Does your faith help you when times are tough?

[nearlythree]

Not just Christianity, but any faith.

Its a difficult one. I'd have to say there are times when it's helped and there are times that because of what's happened, its had a huge impact on my not wanting to go to church. My beliefs never changed, but I couldn't go to church.

To a certain extent it depended on how strong my faith was at the time. I'd like to think now that I'm a lot stronger and could cope better with things. I can see a lot clearer how what has happened in the past has had a part in shaping how I am and what I believe.

Sorry - it sounds really vague and woolly!

Mine definitely does. It's the first thing I think of in times of trouble and it also makes me constantly grateful for all my blessings.

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know what you mean MaryBS - my nephew had a serious road accident and wll the time he was in hospital my sister said she couldn't pray - not because she didn't believe in God anymore but because she simply didn't have the emotional energy. She said afterwards that it was Ok as she knew loads of other people were praying for him. I think the support of a community (religious or otherwise) helps enormously when times are tough and that, to me, is my faith supporting me.

I dont have a named faith. I dont believe in a "god".

But when times are hard, I know that if I try my best then that is more than enough, and that I have the power to change my life. Things that are beyond my control, I know I have the inner strenght to cope with. If optimism was a faith, I'd call myself an Optimist.

Hope that makes sense lol!

yes and no. i wander into churches when i am in distress and it does help; i certainly count my blessings more since the birth of dd which i had begun to regard as an impossibility. i quite often look up to the skies and smile (like a footballer in the world cup who had just scored a goal!)

Yes, my faith helps enormously.

It is part and parcel of who I am, without it I am not whole.

For me the crunch was when my (ex)husband went off with another woman and kicked me out of the house. I got little support from the Catholic church. The expectation was that I would either eventually get an annulment (highly unlikely as my ex had already said he would refuse to cooperate - at that time they were taking 10+ years to come through if at all) or I was to spend the rest of my life on my own without a husband and without ever having children.
I didn't believe that was what God wanted for me, so I had to leave the Catholic church. It took me some time to come to terms with all that, but through all that I still believed in God, just struggled to go to church (without bursting into tears anyhow!)

I went to humanist funeral last year - the chap had died of a heart attack leaving two young children (primary school ages) and he had also been full time carer to his bedridden wife. It was enormously sad, and saddest of all was the expression of there being no after life, so this was it, the END. No meeting again in heaven or anything. His young son had written a tribute which ended 'I wish you didn't have to die'. It was so final and it felt that there was little one could say to comfort this poor family.

Thanks for all your replies, it's given me a lot to think about!

Yes my faith helps, but it also stirs up emotions that maybe wouldn't be stirred up if I didn't go to church. When things have been at their worst I guess I have felt closer to God than ever and I only realise that when I read back to what I wrote at the time.

Sometimes I think that my faith has in some respects caused some of the problems that have happened and that has been difficult to deal with but choices people make are through free will and my faith (God ) has always been there to pick up the pieces afterwards.

I definately think my faith helps, though I struggle with my what is expected of me as a muslimah but its like my MIL said to me the other day, prayer can achieve everything, might not be today or tomorrow and not exactly the way you wanted it but I'm continually blessed in so many ways and with so many things.

I feel like even when my iman (faith) is low, so many blessings still come my way and help me find my way back to Allah