Simple Believing Childlike Faith

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BeluvdLily

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My family is going through a really hard time right now. My husband has been unemployed for a year, I’m unable to work and am waiting for a ruling on my disability case and our 21 year old son who lives at home is out of work. We are in Ohio where things are pretty bad and everything just seems hopeless. And then with my health problems and such, I’m worried about the darned H1N1. Everything just seems bleak and hopeless.

So I got to thinking that I just want so much to have a simple, believing faith in God that this will all work out and that we will all be okay. I don’t want to lose my home or go through any of the things that could possibly happen and I just want to put my hand in God’s and trust Him but it is soooo hard! But I’ve decided I’m going to work at it. I just get besieged by fear.

Anybody out there mastered just simply believing in God with childlike faith??? Any tips? Even if you’ve only had glimpses of it? I just really want to turn loose of all of these problems over to God and trust Him. I’m so bad to want to control everything esp. in this situation.

I’ll take Bible verses, saints to pray to, inspirational words or tips of any kind. lol. Even just sharing your own experiences. We (the whole country) could all use some encouragement right now.

Help! 🙂

Thanks
 
I feel like it’s growing in me over time. I’m definitely closer than I was about two years ago, however. I think it started for me much like it’s started for you - God threw problems at me, and I wanted to just trust that we would get through them.

Some thoughts that have helped me:
Work as if everything depended on you, pray as if everything depended on God (I think this is a paraphrase of St. Ignatius)

Duty before holiness (where holiness means ‘piety’ - I think this is St. Francis of Assisi?)

From myself - God doesn’t want us to give Him anything that He hasn’t already given us, since we can have nothing except what he has given us. So offer Him what you have been given by Him, and know that it is enough and that you are loved. This helps me when I feel like I am too busy and overwhelmed to give God the time for prayer that He is worthy of. I have started to realize that God isn’t giving me an hour every day to spend in quiet prayer and to want that instead of what I have received is ungrateful, so I give Him what He does give me instead. I offer Him my work at my job, my labor, as a form of prayer - even though I need to keep my mind on my work, I can invite God to be with me, and somehow that does transform what I do. Thanking God while I walk with my daughters, or when they climb into my arms. Asking Him to bless my loving husband, and thanking God for our love when we kiss.

I think another thing I do is to do everything I can on a new problem as quickly as possible, and then place it in God’s hands again. I try to get to the point where worrying is pointless so I can spend as little time as possible worrying, and when I want to worry I remind myself that God is in charge, and I’ve already done my part. I try to hand my fear and other emotions that betray a lack of faith to God’s hands, to be transformed into something more holy.

Spend time with a child, and watch their faith, and imitate them in those things that reveal Christ to you. Or think back upon your own childhood, if you remember it, and try to recall how you thought about God back then.

And of course, pray for that faith. Day in, day out, beg God for faith. Ask Jesus to help you know Him, ask the Holy Spirit to be with you. Ask God to give you grace, and to help you receive His grace. Ultimately, He is the one who will lead you to that faith. We can’t find the way without Him.

So . … there’s my experience so far. I can’t wait to see what others say, since I want to grow in this virtue as well.
 
Wow! Thank you so much for your wonderful advice from your own experiences.

I espcially like the part about working as if everything depended on me but pray as though it all depended on God. I get so caught up in all of that. I don’t want to try to force things to happen but I do want to do my part while not interfering in what God is trying to do for me. I’m trying to find that line.

This thread is off to a great start. There’s a lot of wisdom in that one post!

