By Lia I.
Confirmation Class of 2015
Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. Proverbs 3:5-6
All my life, I’ve been trying to follow the path that the Lord has already set out for me, and I am grateful for all the things he’s given to me to stay on the right track. My family has raised me to be a Christian. They helped start my faith, and if I didn’t have them, I don’t know how I would’ve come to meet Jesus.
I also have made amazing friends who are great influences, and I am privileged that God put them in my life. I’m blessed with my choice to start swimming. It has taught me so many things, like setting goals and working hard for them. I’m also thankful for my ambition for success in school, and that I was given the gift of education that some people do not have. These are just a few things the Father has laid out for me, and so far, I feel like I’m headed in the right direction.
Even when it feels like my life couldn’t get any better, there are always those moments when I mess up. I fight with my siblings and disobey my parents. I don’t want to do my homework and I don’t feel like trying at swim practice.
These are the times when I don’t fully trust in the Lord like the verse says I should be doing. I mainly listen to myself, focusing on what I think, not what the Father says. I make the wrong decision and it feels horrible. I am human and I sin. But because Jesus died on the cross for me, I am forgiven for my wrong choices, and if I choose to listen to Him, He will redirect me towards the path that the He has already set out for me. All I have to do is repent, to be truly sorry for what I’ve done, and just ask for forgiveness. That’s the beauty of His grace.
My overall goal in life is not to fall away from the Lord, but to have a stronger faith in Him. My entire faith is a journey. It’s a process of learning about the love of the Father and striving to live out His love to show to other people.
In this current segment of my journey, I’m discovering more about myself and what God’s intentions are for my life. This verse challenges me to make the right decisions; and in order to do so, I need the Holy Spirit with me to guide me. For if I were alone, if I didn’t have the Father by my side, I would be nothing. The choices I would make would cause me to fall farther and farther away from Him, and my life wouldn’t mean a thing.
On this spiritual walk that I go through, there are hardships. These are the bumps in my trail that I end up tripping on, and I fall because I am clueless of where God will put them. Sometimes it is difficult to just blindly follow wherever He leads me when I don’t know what’s up ahead.
Over the last couple of years, the most significant bumps in my life involved the death of both my grandfathers. I couldn’t comprehend what the Lord’s plan was when I watched them putting a ton of effort in order to do the simplest things like speaking, breathing, or opening their eyes. I was wondering why they were still alive if they were straining so much to live.
When they finally passed, a wave of emotions rushed through me all at once. I was completely heartbroken that they wouldn’t be physically with me anymore, and I was relieved that they were healed, that they weren’t struggling anymore. I was at peace since I knew where they finally were, and full of hope for the time that I would go to reunite with them.
There is only one way I am able get back up and follow the Lord blindly when difficult circumstances knock me down. That would be the promise that Jesus made. Suffering here on Earth is not eternal, and death is not the end. This promise is what makes it easier for me to deal with hardships that I don’t understand sometimes like pain, stress and anxiety, or death, because I know it will not last forever.
Overall, this verse shows me that I need to believe in the Father always in order to accomplish my path, and there are two aspects in this trust. I must ignore my sinful nature and choose to listen to Him alone. I also have to follow Him blindly, trusting God when my own understanding, in regards to events in my life, does not make sense.
I am fully aware that my journey is not an easy task to overcome, but the Lord is continuing to help me get through it, and I will fully trust in Him for the rest of my life.
For more faith papers from the Confirmation Class of 2015, click here.
