Keeping Your Faith Through Life
By: Alexa Barnette
Sometimes life can put you in a questioning spot. Should I stay with my faith? Or should I follow a path of no religion? In my mind, I have always thought about ideas like this, but never really knew what to do. Over the years though, I have come to the conclusion that I should stay on the path of my faith.
"He replied, 'Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.'" (Matthew 17:20). In this Bible verse it shows how with faith you can do amazing things. Now obviously if you believe in God and his son Jesus, you aren't going to be able to magically tell a mountain to move. I mean lets get real, us humans can't do that. But you know what we can do with our faith? Keep it and spread the word. As Christians we are taught to learn the word and spread it all around the world for everyone to know. We can do this if we keep our faith and stay strong with it. Matthew 17:20 is actually one of my favorite Bible verses because it shows that if you have faith in the Lord, you can do anything, and be anything. The verse expresses how your faith can put you on a better path.
As a child, I didn't grow up around a very religious family. We went to church on holidays, and with friends, but my family didn't go that often. It was sort of hard in my family though, I was Greek Orthodox, my mom was Methodist/Baptist, and there weren't any churches with both religions. For awhile we would switch off. One time we would go to Old Bethel Methodist Church and once we would go to the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church. But, after some time things in my faith just seemed to stop. I stopped going to Church, Sunday School, and Greek School. For awhile, nothing seemed to happen in my religious point of view. In fact, for a moment I didn't even think about God, except when praying every now and then.
Everything change when I had my first day of school at Trinity Lutheran School. With a Bible in my backpack, I took my first steps into a Lutheran school. I was totally new to everything. I didn't even know the Lord's Prayer then. But something happened, it's like it clicked. This is where I need to be, with faith. So I learned more and more about the Bible, becoming more with my faith. When I started at Holy Cross, my faith grew even stronger. It was even more memorable. I still remember classes with Pastor Sattler in 5th grade. Its amazing how strong your faith can get in only a few years.
Always keep your faith and fight for it when at times it is being challenged. In the story of Esther, her faith as a Jew was put to the test, but she stuck by it and survived. Click here to learn more about her story. Faith is a big step in life, but I believe if you can hang on to it, you can do anything.
