When my 5yr. old daughter died in a car accident almost 6 years ago I lost my belief in God for a period of time.  Has anybody else felt the same way and how did you get your faith back?
121746
that was a very terrible problem...\ni'm sorry for what had happened to your daughter.\n\nsometimes life is unquestionable, even... it's unanswerable.\nwhatever you are going through in this life, god knows. he knows the best for your life, eventhough what had happened to you seemed so unfair. god said, god works in all things for your goodness. can you see the positive side from the problem you have?  if you havent, you will.\n\ni did something bad a few years ago i blame it on god, why did he let me do it. but... today, i know he let me experience it for my own good...\n\nhow can you bring your faith back? it cant leave you, it is inside you, you just have to awake it... ask for gods grace...
506401
I love your question!  Your experiences really hit home with me.  I was raised without religious beliefs when I was very young, but I was raised with spiritual beliefs and was taught about reincarnation, the afterlife, how to read Tarot cards, etc.\n\nWhen I was a teenager I converted to Christianity, and followed that for about five years.  When I was 19 I converted to a pseudo-Christian religion that had its roots in gnosticism and Sabellianism.  I was really into that, and I swore I would never, never leave it, and that I would rather die than denounce it.  I was truly a religious fanatic!\n\nAs I got older, though, I changed.  I stopped seeing the world in black and white, I lost interest in being judgmental, and I decided that where people go when they die is none of my business.  I almost gave up my faith in Jesus because I was so disgusted with religion, but when I thought about my life I realized that a lot of good things have come my way because of God's goodness to me, so I asked God to help me keep my faith.\n\nAfter a couple of years of trying different churches of different denominations, all the while being very skeptical, I have finally found a church where I feel like I belong.  I still have faith in Jesus, but what I don't have is a judging, critical attitude.  I have gained a better understanding of how much God loves all of us, and I like myself a lot better now because I'm not judgmental anymore and because I am more accepting of people, religions of all kind, and life in general.\n\nSo now, at age 40,  I have learned to never say never, to not judge another person, to mind my own business, and to appreciate the beauty and uniqueness that is in every individual.  I also know from my past experiences that my faith will continue to change and hopefully grow.\n\nI could have left church and Christianity altogether, and like I said, I considered it, but I'm glad I didn't.  God helped me become a better person through all of this, and I didn't want to leave God because I know I wouldn't have all the blessings in life I have now and have had in the past if it weren't for Him.\n\nGood luck on your journey, wherever it may take you!
286068
This happened to me.  I dated a guy for a long time, and inevitablely we had the God talk.  When I found out he didn't believe in God it through me back alot.  I sat down and did a lot of thinking.  I decided I couldn't have a future with a man who didn't believe in God.  I wanted to go to church as a family and celebrate holidays as a family.  \n\nI sat him down and told him I cared about him alot (I even loved him) but said I couldn't be with him because he didn't believe in God.  He offered to go to church with me, but I knew that deep down he still wouldn't believe in God.  I was honest and told him that I couldn't be with him since we didn't share core believes.  \n\nIt was hard, and I cried alot.  But in the end it turned out for the best.  I am now dating someone who believes in God.
251134
I faced a tragedy from which there was no escape. It was a situation I had put myself in and had no alternate ways out. My only choices were to accept the fact that I was wrong about God, or suffer through life hoping and waiting to die. I now that sounds dramatic, but some of us are more hard-headed than others. \n\nThe secret is actually very simple: We are blinded by our own egos. They tell us we are good when we are not. They rationalize our irrational behavior. And the biggest one is that they tell us we are right. I learned that there are times when you can be right and times when you can be happy. And sometimes you have to choose between the two. I didn't know how to be happy without being right. Retraining was a slow process. But I saw that God was working in others' lives. I saw that they were happy & functional instead of bitter & barely making it. So I did what they did. I prayed to a God I didn't believe in yet. But I was willing to believe and that is the only requirement. As long as I was willing to be wrong about God, to say the He might exist, I could give Him the benefit of the doubt and I started reqping blessigns even before I actually believed. Also, I learned that helping others helped me see that God uses us and part of the reason is because it makes us feel useful & satisfies me like nothing I'd ever known before. If you'd like to discuss this further, feel free to contact me. God bless you & your search.
