Answering His Call

From childhood, many of us have the experience of being on our knees and saying our prayers.  Usually, it begins with the Our Father, or maybe our own petition, but we have had some experience in prayer.  It is through our prayers, that we can finally open up and listen to God’s will for us.  But, for many of us, prayer, or even knowing how to pray is unknown to us, and we sometimes doubt his work in us.

A Personal Testimony

When my daughter was 3, and I was about to start homeschooling her, I was feeling lost.  Lost to what programs I was going to use, how I was going to begin, just lost.  I started to look for some of the best programs that I could use, but never really feeling confident in them.

I would like to say that I am a prayerful person, but at that time in my life, I have made the many excuses that we all make, “not enough time”, “can’t fit it in”, or simply, “I forgot to.”  But this time, I truly needed guidance, and prayed.  I knew I didn’t have all the answers.  I knew that I was lost, and I didn’t know what to do.  I needed help, and there was one direction to turn.

I had learned what it was to finally humble myself and pray.  I prayed every day, for guidance and direction.  There were times when I doubted I would ever receive the help I was seeking.  I believed, but my unbelief needed help.  Still I prayed.

It took time, but my prayer was answered, and that was just the beginning!

My Prayer Opened Up Doors In My Heart

Last year, I started my first year of homeschooling my daughter with the curriculum that I prayed for, and everything began to make sense.  It was through homeschooling her, that I have rekindled my faith.  I had always been faithful, but I will admit that I had become lukewarm, and unwilling to learn more.  I felt that I was satisfied with what I knew.  But I didn’t understand that I didn’t know much.

Through homeschooling: the thirst to know more, to learn more, to understand more about my faith has grown.  My heart had opened up wide from that first humble prayer that I had offered.

Lighting A Fire

As my faith began to grow, my family had noticed a change in me.  My change has made them curious, and wanted to know what happened.  Soon, I found myself, sharing more with my family and noticed that there was a change going on in my whole household.

My family as a whole has become more prayerful and more mindful.  Their renewal in their faith has been as reverent as mine, and we are now sharing and reading, and learning more than we ever had before!

It all Begins With Prayer

I will not take the credit for my whole family’s renewal in their faith, because I understand that God was working through me, and them.  I understand that each of us is given a puzzle. When we share that piece with others; things begin to make sense.

For me, it started with a prayer and like a flower that blooms under the warm rays of a spring sun; I find that I’m still blooming.

“God calls man first. Man may forget his Creator or hide far from his face; he may run after idols or accuse the deity of having abandoned him; yet the living and true God tirelessly calls each person to that mysterious encounter known as prayer. In prayer, the faithful God’s initiative of love always comes first; our own first step is always a response. As God gradually reveals himself and reveals man to himself, prayer appears as a reciprocal call, a covenant drama. Through words and actions, this drama engages the heart. It unfolds throughout the whole history of salvation.”

2567 – Catechism of the Catholic Church

How have prayer opened doors for you in your life?