FAITH
“Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe. ~ Saint Augustine
July 27, 2020
Hello Readers,
I don’t know about you, but I need a heavy dose of faith right now. If there was ever a year, I needed a mustard seed of faith to grow, it’s the year 2020. We’re only mid-way through and we’ve all agreed we’d either like a redo or at least fast forward past everything going on. The problem with those scenarios is we miss reaping the rewards of growing in our faith. Let me start by saying, I’m no stranger to hardships and what it means to believe in the unseen. I’m usually thoughtful about the photo I choose for my blog, and today’s no exception. I selected this picture for a couple reasons. It is one of the many locations in my second novel I’m editing; it represents an extreme moment in my life that required faith, and it reflects a view of more beyond our perspective from where we’re standing now.
Faith is a principal theme in my recently published book, The Counterfeiter’s Daughter, and in my work in progress, set to launch in 2021. It’s a driving force that propels my characters forward, motivates them to keep going, despite trials, and helps them persevere. Unlike ourselves, if we don’t have hope and faith, beyond what we see, we only glimpse the temporary captured by our eyes. We’ll never see beyond the pier in the picture above. Without faith we’ll remain motionless, we’ll never dip a toe into the water that leads across to the shore, or make it to the mountains in the distance and never discover what’s on the horizon. My characters throughout their arcs in my stories come to terms with the challenges of clinging to faith during hardships and, by the end of their journey, enjoy the benefits of trusting in what they couldn’t see in the middle of all the chaos. They had faith.
I recently realized how often I write my characters into near drowning situations. It took a second, but I discovered it’s a way for me to still work through a traumatic experience in my past that required immense faith. Many years ago, my two kids and I were spending the day at a beach club. We’d been there for a few hours and were cleaning up to leave. Both my children were still in the water when the lifeguards called everyone out for a safety break. Perfect time to leave. Except everyone came out of the water, except my daughter. I searched in panic as the water cleared. She was nowhere to be seen until the last person emerged from the water carrying a limp body in his arms. My body stiffened, heart pounding, and I gripped my son’s arm as I dropped to my knees. I cried out to God. I hadn’t been to church in years, hadn’t prayed in who knows how long. I didn’t know if God would listen, but in that moment the only hope I had was to believe with even the smallest amount of faith that my daughter would survive. The lifeguards took turns trying to revive her with no response. After two minutes she coughed and a massive amount of water expelled from her small six-year-old body. I gasped with relief. Later the incident would first take me down a dark path, but not too long after it brought me to a personal relationship with Jesus. I had faith.
Throughout our lives, we need to have hope and faith. There isn’t much else to cling to if we don’t and we’ll only be struggling to survive instead of living out an abundant life. Hopefully, my personal and fictional stories spark a glimmer of how a mustard seed of faith grows, thrives, and leads us to new horizons. I still encounter many trials and tribulations. Even a few years after the drowning my daughter suffered from uncontrolled seizures, not a result of the accident, and had a craniotomy then a temporal lobectomy. Once again a strengthened and renewed faith left her seizure free after the procedures.
It’s in our nature to reason and understand, yet we want to believe in miracles and the unseen. To see and experience something beyond the human eyes and mind, we need to have faith.
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. Hopefully, you gleaned a little inspiration and encouragement by reading my post. Stay safe and healthy, dear readers.
Victoria x
July 27, 2020
Hello Readers,
I don’t know about you, but I need a heavy dose of faith right now. If there was ever a year, I needed a mustard seed of faith to grow, it’s the year 2020. We’re only mid-way through and we’ve all agreed we’d either like a redo or at least fast forward past everything going on. The problem with those scenarios is we miss reaping the rewards of growing in our faith. Let me start by saying, I’m no stranger to hardships and what it means to believe in the unseen. I’m usually thoughtful about the photo I choose for my blog, and today’s no exception. I selected this picture for a couple reasons. It is one of the many locations in my second novel I’m editing; it represents an extreme moment in my life that required faith, and it reflects a view of more beyond our perspective from where we’re standing now.
Faith is a principal theme in my recently published book, The Counterfeiter’s Daughter, and in my work in progress, set to launch in 2021. It’s a driving force that propels my characters forward, motivates them to keep going, despite trials, and helps them persevere. Unlike ourselves, if we don’t have hope and faith, beyond what we see, we only glimpse the temporary captured by our eyes. We’ll never see beyond the pier in the picture above. Without faith we’ll remain motionless, we’ll never dip a toe into the water that leads across to the shore, or make it to the mountains in the distance and never discover what’s on the horizon. My characters throughout their arcs in my stories come to terms with the challenges of clinging to faith during hardships and, by the end of their journey, enjoy the benefits of trusting in what they couldn’t see in the middle of all the chaos. They had faith.
I recently realized how often I write my characters into near drowning situations. It took a second, but I discovered it’s a way for me to still work through a traumatic experience in my past that required immense faith. Many years ago, my two kids and I were spending the day at a beach club. We’d been there for a few hours and were cleaning up to leave. Both my children were still in the water when the lifeguards called everyone out for a safety break. Perfect time to leave. Except everyone came out of the water, except my daughter. I searched in panic as the water cleared. She was nowhere to be seen until the last person emerged from the water carrying a limp body in his arms. My body stiffened, heart pounding, and I gripped my son’s arm as I dropped to my knees. I cried out to God. I hadn’t been to church in years, hadn’t prayed in who knows how long. I didn’t know if God would listen, but in that moment the only hope I had was to believe with even the smallest amount of faith that my daughter would survive. The lifeguards took turns trying to revive her with no response. After two minutes she coughed and a massive amount of water expelled from her small six-year-old body. I gasped with relief. Later the incident would first take me down a dark path, but not too long after it brought me to a personal relationship with Jesus. I had faith.
Throughout our lives, we need to have hope and faith. There isn’t much else to cling to if we don’t and we’ll only be struggling to survive instead of living out an abundant life. Hopefully, my personal and fictional stories spark a glimmer of how a mustard seed of faith grows, thrives, and leads us to new horizons. I still encounter many trials and tribulations. Even a few years after the drowning my daughter suffered from uncontrolled seizures, not a result of the accident, and had a craniotomy then a temporal lobectomy. Once again a strengthened and renewed faith left her seizure free after the procedures.
It’s in our nature to reason and understand, yet we want to believe in miracles and the unseen. To see and experience something beyond the human eyes and mind, we need to have faith.
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. Hopefully, you gleaned a little inspiration and encouragement by reading my post. Stay safe and healthy, dear readers.
Victoria x
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