Passing On Faith in Sad & Difficult Times

Throughout our lives there will be many times when we experience joy and are able to share it with our family. Times when we rejoice together. Times when we celebrate.

There will also be times where what we experience is sad and difficult as well. I personally have a friend who is going through a return of her cancer and a friend from church who is experiencing a difficult cancer diagnosis and treatment as well. Another friend just experienced the death of a member of her family - absolutely sad and difficult times.

It is easy to point our grandchildren to God when times are happy, but it is no less important for us to do so when times are sad and difficult. Yesterday on my personal facebook page, I shared a "snippet" from a new book I'm working on. Today I'm going to share it with you. I said . . .

"David was described by God as a man after His own heart, and yet, there were times in his life when he felt sad, when he felt despair, when he felt like God forgot him, rejected him and even hid from him. In those times he could have made the choice to walk away from God, sink deeply into despair and stay there or become angry; but if you read other verses in these chapters – or chapters following – you see David made the choice instead to draw near to God, to turn to Him, to find shelter in God, receive comfort and to 'develop' and 'grow' in his walk with God and in his prayer life. Life’s sad and difficult times caused David to 'develop' a strong 'Prayer DNA'.

This is one way we also may 'develop' and 'grow' a strong 'Prayer DNA'; by turning to God, choosing to draw near to Him when we face sad and difficult times in our lives and by trusting Him. We will all face sad and difficult times in our lives. Times when others betray, hurt and let us down. Times when we do not understand what God is doing. Times when we face disappointment. But in all these times we may either let them push us away from God as we choose to become angry with Him and walk away, or let them pull us closer to God.

David faced these difficult times and he let them pull him closer to God. His prayers in Psalms show us this. And, our prayer life is able to do this as well. One thing which helps develop' our 'Prayer DNA' into a treasure for future generations is when we face difficult and sad times. We are 'real' people and 'real' people have difficult and sad times in their lives which go into 'developing' the 'picture' of their lives. David was a 'real' person. And just as his difficult and sad times helped David 'develop' a strong 'Prayer DNA', they will help us do the same!"

When you - and those you love - experience the sad and difficult times of life, let them pull you closer to God. Share this with the children you love, so as they experience these things in their real lives, they will know to make this same choice, too!