What difference does faith make?

I have had a ton on my mind that I have wanted to write and post. I've written some, but not posted in a couple of weeks. So, here I am. As I substituted yesterday, I looked up at the wall in the fifth grade classroom and saw a poster.

What difference does faith make?

So, I asked myself. What difference does faith make? It makes a difference to different people, at different times, in different ways.
What difference does faith make?
Faith got me throught he darkest hours following the stillbirth of my second child. When I started to ask "why me?" it was my faith that changed it to "why not me?" If a mother was going to lose a child, a mother with a strong, deep-rooted faith has a tool to use, a shoulder to lean on, a rock to hold her up. My faith helped me through.

What difference does faith make? Ask a mom of a young child praying the Lord's Prayer together for the first time. Ask a newly baptized friend. Ask a retiring pastor or priest.

What difference does faith make? As I stood at my nana's bedside for the last time with my almost three-year-old son singing "This Littlle Light of Mine," it brought peace, comfort, and joy to a sad, quiet time.

What difference does faith make? Ask someone recently diagnosed with cancer. Ask a child making his first communion. Ask a dancer taking the stage for the first time. Ask a singer who lost her voice. Ask a father teaching his son to drive.

What difference does faith make?
Faith got me to take the first step and then the second and third and...each and every step I needed to take as I walked away from everything but my children. In leaving my husband, I separated from my house, my business, friends, family, neighbors. I left with the clothes on my back and a few items in a trash bag. Faith saw me through it all. I don't know where I would be without my faith.
I am who I am because of my faith.
My children are who they are because of faith.
Our lives are whole because of faith.

Thanks be to God.

So now, ask yourself -- what difference does faith make?