Amie
 
That’s a lot of cross you are being asked to carry - you must be a great friend of God. When Fr. Corapi lectures on Jesus’s healing of Jairus’s daughter, he keeps repeating what Jesus said - ‘fear is useless, what is needed is trust.’ Maybe some Divine Mercy Chaplets, Jesus, I trust in You.’ I can speak as someone who has seen God do amazing things when I have stopped pushing and trusted Him. He has done things in my marriage, with my children, with me - that I couldn’t even have imagined - my desires were petty next to His blessings.
I don’t know what the formula is - I just tried to figure out what He asks me to do. And it’s basicaly the same for all of us - pray, adoration, love Him above all else, love others, etc.
I read a book called ‘the 10 prayers God always says yes to’. I didn’t like the title at first because I thought it bordered on testing God. But I read it and it was not offensive to God, I think the Church would approve of it. But one of the prayers I deliberately tried to practice was the one about God always outdoing you in geneorsity and I have seen Him work this in my life multiple times in the last several months. Oddly enough, today’s Gospel reading was about the woman who donated her 2 coins.
Childlike confidence. Remember when you were a kid, you never thought about whether there would be food to eat - you just knew it would be there.
God bless you dear sister. Continue being the Christian you are called to be and all these things will be given unto you. Ask you and shall receive. Knock and the door will be opened unto you. God bless.
 
Look, H1N1 is nothing to worry about. Regular flu kills maybe 20 times more people every year. I also know two, maybe three people who’ve had it officially, and were good as new in 3 to 4 days.

Perhaps you should spend some more time in adoration, or go to daily mass on the spur of the moment if you can. Adoration does wonders for you. Just give God a bit more of your time and He’ll give you sooo much back!

You should get involved in very basic, self-fulfilling things, such as gardening herbs and flowers, so even some kinds of veggies or fruits if you can. Just making things gives you a lot of simple happiness, since people have been doing this since the beginning of time.

Also find your local catholic library (most of the times at your church… I didn’t even know we had one until recently!). Try to find books by Fr. Paul O’sullivan. They’re very uplifting, and just might help you to see God’s hand in your life. Pray like crazy for God to allow you the gift of discernment (I think nowadays they call it wisdom… one of the fruits/gifts? of the Holy Spirit. Anyway it’s being able to see God’s work all around you). Perhaps regaining that knowledge of dependence on God will help.

You should also get your hands dirty and pray outside an abortion clinic. Wow! Talk about a new level of faith. I mean you’re down on your knees on the sidewalk, people giving you weird looks, talking to you… You feel like you’re back in early Church history when people scream at you and insult you, and you might possibly have a run-in with police who unlawfully tell you to get out of there, that people like you aren’t allowed to pray here. It’s heavy stuff…

You know how all of the people that Mary and Jesus appeared to, and all of the apostles were all poor simple people. Most of them worked outside, or worked with their hands. They saw God every day in nature around them. Anything you can do to get away from the noise and the money and just enjoy God’s creation as He wants you too would help so much!!

I hope this might help:blush: I’ll be praying for you!!
 
r4j:

You have made my day with the thought that I must be a friend of God’s due to all the crosses. I really do love God and really want to do the right thing but with all the problems sometimes I just feel in a state of confusion as to what to do next but I am going to take much comfort in what you said.

Also very encouraged with regard to what God has done in your family, marriage, children, etc. I have many concerns about my son too but I continue praying in that area. I love the idea of not pushing and trusting God. I think the pushing comes from fear and I’m trying hard NOT to do that. Thank you so much.

ljubim:

I am not usually the type to worry about illness, don’t usually catch things and don’t worry about germs/sick people/etc., but I think since I am diabetic and have other other immune system problems like inflammatory arthritis, fibromyalgia, etc. that is why the H1N1 has me worried. I’m going to try to put it in perspective. I do tend to let my imagination run wild.

I really like the adoration idea. I’ve only been Catholic for a few years and have never been to adoration (shame on me). It is definitely something I need to do. And daily Mass, etc. With the problems I’m having, I should prob be there every time they open the doors! lol.

I do feel that the worse things get the more I do tend to focus on simple things and find enjoyment in them and thankfulness for them.

Thanks so much for your prayers, everyone!

And please don’t think it’s all doom and gloom. I feel that we get miracles almost daily just to get through and I appreciate them. God is definitely here with us. It’s just a scary time right now and I just want to come out stronger on the other side and have that faith that God wants us to have.