343233
I have been on both sides of this issue. I was raised to believe, but rationally I could not except the idea that God was the judgmental insecure fruitcake my religion portrayed him as.\n\nSo I stopped believing.  Then this happened to me.\n\nSeveral years ago I had an unusual experience concerning an uncle, a distant relative who lived over a thousand miles away. \n\nWhile driving my car I suddenly felt the unmistakable presence of this relative that I hardly even knew. He was more like someone I had heard about than someone I knew. It was very strange; it felt as though I was momentarily lifted right out of my physical body. I seemed to be suspended somehow beyond space and time, bathed in a love so intense It felt like I could have just disappear into it at any moment if It would have let me. It only lasted for a few seconds, but it seemed to last forever at the same time. I realize how crazy this must sound. The experience was so strong that at first I was afraid I was loosing my grip on reality. I finally managed to chalk it up to an over active imagination.\n\nThree days later I got a call from my aunt telling me that this uncle we are talking about had gone into a coma and died the day I had the experience. It felt like ice water had been poured down my back when she told me this. I had lost any real ideas of God or faith and had become somewhat of an atheist. Needless to say this experience caused me to rethink some of the conclusions I had come to. \n\nI feel blessed to now understand that even in our darkest confusion something loves us so much that it went out of its way to assist me and bring me back to a state of absolute certainty about Gods love for us.\nDuring the experience it seemed like there was a vast amount of information that I was somehow allowed access to. One thing that I came away from this experience understanding beyond any shadow of a doubt was that any Idea that God is unhappy with us or would judge or allow us to be punished for any reason is simply impossible. \n\nI can’t explain the love I felt with words. They simply don’t make words big enough or complete enough to do this. The only way I can begin to convey this love to you is to say that there was simply nothing else there. Nothing but love. No hint of judgment, no displeasure of any sort. It is as though God sees us as being as perfect as we were the day we were created. It is only in our confused idea of ourselves that we seem to have changed.\n\n I hope this is of some help to you. Good luck. Love and blessings. \n\nYour brother don
459502
I was born as a catholic christian.  It comes a time that I personally asked God and it is also the time that I am losing belief in God and siding to belief that God was only a figurative thing.  Until, I was fed up one day with my problems and I raised my head and uttered to God that He is not real, to my surprise He answered and shown me a vision up to this time I can vividly recall.  His voice is the one described by the prophets, gentle, forgiving and powerful.
575947
you realize that whatever happened was meant to happen. everything has a reason. When my son passed away i was angry and wanted to blame it on God. i was so wrong. God didnt take my child from me, he took his child home with him. God is a better parent than i could ever be and theres no more pain or suffering.  God isnt the one who lets us down, He is the one who picks us up. \n\nDont tell God how big your problems are. Tell your problems how big God is.\n\nwhen you step out of the known light into the unknown darkness, FAITH is knowing that one of 2 things will happen. you will be given something solid to stand on, or you will be taught to fly.\n\nif you need someone to talk to just contact me. i'm usually around.
73934
I have definetly felt the pressence of GOD. Right before Christmas in 2004, our first ond onlt child, a son, passed away. This was a very hard time for my husband and I, and we stopped going to church. We didn't celebrate Christams that year, and my husband started to smoke cigarettes again. I quit my job to stay home, because being around people was so ahrd. I tried to convince myself that everything was okay.\n\nAbout a month after he passed away, i was going through some of his old belongings and looking at his phot album. I broke down, and it felt good. I dont know what it was for sure, but i felt like someone was hugging me; i felt warm, happy, and that everything was going to be okay. I like to think that our son is our gaurdian angel. \n\nGod has recently blessed us with a new baby boy. I think our first son saw how sad we are, and told GOD to give us another baby....
89453
Faith, Honey, faith. I am so sorry for your loss, but she does hear you as does God. Whenever you are out, do ever see something out of the blue that she liked? Sometimes they let us know in very subtle ways. It can be in the smallest things that we take for granted every day. You can see her in the innocent beauty of a childs smile or a picture of a snow-white dove. A rainbow or a picture of a rainbow. Whenever I need to know that God is hearing me, I ask to see a rainbow or a dove and lo and behold, I will see one even if I'm not looking for it. Look for her in everyday things that make you feel warm and happy and you will find her. She is watching you from above. Also, being as you have found Yahoo Answers, even if it was before your daughter passed away, you were brought here for a reason. God knows that you need friends now and you have found friendship and hopefully comfort here. We are like a family here on YA and we do our best to support each other. If God was not listening, you would not have found your way here or to any other means of comfort and support. The people here on YA are the best and some of the most forgiving, caring and loving people I've ever had the pleasure and the honor to meet. Keep your faith and know that your daughter is in the arms of Jesus now and he feels your pain as we do as well. You are in my prayers and if you need to talk, you may send me a message. I'm a mother too and I know how strong a mother's love is. Don't worry, God is in control and you will meet with your daughter again. Just look around. She is in every flower, gentle breeze, every act of kindness, in every beautiful sunrise and sunset but most of all, she is in your heart forever. God bless, sweetie. I'll pray for you, we all will.
313449
Please seek some professional help or help from your church.  My good friend did the same thing when her dad died suddenly.  It's been 10 years and I swear she is stuck in a grieving time warp.  She still cries about it today like she did 10 years ago.  She never sought any kind of help or even medication.  You really need someone who can guide you through the grieving process.
