.  I ask God to grant them peace and help ease their pain and heal her broken heart. I also ask that you keep her family in your prayers during this difficult time.

Today, I was reminded how truly fragile life is, not to be taken for granted.  To celebrate life, my family had a nature day today.  We went on a beautiful drive with gorgeous fall foliage, we also went on a hike through a couple of nature areas in a National Forest.  An area that is 25+ miles from a stop light and 65 miles from a McDonald's, no cell service, no Blackberry or iphone, just a family enjoying the sun and sights and a few pepperoni rolls.  Watching my kids laugh and smile at the simple pleasure of a waterfall or throwing leaves at each other was wonderful.  We are so busy with our lives: work, school, sports, dance, Girl Scout, 4-H but need to remember to take a few minutes and enjoy the most wonderful and free gifts that God has provided us!

My family

 

 

They help renew my Faith daily.

Note: This was by no means intended to "promote" the Catholic church or my religion.  While I am Catholic, I truly believe that there is good in most churches and that Heaven will be filled with my friends and family who are Baptist, Methodist, Protestant...whatever.  I have just had such sadness for my cousin and was truly reminded that the greatest things in life are free, not bought with a coupon at CVS or Wal-Mart.