Amie
 
BeluvdLily said:
ljubim:

I am not usually the type to worry about illness, don’t usually catch things and don’t worry about germs/sick people/etc., but I think since I am diabetic and have other other immune system problems like inflammatory arthritis, fibromyalgia, etc. that is why the H1N1 has me worried. I’m going to try to put it in perspective. I do tend to let my imagination run wild.

I really like the adoration idea. I’ve only been Catholic for a few years and have never been to adoration (shame on me). It is definitely something I need to do. And daily Mass, etc. With the problems I’m having, I should prob be there every time they open the doors! lol.

I do feel that the worse things get the more I do tend to focus on simple things and find enjoyment in them and thankfulness for them.
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Oh please do go to adoration! You’ll love it, I can tell 🙂
For me the simple things are learning foreign languages. I’m going into college next year and I’m going to feel so useful and take comfort knowing that the apostles were some of history’s greatest multi-lingual people. And look at all God did through them in the world! If not for them, we wouldn’t be catholics. My hero is St. Cyril, who created the entire Cyrillic alphabet (the Russian alphabet!) to bring the Church to the Slavs (my ancestors!) 😃
And I’m hoping to get into gardening too… probably not right now but a few years down the road 🙂
Well I’m sorry about your illnesses 😦 Just keep praying, remember the bible says (somewhere:shrug:) to keep persisting when you pray, ask God again and again for what you need and sometimes He will change His mind and give it to you anyway because of your faith. Offer up your worries for others like you. The kids at Fatima couldn’t say enough how important sacrifices are. And they obviously did something right, they’re blessed enough to be in heaven right now!:heaven:
 
I think persistence is key.

Pick whatever devotion speaks to your soul and pray it fervently and frequently. Your heart will eventually convince your mind to have that child-like faith.

So many good people have many heavy burdens these days, but thankfully we can trust that the source of our strength will not fail us.

And I’ll say a prayer for you and your family tonight.
 
It sounds like your family is under attack by the evil one - but HAVE HOPE!

Fortunately, our Loving Father provided an unfailing model of how families should live - The Holy Family.

Joseph didn’t have it easy, but through him all that Mary and Jesus needed was provided. You can consecrate your family to Jesus through the Holy Family - and never be afraid again. Everything you need to do this is free, and online at: familyland.org/content/Content.aspx?CategoryID=652

My family was on the verge of being destroyed, and losing everything we have, and breaking up because of unemployment, indecision, ignorance, and lack of faith in God to provide all that we needed. Being lifelong cradle Catholics active in our parish alone was simply not enough! A novena to St.Joseph for employment and handing all that we are over to Jesus (through the consecration) , (just as JPII consecrated the world in 1984), changed everything. It is 5 years later now for us, and we now lead a group of 8 families meeting weekly praying the rosary and continuing our faith formation, all as a family. Our faith now IS our life. Job, home, car, etc are all now just tools to help us live our faith, not our life anymore. Amazing how our Lord can use crisis to help us get our priorities straight!
Best of all, our family is happy; truly happy! No-one can take our Lord away from us! I can’t begin to tell you how precious it is to see this on the faces of my children. They have no fear, and are excited about the future, whatever it brings.

YBIC,
G.
 
garyr said:
It sounds like your family is under attack by the evil one - but HAVE HOPE!

Fortunately, our Loving Father provided an unfailing model of how families should live - The Holy Family.

