I never need to count the diets I’ve tried to know that I’m done riding the wave of the latest craze.

Now, I just sit back, watch and listen to the experiences of others — most recently, those of my first-born, Monique.

After two days on a popular, difficult-for-me-to-understand-the-science-of diet, Monique said, “I haven’t weighed myself, but I’ve definitely lost the will to live.”

Two days later she said, “I was shaking and so weak that I crawled to the kitchen and ate a slice of bread.”

I love that she knew what to do to get her strength back.

She needed nourishment and knew where to find it.

Where do I go when I’m shaking with fear, faint-hearted, collapsing from the weight of grief or burdened by a situation that appears hopeless?

I head toward what feeds my soul. I feast on what I believe.

The King James Version of Psalm 27:13 reads, “I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”

Regardless of the volume at which my circumstances scream otherwise, my heart beats with the steadfast assurance that God is good and His ways are perfect.

Even when, or maybe especially when my faith is challenged, I crawl toward the comfort of the scriptures that sustain my soul.

Ronny Michel may be reached at rmichel@rtconline.com.