Faith- believing in something could be the answer you have been looking for.

I've never been one to post much about God, religion, or spirituality on this website, but there comes a time in everyone's life where you must stand up for who you are and what you believe in. 

I don't categorize myself in a religion at all. I am not a Christian, Hindu, Muslim, or anything like that. I believe in the Bible, I believe in Jesus Christ, I believe in the power of prayer, but I believe there is much more to God than what we allow ourselves to go into. The mystery of God is hard for us to grasp and understand- we as humans tend to run from what we don't understand or we lock it out and treat it as if it is wrong. I would say that I am more a spiritual believer than anything else. I don't like labels, I know many people who call themselves Christian but act far from it- they don't walk in love, faith, or peace- and I have at many times been ashamed to be walking in the same faith as some of these people. Now- no one is perfect, we all fall short, it is how we handle it. We must learn from our mistakes and move on. See things as a learning experience. 

I was raised in a Christian household. There are many denominations of Christianity- I happened to be raised Pentecostal- for those of you who don't know what that is, they are usually the people that believe in the speaking of tongues among many other things. In many ways I was blessed to be raised this way, but I look back on it and feel that I was taught in a way to fear things that I didn't understand fully. For example, I used to fear people of different faiths. I was scared that somehow it would make me not as good of a Christian to be friends with them or even in school I was scared to learn about the faiths. As I have grown older I have had the pleasure of getting to know some people of different faiths. I know some people who are Muslim who are just like me or my family- they just believe in something different. I have also had the pleasure of getting to know some people of the Hindu faith. I have to say at times I am fascinated by the commitment that these two faiths seem to have that Christianity doesn't seem to hold. For instance, people of the Muslim faith pray many times throughout the day (not all of them but many that I have met do). I don't know many Christian people who actually stop what they are doing multiple times a day and pray to God- and that is just me being honest. There was a time in my life that I did not pray often. There were weeks that went by where the only time I prayed was a quick blessing before a meal. 

My faith has a lot to do with my practice and what I do for a living as a practitioner. I feel that God has given me the natural ability and the love for helping others heal. I have to say that I don't think any faith or religion has it 100% right- I think if we all stop pointing fingers at each other and see the good in each faith, we could learn something valuable from each other. The moment that I quit pointing fingers and assuming that people were wrong who believed differently than I did, a whole new world of knowledge, understanding, peace, love, and just plain God was opened up to me. My relationship with God is 100 times stronger than it ever was before. I still read my bible, I still pray with my clients, I still pray everyday before God, but I also do Yoga. Not just the stretching, but the meditation and breathing that is involved. I will have another post where I go more in depth with what Yoga really is-- and I may even have a quest writer for such a post! 

One thing I would like to get across in this post is the importance of faith. The scripture says "Faith without works is dead". You can even take that literally, with this example, if you do not plant the seeds to a squash -- a squash will not grow. You can't go out to the garden every single day and wonder where the squash is that you never planted, but if you plant a squash- a squash may come. The squash might grow or it might not grow, it all depends on how you nurture it- and even then sometimes nothing comes of it. I would like people to take that example and apply it to their lives. If you go somewhere and believe that you will be healed of an ailment or that you will feel better and have a positive attitude and outlook- more times than not you will feel better. There is always that slight chance that nothing will happen and you will leave feeling the exact same way and in even slighter chances- you might feel worse. More times than not though, if you believe that you will be healed or you will get better- then you will, but you have to have faith that you will. 

When I work with clients one of my first questions to them is "Do you believe that you can get better from seeing me?" If they say "yes" then I know there is a pretty good chance that I can help alleviate or heal the ailment or problem. If they say "I don't know", then I know that I have the ability to help them see the little things and hope that they will believe that they can get better and overcome what they are going through. If they tell me "No", then I do my best to believe for them. 

I would like to strongly encourage each of you who read this post to get back to or find something to believe in. If you want to believe in Jesus, then believe in Jesus, if you want to believe in other faiths then believe other faiths. Get some good information and really learn- don't just believe many of the common myths- ask questions! Find something to believe in- because this world is much bigger than you or me. Get back to the basics- that is what I did tonight. I spent the night not being able to sleep, but I got up and dove into the scripture and feel more alive and awake than I thought possible!

áldás
Jessica Kellaway NP, HC

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