120594
I lost my oldest son just over 5 years ago.  He was murdered.  I am still not over it & never will be.  The best thing I can tell you is turn to your religion.  That has helped me.  I think God gives us answers on how to go on without our loved ones in everyday things.  Like, this might sound wierd to most, but sometimes I hear (in the back of my mind) my son talking to me or answering a question that I've only asked myself.  I take it as he's giving me advise.  I think I'm living life as my son would have wanted me to live it.  I'm making decisions that if he were here & I'd asked him for his advice, they are ones that he's tell me.  I don't know hon, life goes on & so must we.  Sorry to hear about your loss.  A son, aunt, mother or father, its never easy & nobody has all the answers.  Just take it day by day.  You'll have good ones & bad one.  I've learned to deal with it cause all the tears & sorrow or angry feelings isn't going to bring my son back, just make me a bitter person.  He wouldn't have wanted that.  He was a good young man, 23 at the time & had his whole life with a wonderful career in his sites.  He was brutally murdered.  We just had the trial back in September '05.  It still hurts but like I said... he would want me to do just what I'm doing... trying to be the best person I can be.  Good luck to you sweetie!
464197
Did something happen to make you believe in God?
46970
Yes, felt that way b/4, but this is what helped me out. I have to get very close to God. Remembering what the scripture says in the book of Job 22:21 “Now acquaint yourself with Him, and be at peace;Thereby good will come to you" I remembered also remembered and read Numbers 23:19 which says “God is not a man, that He should lie,Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?" Having this at the back of my mind, I then strongly believed that God loves me by believing the scripture John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son ..." After then u can not imagine how well and healed I was, my worries disappeared. God is Great - give Him a trial today.
608949
That happened to me.  I guess at first I felt totally betrayed, mad, I didn't know what to do or what to think.  Then I started trying to educate myself to "make sure" that I was correct that my belief system was based on lies.  The whole process has taken several years, but then I started researching many other beliefs and religions and found out that most of them were also.  So I am no longer a part of organized religion and I have discovered my own beliefs.  I'm still on my spiritual quest but my current beliefs probably lean toward New Thought.
587825
I'm unsure about my beliefs now, but I was a believer purely out of fear. My parents raised me christian and when I was really little, they made me watch a movie about the rapture. I believed even more solidly because I didn't want god to get mad and take my family away from me. Now that I'm older and seen all the other failed predictions about the end of the world, I don't have that fear anymore. And for various reasons, I now question the existence of god.
197877
I don't lose my faith in God when really bad things happen, but I can understand why you might.  I rather lose my faith when in a deep depression.  I think this is because in a deep depression you feel no love at all, and so you don't feel God's love at all and you think he's not there.\n\nPerhaps God is not in control of everything like we sometimes want to assume he is.  Perhaps he's just as sad over hurricanes as we are.  Maybe He too gets tossed and thrown about in its midst in a way.  This is all physical torment.  What matters is the spiritual.\n\nBut you know, I don't think God will be mad at you if you say he is not there when you see a bad thing happen.  That is almost a compliment, because it is to say that you think God is so good that he wouldn't let that happen.
145293
I am deeply sorry for your loss.\n\nI think this is one of the hardest questions to answer.  This is what nearly cost me my faith and my sanity.\n\nI've lost three babies and have no living children.  I have wanted children since I was very young.  I always though I would be a mom.\n\nI don't believe that they die because they are bad or because of any wrong they have done.  I don't even think it is a judgement of their parents.\n\nIt's hard to know who to blame when it happens and you want to blame someone.  And I did.  Mostly I blamed myself, and I thought of a million things I should have done differently.  It was those sinus pills I took or all that caffeine I had before I knew I was pregnant, or it was the time I slipped and fell in the grocery store.\n\nSome people will say Satan took your baby and some will say God took your baby.  So let's answer that first.  It's an answer that needs a little background.\n\nSatan brought sin into the world.  Sin brought death.  In that way, Satan is responsible for death.  It is his domain, and God allows it - for now.\n\nJesus came to redeem us.  He conquered death.  So even though Satan takes us out of the world (through death), Jesus takes us to be with God through redemption. \n\nBabies are sinless.  They go to heaven.\n\nOf course I would rather them be here with me.  I miss them.  But I know that they are safe and that God can keep them from ever feeling hurt or sadness.  They have joy now that I cannot imagine.  Even though I miss them terribly, I don't have to worry about how they are doing.  I know they are safe.\n\nIt took me several years to process everything and really feel better.  There were a couple of verses that helped me.\n\nBut Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  John 6:68-69  \n\nNo matter how angry I was at God, I still believe in Him.  Where else would I go?\n\n\n“Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.”  John 1227-28\n\nWhat if it was for this purpose that I came to earth?  Losing my babies was the single hardest thing I have ever dealt with.  What if the purpose of my life is to deal with that well?  How I come through shows my love and devotion to God in a similar way to how Jesus showed His love and obedience - by gracefully facing the trial before me.\n\nHe who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Romans 8:32\n\nIt was hard to be mad at God for not sparing my children when I thought about how He didn't spare His own Son for my sake.\n\nGod was parted with Jesus for a human lifetime.  I am parted with my children for a human lifetime.  Because of the gift of salvation - God's sacrifice for me - I can live eternally with Him and with my babies.\n\nWhen you are tempted to believe that God doesn't see how badly you are hurting, try reading all the passages that talk about God being for us, our Help, our Shield, our Shepherd.  Passages about His love, care and providence for us.  It really is overwhelming.  And at times like that, you need to be overwhelmed with love.\n\nIf at all possible, join a support group for those with similar losses.  It's very helpful to be around those who understand where your heart is.