Tag: religious

The Girl Who Believes in Miracles (PureFlix)

The Girl Who Believes in Miracles is a surprisingly well written and well-acted Christian film. A young girl with the faith of a mustard seed discovers that she has been granted the ability to cure people. This tests the faith of her parents and certain people in the village. Unfortunately, her new found abilities come with a price; in one of her visions, she is told she will be going to heaven soon – a revelation her parents are unwilling to accept.

P.S. I also want to note that while the message of faith permeates the movie, this movie was surprisingly not “preachy”. The aspects of faith were addressed in ways that felt natural and appropriate and didn’t interrupt the storyline. This is one of the few Christian movies I’ve actually enjoyed.

Blessed Among Us

BlessedAmongUs.jpgBlessed Among Us is a collection of short biographies (3 paragraphs at most) of individuals who, through their lives, exemplified virtues such as service to others, humility, courage, compassion, etc. Written by Robert Eslberg for the Give Us This Day monthly publication, they were eventually compiled into a book.

This book covers people from all walks of life. While this book predominantly focuses on the lives of Catholic Saints and Catholic individuals, it does not limit the biographies to solely Catholics, featuring biographies of individuals like Martin Luther King Jr., Anne Frank, Fred Rogers, and Mohandas Gandhi to name a few. The purpose of this book is not to promote one denomination as superior, but to show how individual lives can change the world simply by making selfless choices.

Often times, when I read stories about people from history, religious or not, I do not feel as if I can relate to them. Their deeds are far beyond anything I believe I am capable of or their experiences are not comparable to my life. I find it discouraging – how can I ever hope to make a difference when I’m not special or talented or gifted?

This is one of the reasons why I enjoy Blessed Among Us so much. While some of the individuals featured are naturally gifted, extremely brave or devout, or make some extraordinary discovery, many of those featured are simply “normal” (at least by my standards). They didn’t discover a cure or save somebody’s life; they just lived – lived a life doing what they could with what they had to make the world a better place.