Faith and God as I see them..

After many years of spiritual growth and learning I have come to a very comfortable and pleasant understanding of God, and Faith in general that I would like to share.

I believe that we existed before we came to earth as souls. I believe that as souls, we were intelligent beings who interacted and decided to come to earth to further our knowledge and experience. I feel that before we came to earth we decided certain challenges for ourselves that we believed could help us to learn or overcome those challenges. Every challenge in our life, be it the loss of a child, or husband, or the struggle with addiction, or mental illness or even something as simple as body image are all challenges we decided to put ourselves through on this earth. We decided who we wanted to be our family, and our support system in the spiritual world to guide us. I believe that we might have come to earth more than once, (this explains in my eyes why there are 9 year olds more mature than some 30 year olds I know.) I believe that God is neither male nor female. That God is ALL loving. That God loves EVERYONE...this includes murderers, rapists, and thieves. We are ALL God's children, and how could a loving parent ever shun or disgrace their child? I believe that all souls, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Jew, Atheist, will all be together again after death. That our intelligence will only be furthered and our understanding of a bigger picture will come in the next life.

I have a belief in Jesus Christ, as a human. I believe him to be imperfect on this earth, to have suffered loss and felt pain. I believe he is the son of God, and that he was sent to this earth to pay the debt of his brother and sisters sins. I am a sinner. I am imperfect.

I believe that God gave me a brain to think and question for myself what is and what is not true in this world. I do not believe in one true church over all the others. I believe there is good in every religion and I pull from each religion what my soul understands to be true. I have a strong belief in Karma, in that what good you put in this world will be reciprocated to you if not in this life, in the next. I believe that that good will only be valid if done from a loving place in your heart. (ie: bringing cookies to a homeless shelter with a snarky sneer on your face as you judge them for their life's decisions will not count.)

I'm not trying to preach to anyone, I am simply writing out my own beliefs as I have come to understand and feel them in my heart. I strive to act in love towards EVERY person I meet. As Christ says in Matthew 25:40....

 "And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."