How I Strengthened my Faith (& You can too!)

Hello everyone! Thank you for stopping by my blog! Today we are going to be talking about faith. If that makes you uncomfortable, thats ok, it used to make me uncomfortable too…and still does a little. The topic of faith often falls into the category of “things not to talk about a dinner parties”. So following that rule I never did, and when I found myself not talking about it, I started to lose it.

A little background before we get started… I’m a young woman raised Catholic by my family. I attended a Catholic high school and really only attended church occasionally. Attending mass was something I did mostly with my school and I stopped going all together when I went away to college.

The why and all that stuff is a post for another day. This would be a really long post if I got into it all, but if you like me writing about this kinda stuff, I can definitely do it more 🙂

Read & Journal

Alright – lets gets into good stuff (hopefully the reason you clicked on this post) .. How I strengthened my faith! It all started with a new years resolution… no seriously!! I made only 2 this year: run more and strengthen my faith. I left them very broad so that no matter how I ended 2019 I would feel proud of the steps I made towards my goals… no matter how small!

First things first … I bought a dang bible! Yes… I did not own one, nor did any of my family members. So I looked on amazon for something cute and found the Beautiful Word Bible. I was looking for something I could use for both reading and bible journaling. This is such a beautiful book inside and out – it has amazing illustrations on each page and plenty of room in the margins for writing!

At the beginning of the year I used first5.org and shereadstruth.com which are both websites and apps that offer free bible studies and daily readings. This makes reading the bible much less daunting. You can study one book at a time and have guided questions to follow. I paired my reading with journaling. I would copy a passage that I really liked, or write how I connected to the daily reading.

Others items that I have found helpful for beginners like myself are devotional books. One of my favorites is 100 days to Brave by Annie F. Downs.

I recently purchased the One Year Bible for Woman and have really, really liked this! This is something I use now daily instead of the Beautiful Word Bible I mentioned above. I was getting overwhelmed and needed something I could spend 15 minutes reading daily. This book literally helps you read the entire bible in one year. Each day is a 15 minute reading with a passage from the old testament and the new testament.

Find a Community

Don’t limit yourself to only thinking you can find a community in a church, He doesn’t live there either 😉 The first community I found online was actually through a podcast I listen to.

Heres the back story … Have you heard of The Morning Toast? It’s lit podcast/online morning show for millennials. They talk all things pop culture with some world events… They have a private facebook group that has now spread to multiple sub groups. This community has changed my life. I listen to Jackie and Claudia daily and am so thankful for the community they have created (all of us Toasters are!).

Ok so toast group sub groups – I am part of two a Christian group and a Catholic focused group. Why this group was so helpful, was because it was a place I could ask questions and not be judged. It was so important to me to find other women like myself I could connect with. The moderators of the group run bible studies and keep the conversations tame when controversial topics come up 😉

I would love to find a group in my area that I could connect with, but for right now, I’ll stick to my online friends.

Pray

When I say “pray” I mean conversation with God. I realized when I started doing this, how long I had not been doing it and when I had been doing it, I wasn’t doing it meaningfully… I was just asking for things. I’ve adjusted the way I’ve prayed over the last couple of months and this has really strengthened my relationship with Him.

I am not doing the traditional on my knees next to my bed routine type prayer. I’m more so just including Him in my day, every day. When I wake up in the morning or when I’m driving to work or when something has stressed me out or whatever! I just talk to Him as I would a friend. I always make sure to include thanks and gratefulness in my conversations and ask guidance on things I struggle with. I’ve found through this that things are not just given for free (duh), but all the tools and pieces are given to the solution. It’s our job to put the pieces together.

And thats it! Simple right? Everyones path and journey is different, what is listed above is just a few things I’ve started doing this year to help strengthen my faith. Remember there is no right or wrong way. It is YOUR way and what works for you!

If you have any other tips please or ways you’ve strengthened your faith let me know below! I can’t wait to read them!