I received an email a few months ago that inspired this blog entry. A woman in her late 50’s wrote to me about her fear of losing her faith. She’s had a very rough past couple of years. As I read everything that she has been through, my heart was heavy for her.
She lost her husband of 30+ years to cancer. And his diagnosis came 5 years before he passed away. She told me how he suffered and how she watched him day-after-day try to make it through another day of pain. She has a grown son whose wife (her daughter-in-law) and their two precious children had been killed in an automobile accident. The wreck took their only grandchildren. And now she was experiencing some health issues. She told me that part of it was probably due to her losing so much weight and not eating healthy. She talked about how she had lost her appetite and that she didn’t even want to leave the house. The last few lines of the email asked me to pray for her and to send her some words of encouragement.
As you can probably imagine, by the time I finished the email, I was sobbing and praying for her. I never thought for one second that she was losing her faith. She would have never asked me to pray for her. She was hurting…hurting in a way that I cannot imagine, but she still had faith.
I immediately prayed for her and wrote back to her. I told her that I could only hope to one day have the kind of faith that she has. Inside my email I asked her to reach out to a Church family or a grief share program. Two days later she emailed me and thanked me for that. She had contacted her Church and had already met with people in the Church.
We don’t know why things happen. And there are some things that we will never understand. But we have to stay in faith. She told me in her last email that it was her faith that kept her from dying. That she knew she was not alone, but she needed someone to tell her that. I am so glad that she reached out.
Ride with FAITH. No matter what happens, keep your faith. Keep believing that things are going to turn out for your good. Remember that your darkest times are just before your biggest blessings and you will never be given anything that you can’t handle. The disappointments are God’s way of saying “I have something better for you”. Be patient. Hang on. Keep a smile on your face and your head held high. Better days are coming. Ride with FAITH. ~Charity M. Richey-Bentley
Sending you blessings of love and gratitude from Sterrett, Alabama!
Charity
Copyright © Charity M. Richey-Bentley 2018
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