Joseph didn’t have it easy, but through him all that Mary and Jesus needed was provided. You can consecrate your family to Jesus through the Holy Family - and never be afraid again. Everything you need to do this is free, and online at: (UPDATED LINK) - familyland.be/family_consecration/introduction-to-consecration-to-the-holy-family.html

My family was on the verge of being destroyed, and losing everything we have, and breaking up because of unemployment, indecision, ignorance, and lack of faith in God to provide all that we needed. Being lifelong cradle Catholics active in our parish alone was simply not enough! A novena to St.Joseph for employment and handing all that we are over to Jesus (through the consecration) , (just as JPII consecrated the world in 1984), changed everything. It is 5 years later now for us, and we now lead a group of 8 families meeting weekly praying the rosary and continuing our faith formation, all as a family. Our faith now IS our life. Job, home, car, etc are all now just tools to help us live our faith, not our life anymore. Amazing how our Lord can use crisis to help us get our priorities straight!
Best of all, our family is happy; truly happy! No-one can take our Lord away from us! I can’t begin to tell you how precious it is to see this on the faces of my children. They have no fear, and are excited about the future, whatever it brings.

YBIC,
G.
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Great testimony garyr. God doesn’t waste anything. And Amie - you are a warrior and God loves warriors. Someone metioned Fatima - I was listening to something yesterday on Fatima and part of the message was ‘offer everything as a sacrifice’. You certainly have a lot to offer.
 
Thank you all so much for your replies! This is such a great uplifting thread and it does my heart good and encourages me. We had a better week last week with some unexpected blessings that really gave me a bit of a break from worry and I’m reading the Bible daily and persisting in trusting God.

When I think of all we are going through and I know that there are probably a million (or more) other families with these struggles I just want to pray for everyone. But I still see God doing things for us daily and that’s important.

You are such a great bunch of people offering support, prayers and advice! I plan on getting to adoration soon and getting back to my daily Rosary. Somehow I find that to give me a lot of strength and it’s kind of gotten lost in the shuffle.

Amie

(P.S. Anyone who feels inclined, please pray for my son Spencer. He is 21, living at home with us and is recovering from heroin addiction. He’s doing well and is the light of my life but it’s really the scariest thing I’ve ever dealt with. He just made some particularly bad decisions previously but he has a heart of gold and is trying hard to do the right thing now.

What is so scary is that apparently heroin is now cheap, easy to get and the new popular drug in the schools. Just a friendly warning to anyone with kids. We are a normal family and my husband and I do not do drugs or even drink but this stuff is out there. We do not live in an urban area. We are in a nice neighborhood, nice schools, etc. but it’s here. Please be vigilant with your children! I would have never dreamt this could happen. Looking back I can see some things that were not right but there were no obvious, loud warming signals.)
 
ljubim said:
Oh please do go to adoration! You’ll love it, I can tell 🙂
For me the simple things are learning foreign languages. I’m going into college next year and I’m going to feel so useful and take comfort knowing that the apostles were some of history’s greatest multi-lingual people. And look at all God did through them in the world! If not for them, we wouldn’t be catholics. My hero is St. Cyril, who created the entire Cyrillic alphabet (the Russian alphabet!) to bring the Church to the Slavs (my ancestors!) 😃
And I’m hoping to get into gardening too… probably not right now but a few years down the road 🙂
Well I’m sorry about your illnesses 😦 Just keep praying, remember the bible says (somewhere:shrug:) to keep persisting when you pray, ask God again and again for what you need and sometimes He will change His mind and give it to you anyway because of your faith. Offer up your worries for others like you. The kids at Fatima couldn’t say enough how important sacrifices are. And they obviously did something right, they’re blessed enough to be in heaven right now!:heaven:
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I just had to respond to you. I also love languages. I have been working on teaching myself Spanish. I plan to eventually take it at a local community college. I would love to be able to speak several languages. I just think it’s so cool.

For me, I’ve found art to be a great thing to take my mind from my problems. I love all art but especially find comfort in religious paintings, sculptures, etc. I just finished up an Introduction to Art course online through our local college and it was just amazing. I can’t wait for the next class. And luckily we have the Dayton Art Insitute nearby which is really nice and free. Yay. 🙂

And trust me, I am praying and I’m becoming the queen of offering it up! lol. I am just grateful to have blessings as well as crosses and believe it or not, still have my sense of humor most days!

Thanks so much for your comments and suggestions. They are appreciated.

Amie
 
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