I want to start by saying that I'm grateful for all the wonderful, inspiring stories of faith I have read so far. Thank you to everyone for sharing how Heavenly Father touches each and every one of us on a daily basis. God truly lives, and He truly cares about us all.  Also, a big thank you to Merrill for sharing his faith, and for allowing us to see the Light of Christ through his eyes.

The past couple of years have been very stressful.  I, personally, have struggled with a painful muscle disorder that saps all of my energy at times, and makes it hard to function some days.  Also, illness has visited various family members in the form of heart trouble, cancer, and rheumatoid arthritis.  On top of that, we lost a cousin, a neighbor, a family friend, and then a co-worker to suicide....all in the span of a year.  Dealing with all of that, plus witnessing the chaos out in the world these days, makes it very challenging to have faith in a loving God who cares about me personally.    

But I want to share something that I truly believe was a direct answer to prayer, and that blessed our family greatly.  My little nephew, Blake, was two years old at the time.  He was in his crib taking a nap.  Downstairs, my Brother was trying to get some much needed relaxation while watching a football game.  But he wasn't focused on the game.  He found his mind wandering, and thinking about all of the stressful things our family was experiencing at that time.  While my Sister-in-Law went upstairs to get Blake, my Brother found himself thinking:  "Wouldn't it be nice if God would give us some kind of sign....just a small one....to let us know He is there and that He cares about us?"  Two minutes later, my Sister-in-Law came downstairs and told him:  "Blake just said he saw an angel."  My Brother just looked at her with a shocked look on his face and said:  "What?"  She repeated:  "Blake said he saw an angel."  Now as far as they both knew, Blake had not yet been introduced to the concept of angels, through books, TV, or what-not.  Anyway, she continued:  "I asked him what the angel looked like and what the angel was doing, and he said: 'She was shiny.....and she said she was delivering peace.'"  This was coming from a two year old who was just learning to put sentences together.

My Brother was astonished, and shared with his wife that he had just been thinking about how nice it would be to get a small sign from God that He was really there.  When Blake came downstairs, they asked him about it again and he kept saying:  "I saw an angel.  She was all shiny, and she was delivering peace."  Our family feels as though God heard the stress and pain in our hearts, and knew we needed Him to reach down to us in some way.  So we truly believe He sent us a message of peace through our little Blakey.  To this day, Blake still periodically announces out of the blue that he saw an angel who was delivering peace.  He still remembers it, and he always tells it exactly the same way.  Talk about "out of the mouths of babes."

I just wanted to share that with you, and let you know that I truly believe our Heavenly Father lives.  I believe He hears us when we pray.....and even hears our hearts cry when we cannot find the words to formally pray.  God sees our struggles and He reaches down to touch us with love and encouragement.  All we need to do is slow down and listen to His Voice.  The Lord does care about each and every one of us PERSONALLY. 

God Bless, Wendy 
 

 

During my life I have had many instances where my faith was tested, and also many times in which it has been confirmed. The greatest testament of divine intervention I can personally give is the following story.  

In 1990, my husband died from colon cancer. At that time I was 27, and our son was 7 years old and our daughter was 3.  A little over a year later, my daughter was enrolled in preschool. One day in December, I went to pick her up after the class had gone on a field trip to a Christmas tree farm. When I got to the school, my daughter was not there.  he teacher was calling her name, looking all over for her. My first thought was that my daughter was left at the tree farm, but the teacher said no, she had returned to the school, she had seen my daughter herself. Well, my daughter was nowhere to be found at the preschool and I began to panic. I went outside and ran up and down the street. The mailman came by; I asked him if he had seen a little girl. No, he hadn't seen her. A jogger ran past, and I asked her if she had seen my daughter. Again, the answer was no. By now I was past panic. I was racing up and down that street, and all I could think about was that my 4 year old daughter was somewhere needing me, and I was not there for her. At that point I was above and beyond panic, and was starting to become hysterical. 

Then it happened. I stopped dead in my tracks on that sidewalk, and my mind totally cleared. I looked at that teacher and told her I had to use the phone and call my mother. I called my mother, and the first thing she asked me was where Sarah was. I told her I didn't know. And my mother told me that SHE did know, and she was just putting her shoes on to go get her.

It seems that my parents' neighbor, who was retired and listened to the police scanner quite a bit, had heard that the police had picked up a little girl named Sarah at a restaurant, where she had come in crying and asking for her mother. The neighbor called my mother, because he knew she had a granddaughter named Sarah. I told my mother I was on my way to the restaurant where the little girl was. Another parent drove me (I was in no condition to drive) to the restaurant, and upon pulling into the parking lot, there I saw my little girl sitting in the backseat of a police car. 

I remember that day like it was yesterday, and the feelings are just as fresh as well. I think it is meant to be that way in order that I will share this story with others, and will never forget that God is always there. I don't question the logic of that day, I just know that I can never be appreciative enough to God and Guardian Angels that watched over us that day, and continue to be with us today. My little girl is now 19, and she, and my son, who is now 23, are the lights of my life.  How lucky I am to have such wonderful children.

~Linda

I am what we call a Cradle Catholic (baptized at 6 mos. old). I had my 1^st boyfriend at 15 years old. What should have been a happy time turned into a nightmare. He became abusive in all definitions of the word. After a couple of years of this I got the strength to break up with him .(You’ll see where this fits in later).

Life was grand after that. I traveled, dated. I married a wonderful man. We have 2 boys. The children were baptized as babies and are being taught the catholic faith. I have both boys going to youth groups at church and the older one is involved with the life teen group. I decided to get more involve so I started to go to mass regularly. That didn’t seem to be enough, so I joined the Parents for Life group. The group was sponsoring a parents retreat last February. (If I wanted to know what the kids experience on their retreats, then this was for me). I went, and on the afternoon of the first day I had the experience of my life. During one of our small group sessions I was asked a question (can’t remember what it was) all I know is that I felt very warm inside and this overwhelming love embrace me. I couldn’t answer the question, I was crying so hard. I truly believe it was the Holy Spirit. I cried the whole weekend. From that point on I became a different woman. I am at peace. I can handle what problems come my way, Not as stressed out and I pray much, much more. I volunteer a lot a church. I even got the husband to volunteer to teach Religious Education classes. We attend mass as a family every week.

Fast forward….a call came to me last week at work. A voice I haven’t heard for over 30 years. My heart sank. It was HIM, my 1^st boyfriend. He was calling to apologize for making my early years miserable. He even called my parents to apologize to them too. Apparently he had a lot of time to think (in prison). I listened to what he had to say and then I said “I forgive you I truly do”. The pain is gone. I would not have been able to do that if it weren’t for my faith and a love for our Lord.

Many Blessings to you, Kim