There Can Be Miracles: The power of faith - Guest Post

Today, I have the pleasure of sharing my blog with author, Lynda Faye Schmidt.  Her newest book, The Holding is being released today, so we are celebrating with this blog post.

I want to thank Lynda for her words and for the courage to share herself with the readers. I would also like to thank her publisher, Anne O'Connell for the opportunity to read and review The Holding. 

There Can Be Miracles: The power of faith 

by Lynda Faye Schmidt

The world is weary, the energy is heavy, two years later and Covid still a force to be reckoned with. Fear, lockdowns, restrictions, illness and death have taken a toll on everyone across the globe in some form or another. It can be easy to get caught up in the negativity when it seems to come at us from every tv channel, newspaper, and social media platform. But we don’t have to. We have a choice how we respond to life’s challenges.

In my opinion, our attitude, beliefs, mind-set and faith, all fall under a similar umbrella. They are choices we make. We can choose life-affirming beliefs that enrich our experience and create success or we can elect fear-based theories that crush our spirit and shut us down. Our beliefs are ours to form, even though they might have been passed down or taught to us, we can change. Our attitudes are impacted by our personalities and our values are shaped by our parents, teachers, schools and communities. But how do we develop faith? 

In earlier times, the Church was the cornerstone of society. We were raised with whatever tenets of faith our religion taught us. But as more people turn from religion, what stands instead to guide our values and inform our faith? It isn’t an attitude and it’s more than a belief; it is a feeling. When you feel it, you know it and believe in it without question, and yet when you don’t feel it, no amount of wanting it can create it. You can’t fool yourself into believing something. Jesus knew in complete faith that he was the son of God. He preached we are all God’s children, all created from the same source of love. But so many people today feel separate, less than, and alone, unable to feel the presence of God or Spirit or Source, whatever word you choose to describe the Divine being that transcends language. 

If you want to know faith, the pathway is inside you and you can access it. And yet, like with everything, you can’t know what you don’t know. If you are searching for a kicking-off point, you can walk into any church or synagogue or place of worship and listen to a service to see if what is being offered resonates with you. If that isn’t what you’re yearning for, you can make a trip to your local library or bookstore and browse through their spirituality section. You might find inspiration in the words of spiritual gurus like Eckhart Tolle, Pema Chodron or Louise Hay. There is so much spiritual wisdom out there, just waiting for you to access it. 

If you’re needing some inspiration, doubting that no amount of faith will convince you that miracles exist, I’ll share a few from my own life, past and present. 

I suffered the devastating experience of being repeatedly sexually abused at the age of four. I was too young to understand what was happening or to protect myself. I didn’t know much about God, but I didn’t need to, because God was with me throughout it, every single time, holding my soul in the spiritual realm where there is only peace and love. I wasn’t conscious of it, I didn’t pray for it, but during therapy as an adult, I remembered. 

When I was pregnant with my first child, I was overdue, walking off contractions, when my placenta tore. At the hospital, I discovered my baby’s heartbeat was dangerously low and that I had to have an emergency caesarean. Before the anesthetic took hold, I prayed to God to please let my baby be okay. Moments later, a beautiful, perfect little girl came into this world, a girl who turned out to be one of my angels incarnate. 

When I thought I couldn’t go on, overwhelmed with unhappiness and feeling stuck in an unhealthy, abusive relationship, I somehow found the strength during my deepest moment of despair, and that strength came from two angels. My daughter moved mountains to be by my side and my father, who had passed on several years before, appeared to me and told me, it wasn’t my time to go. When I wasn’t looking, I found love. When I was told I shouldn’t conceive anymore children because of my own health challenges, I gave up on my wish for a fourth child, but then I met my adopted daughter many years later, and my wish came true. When I was told there was no cure for Lyme’s disease, and yet, I am. 

Sometimes the miracles are harder to see, but they’re still there, when we look from the perspective of faith. The miracle of new life, of a new dawn, a new day. The miracle of a chance meeting with a friend leading to a life-long dream come true, of my books being published. The miracle of healing the relationship with my daughter, after the fallout from a disclosure and family trauma that almost destroyed it. 

I’ll end with one of my favourite lines from the heroine of my soon to be released novel, The Holding. “I believe in things you can’t measure, like love and the power of faith.” It is a beautiful world and you can behold miracles, when you believe. With faith, we transform our experience on this earth into something deeper and more powerful, that gives us strength and hope and the ability to endure. It helps us to be our best and to reach our highest purpose.