What Has made Your Faith Stronger?

It may be a cop out to reply with a one-size-fits-all word, but that’s just the way it has always been.

What has made my faith stronger? Storms.

Before I go further, let me cite the Bible verse that reinforces my belief. “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” (2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV)

I “inherited” my faith from, first, my grandparents, and second, my parents. But it was not until I got married that I came into my own.

So this will sound like a litany of storms of severe intensities. 

The bliss I will leave out because, every storm that God calms, I deposit the joy of relief in my heart, earning interest every day—exponentially multiplying beyond counting.

When I was pregnant with son #1, I had just been accepted in a new writing job. It was a difficult pregnancy, but I managed not to be fired. Shortly after my delivery, I was so ill I thought I had heart problems. It turned out to be hyperthyroid that took ten years of expensive medical procedures for me to get back to my normal functions.

Son #2 was an even more difficult pregnancy. I had to be hospitalized, with no bathroom privileges, to save the baby. We lost him anyway. How does one grieve the passing of a baby?

Son #3 (whom Tony and I call son #2 today) came a year after. The pregnancy was even more difficult because I had constant panic attacks caused by the trauma of my second pregnancy.

In between those pregnancies, my dad was diagnosed with cancer and suffered for four years before he passed. I could not attend his funeral because by then, I was heavy with my youngest son. 

More storms: my only brother-in-law died of drug overdose, followed by my father-in-law. How does one comfort a grieving husband?

Meanwhile, I continued to be a busy working mom who had to leave her three sons to yayas. I had no time to tuck them in bed nor read them a story.

Tony, who headed his own successful advertising agency, was suddenly diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, with staggering hospital bills. That didn’t stop him from barking orders in his office. 

A few years later, he had a quadruple coronary bypass, an open heart surgery, but he and his business both survived. In succession, my mom, mom-in-law, and only sister-in-law passed one after the other. How does one grapple with untold grief?

Fast forward to 50 years later. Tony has retired as I have years before he did. We celebrated our golden wedding anniversary in quarantine due to the corona virus pandemic.

Despite my absence and lack of mothering all those early years, our sons turned out well. Son #1, an engineer and software designer, manages our business; son #2 is a physician in the US where he lives with his lovely wife and an adorable son; son #3 is a lawyer and is a Dean in a university.

How could I have survived all those storms?

Faith.

It got stronger with every severe onslaught on my sanity. Here I am today, writing books and books (almost 70 published to date) on God's grace that has sustained me through the 50 years barraged with foul weather—and boasting about it.

P.S.

I left out many more storms of the severe kind. Otherwise, this would be a novel and not a blog.