Day 5

Today I am grateful for my faith.

I am a deeply private person who has a hard time sharing my religion.

Along with being grateful for my religion, I'm grateful for all the diversity in the world.

Whether you believe in God, Allah, Buddha, Shiva, or any type of spiritual being, or not,

it doesn't matter to me as long as a person has beliefs and convictions 

and does what they can to be a good person.

I'm not writing this post because I want to parade my religion around for 

everyone to see, 

I've never been that kind of person.

I have beliefs that have gotten through my darkest times.

I do believe there is a higher power that plays part in my life. I know this from this 

past month and different experiences through my life. 

I know He's there, but it seems like in extreme situations, I really know that and I can feel a presence.

My last experience was Josh's birthday in Vegas. 

We were walking around when my back started to hurt.

Like REALLY started to hurt.

After a visit to the local ER, we found out I had a kidney stone. 

If you've ever had one, you know the excruciating pain. 

It never lets up, and it just keeps pounding you down.

When we got back to the hotel, there were no more flights out that night and I had to wait until morning.

The pain pills made me sick, and I couldn't take any pills until I could eat something. 

Such a viscous cycle.

So that whole night, while my poor, exhausted husband was

 sleeping for a couple hours, 

I tried to lay quietly in bed and not move too much. 

Writhing in pain, I thought I was going to die. 

Quite literally. 

Kidney stones pain is often compared to child birth, 

but the women I have spoken with have said it is worse than child birth.

I haven't prayed that hard in a really long time. I told God that I just wanted to get home. I didn't make drastic promises to change my life or anything like that, 

I just prayed that He would give me the strength to survive this and to help me get through it. 

And He did. 

There were times that night that I actually drifted off to sleep amidst the pain, 

but I was granted a little reprieve.

Some people would call that endurance. I call it heavenly intervention.

That is why I'm grateful for my faith. 

My faith is always there for me when things don't turn out quite how

 I expected or when I need a  little help.

It helps to keep me going and encourage me.

It gives me hope.