Life gives us so many choices—different paths to take, different people to befriend, different shampoos to use. Every choice requires a certain leap of faith. If you take the wrong path, you might get lost. If you befriend the wrong person, you might get abused. If you use the wrong shampoo, you might get dandruff. If you take the right path, you find a reward of some type or sort, whether it be riches or success or happiness or shiny, healthy hair.

But whatever the decision and whatever the choice, all choices require faith. They require a specific, mental function—whether it be emotional or logical—that ultimately allows us to decide upon our chosen destiny and move toward it. By choice, not chance. And by faith.

It is so easy to not believe. Society and life can beat us down to a fine pulp and threaten to turn what were once innocent, childlike souls into cast-iron, black cauldrons – empty and void and cold. It is easy to cast aside ideas as simple warmth on a sunny day or happiness from a small gift or a hug from a dear friend. It is easy to dismiss ideas such as true love or true happiness or true forgiveness.

We forget so often just how blessed we are.

It is easy to forget.

But it is in the quiet times, when we are called to remember. When we are asked to think the unthinkable or believe in the unbelievable or imagine the imaginable, we find answers that oftentimes astound us. And sometimes, we remember. Sometimes, we know.

There have been periods in my life when I did not believe in a gift. There were times when I dismissed it as though it were nothing more than a crumbled piece of paper on the sidewalk, useless to me. And so it remained —simple, untouched, tainted by my footprints because I’d walked all over it. I’d ignored it. Rubbish.

But then, over a period of time, it came to me that I should look at this piece of paper that I had so haphazardly discarded. And in picking it up, I discovered a beautiful piece that I had known once before and had forgotten— like finding an old poem you wrote as a child and rereading it. Or a love letter from your sweetheart. Or a card from your mother telling her how proud she is of you.

You discover that what you had once misplaced and discarded is now more precious than ever before. And though you may not understand every implication of it, you know that it is a special gift for you. So you can understand. And you can believe.

But it takes faith to pick up something you once left behind. It take a conscious choice and a great deal of effort to admit that you’re wrong, to lean over, to pluck up the gift from the ground and cradle it in your hands.

And to ask forgiveness.

There are some very special gifts which have been given to us…and it is so easy to forget, to take for granted…And if you have never known, I pray that you do. And I pray that the path comes easily for you, though I know that the reward will be sweet no matter which road you take to get there. Sometimes, it is the rough road that will bring you the most joy and the most knowledge. For out of hardship, appreciation is born when it is nurtured with a tender heart and caring spirit void of jealousy and hatred.

Bitterness will tear at many of us, and it may threaten to win. And while many of us may entertain the sarcasm and wit that comes with the emotion, I pray that we will also remember what it feels like to be a child and believe for just a moment. I pray that we will remember that— no matter what we may feel like or what we may deal with —we are never truly alone.