I am up early because my kids are off schedule from when they got sick and I decided to write an entry. When I was about 4 years old my uncle read me a few bible stories and taught me about God in the simplest way a child could learn. He was only 15 and his parents had long broken their promise to raise him Catholic. He told me the story of Moses first and I recall sitting in my bed and listening to him with such astonishment. I was so enthralled with this Creator that talked through a bush which didn't burn yet was on fire. And I was amazed and interested...captivated by His might. When I realized he can do all things and is not limited by anything I instantly trusted him. At age 5 like many American children I was enrolled in kindergarten and because of the few lessons and prayers I was taught by my uncle, I prayed before lunch and before bed and as often as I knew how. I was deprived of our Lord in the way Catholics get him but I loved Him nonetheless. I believed in Him better then than I do now. At some point in Kindergarten there was a lice outbreak and my hair was susceptible to lice. If you're ignorant of what lice are: they are bugs you get on your head or clothes or body and are not easy to get rid of. Google it or ask your mom haha. Anyways many students became infested myself included. And I cried many tears of shame. But when my parents failed to remedy the lice right away my first being I thought to ask was God. I figured if He could make man from dust, woman from rib, and bushes burn without burning then he could get rid of the lice that caused me great suffering, embarrassment and also prevented me from going to school. So I got on my knees by my daybed and prayed and asked God to cure me of lice. And with upmost sincerity I said "God I know you can do it. My mom can't and my dad can't and I can't please cure me of the lice!" And I went to bed and I believed. I trusted him. I just gave Him my problem and I woke up the next day and showered and Mom checked my hair and they were gone. And I tell this story not to prove Gods existence or prove miracles but simply to say this: children trust so much believe so strongly and hope greatly. Now that I'm grown and can receive Christ in holy communion and know about God in a more "in depth" way I have actually more pride and less trust than I had when I was just an ignorant child...little more than a pagan because I had no baptism, no catechism and no church...just a teen aged uncle, a novus ordo precious moments bible, and two hands folded in prayer. I loved God more then than I do now. And I hope to regain some of that trust and humility. Practice makes perfect I hope.
Prayers and practice....
I just want to add...that this entry is not an argument for ignoring ones faith or not taking serious interest in ones religious studies. The untold portion of this story about a memory from many years ago is....by the time I was 9 I stopped caring about God and His majesty. Due to very little religious instruction, sometimes none, and nobody to teach me my faith, no baptism, no sacraments, no mass, no one to teach me to pray, no example etc...I lost interest and I strayed and eventually fell into paganism, and more dangerously...I eventually went with occultism, agnosticism and atheism.
It took very little to get me started in a love for God but I needed more to build up more and keep it going. And it took just as little to make me resent God. Religion is always needed to keep the faith, to help the fruit grow and flourish...
If you have the faith, sacraments and the treasure trove that is the Catholic Church then don't let it go...we know it's not simply belief that keeps one strong. Even Satan believes.
