Recently, we had a really great tragedy happen within our family and these things usually make us wonder why they have to happen. Some people hurt so much, that it will cause them to question God. Some think, why do you let this happen, God, why did you make this happen now, and even, how can I worship a God that lets such terrible things happen in this world?

     Of course, when we start questioning God, like this, it then can become a big stumbling block between our relationship with God. So some people will pull away from God, at a time of real tragedy, in their families lives, because they blame God!

     Of course, if we had a little better understanding of how God works, we would not be able to ask these questions, or blame God. Most people have a real misunderstanding of how God works, because, most of us, probably, picture God sitting on a throne, up in heaven, viewing every person on earth and making all the decisions about everything that is happening to them or around them. Now, because God is so much more than us, more intelligent, more wisdom, more knowledge,etc..., we'll never completely know or understand how God truly works, but if we just look at some of the works that we do know of, then we can begin to better understand Him, at least, enough to help us get through this world.

     Now, one of the most important works of God, was the fact that He gave us a Free Will. If we begin to understand what this really means, then we will have just a little better understanding of how God works. To better understand this, lets look at the differences between men and animals. You see, animals live mostly by instinct, which is what God has forced upon them. Now, God has forced very little on us, humans. A few instincts that we do have would include breathing, our heart beating, and, when we were infants, sucking when we were hungry. So you can see, those are the only type of things, God ever forced upon us. God gave us very few instincts, because He loved us so much, that He gave us a Free Will instead! That is what separates us from animals! Animals do almost everything from instinct! We do almost everything through our Free Will.

     God gave us this great gift from the beginning, all men who have ever lived on this world, who is living on this world, now, or will ever live on this world, will have a Free Will. Also, no man or book ever had to teach you, your Free Will! This shows us how important this is!

     A Free Will is God's gift, of the ability, for us to make our own choices! Now, this is really a great gift! For one thing, there would be no love without a Free Will, because we have to choose to love, we can love God and we can love other human beings! With a Free Will we can also choose to use any or all of the other gifts that God has given us. Another all important gift from God is our conscience, which is just our ability to reason out our problems and ( with our Free Will ) decide to do Right or Wrong!

     I use to think, what a wonderful world this would be, if God would only make all of us, always do the right things! If only He would force all the bad people to be good, what a wonderful world this would be! Well, we better stop and think about what we are wishing for. If this were to come true, there would no longer be humans on this world! We would all become animals, for without our Free Will, we would simply become animals! We would no longer think we were human, as a matter of fact, we would no longer think! We would just live by instinct! But God simply loved us to much to do that!

     God could have made us live in a world of perfect peace and harmony but, God wanted so much more for us! The potential in a world like this would have to be limited, for we would be content to be like animals! We would be content to live by instinct, I imagine we would be content to mostly just stand around and eat! Never to be interested in wars, murderer, stealing, lying, or any of the other great tragedies of this world! So, it would seem to be a much better place to live, but, also, we would not be interested or have the ability to Love, improve our Intelligence, Wisdom, Curiosity or any of the other great gifts of God, that can give this world the potential that He meant us to have!

     So, if we all would just use all of the gifts of God to their fullest potential, then, yes, what a grand, wonderful world this would be, not perfect, remind you, but the potential for a great world is here. Also, because there is a great potential for goodness in this world, there also has to be a great potential for tragedies and other terrible acts in this world! God will not force you to Love Him or anything, just like he won't force you to hate any thing or do any thing! People have to make those choices themselves! So when a man chooses to use his Free Will and not listen to his Conscience and make some bad decisions, he, sometimes, not only effects himself, but will quite often effect many people that are around him. A sad example of this would be, if a person decided to drink and drive and then end up killing a baby because of his driving! Now, this is really a great tragedy, but after studying about our Free Will, we learn, that we cannot blame God because a man made those choices! You see, all that God has given us is good, but only man can take something that is good and turn it around into something bad!

     God gives you the potential, the gifts, the abilities, everything you need to get through this world, but you have to make your choices and sometimes, your choices can affect people that live around you! Sometimes, it will even affect some people around the world! That's why it's so important for us to always make sure all of our decisions, no matter how small and trivial or big and important a decision might be, that it be the Right Thing To Do! That way, if some of our actions do affect other people, it can only have a good effect! If we all would just practice this, to the best of our abilities, then we can live in a world that can reach the potential that God wanted us to have. But, because we are humans, there will probably always be some people who won't practice this, therefore, there will probably always be great tragedies happening in this world! Now, we can not change other people, the only people we can change, is ourselves! And as long as it's for the better, that is, if we use our Free Will along with our Conscience to make sure that we are always Doing The Right Thing, only then can we sometimes affect other people into being better people. This is usually a very slow process, so we have to practice all of the other gifts from God, like patience, for one! Now, the good thing is that, the more you practice something the better you get at it! This means, we'll have to work at it. We can't lets ourselves get discouraged and just take the easy way and not listen to our Conscience because if we do that too many times, we'll simply stop hearing our Conscience and be like so many other people who are lost in this world!

     Like I said, God is so much more than us, more intelligence, more wisdom, more knowing, etc., that we will never be able to fully understand Him but, by simply studying the gifts that God has given us, we can gain a little insight on how God works! So now, we know, we should Thank and Praise God for all of the great things He has given us but, we can't blame Him for all the choices that man sometimes make! So, lets all strive, to make a difference in this world by, always making sure all of our choices are ones that God would want us to make! Now, this will not be an easy path to follow, and I'm sure you will see a lot of paths that will seen easier but, this is the only path that will lead you through this world and into the next and I guarantee, it will be worth it!