This blog as you know is dedicated to share how God works in our lives and we want to glorify Him with all we say and do! We want to share "Your Story" and that is what these post will be titled.
The following devotion was shared with me by my sweet friend Sherry and I begged her to be able to share it with you. It is her personal story and we all know it is hard to share personal details, but when it glorifies our Lord then we really have no choice. I just know you will be as blessed to read it as I was. I laughed and cried and laughed again! Enjoy!
Thank you, Sherry for sharing "your story"!
I am 53
years old. I have been married for 28 years
to my husband, Chip, and we have 3 children:
Corbin almost 26, Travis 23, and Morgan 20.
Life is fast
and hard! With children come demands,
hard work and a never ending cycle of mundane tasks like meals, laundry and
homework, sports, music lessons and lots of taxi-ing! From the moment a mother’s feet hit the floor
in the morning until her head hits the pillow at bedtime she never stops! Not only is a mother never stopping but along
the way there are temper tantrums, money problems, sicknesses, unexpected
deaths, and pain from all kinds of feelings being hurt. It took me until I was in my 30’s to
understand the whole love that God
has for me! I was born into a family
that chose to raise me in the church. I
was married in the church, my husband and I attended church after we were
married and we took our kids to church each week. I have always been a very good girl. J (please don’t ask anyone else )
Personally,
I have dealt with children who suffered from ADHD, learning disabilities,
anxiety disorders, broken bones, surgeries, as well as day to day life. I also have someone who is an alcoholic and
at times would drink until driven to call me and tell me what a terrible
mother, wife and person I was. And even
though I knew in my mind that those things weren’t true, I STILL took them on
as my own problem! I suffered sleepless
nights, reacting hatefully to my children when they were just being children,
and I was stressed beyond belief! I was not very good at dealing with the day
to day things that were coming up in my life.
So begins MY journey in learning that God is more than a God who created
the world and His Word is alive and powerful and NEEDED to be the most
important thing in my life. Yes I was a
good girl living a good life – but HE created me to be more than that. I depended on other people to interpret what
the Bible said – I never read it for myself because I just figured I couldn’t
understand it so why bother. Join me as
I share with you 3 people that God placed in my life to show me a better way!
The first person on my journey was my husband. I was blessed with a Godly husband who has
patiently, yet firmly encouraged me on my walk.
A husband who has stood by me through thick and thin! For several years we home schooled our
children. Corbin, our oldest is now a
medic in the Navy and heading to San Diego for this next steps of
training. Travis, our middle one, is
somewhere between his 3rd and 4th year at Liberty –
although most kids his age have graduated and moved on to the real adult world
Travis is still working his way through school – he works at least 30 hours
each week here in Charlottesville while going to school in Lynchburg! Morgan, our youngest is a 2nd year
at Liberty and just been accepted into the Athletic Training program
there. With these three kids just over
the last 6 months alone we have “lived through” some of the following: having a young lady whom you thought you were
going to marry decide you were not her type … but still continue to make your
life miserable because she doesn’t want you happy; we have had mono, pneumonia,
strep, speeding tickets, broken cars, laughed together, cried together, pouted
at one another, dealt with bad relationships, good relationships, pain and
possible surgery and watched as their parents, as the 3 of them loved one
another fiercely as only a brother and sister could. And guess what… life marches on! Where are we going to place our trust? I now know that Psalm 63 promises me that I
can cling to God and know that He will work it all out - I don’t have to worry
about any of these things.
But before, I
realized that God wanted to be a part of my life DAILY and wanted me to take
all of my problems to him, I spent my time in a panic mode! I would have tried to talk my son out of the
Navy and certainly would not have been very happy about him being accepted into
the RECON program as a medic – that’s front lines! I would have been in tears
and unable to walk on as our daughter was in the hospital for a week in October
and then missed 3 more weeks of school suffering vertigo – all right when the
Athletic Training Dept was deciding which 20 kids (out of 200) were worthy to
stay in the program! And in the midst of
all of this my husband suffered from a rare eye infection that took the sight
in his left eye! That’s enough to take
down the strongest person!
Before I learned about this God who was
personal and wanted to be in my life I lived with so many doubts and fears that
they consumed me. Our middle child was
born prematurely. At the time of his
birth I knew there was a God but I had no idea how much he cared about me! I wish I had known then what I know now – as
Psalm 63:3 “Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify
you.” What pain He could have saved me
from at that time in my life had I only asked for His help! We have grown in Christ together and are
peaceful and happy because of it! I am
blessed to have a husband who has never wavered in his faith in Jesus
Christ. My husband and I are opposites
in so many ways – he is calm – I am hyper; he is level-headed – I use every
inch of my passion J; but we
BOTH LOVE the Lord! I am blessed by him
in so many ways – although in case you are wondering he is WAAAAAYYYYY older
than me!
My second person is my best friend. Have you ever met someone that was very
different from you? Someone that you
were so captivated with that you wanted to know what their secret was? I have been blessed with such a special
friend. Someone who was different –
someone who wasn’t moved when the wind blew – whether it was hard or soft! Someone that made such an impact on my life
that it made me ask what was so different – it made me ask for the same thing! She was calm with her children – she wasn’t
stressed and in panic mode because they had problems. I watched her with amazement and I needed
whatever she had. So I got on my knees
and asked Him for whatever she had! The
journey the Lord has taken me on since then has been awesome! From that time forward I learned to give
everything to Him! I wanted to know her
“secret” and so I hung on to her for dear life. And while doing that I found another way to
live. I learned to read His word for
myself and to understand it – the more I read the more I needed. I learned that in order to KNOW God I had to
spend time each morning with Him – just
like any other friend – it takes time and effort! The more questions I had the more answers I learned
to find! Through the years she has been
patient with me, laughed with me (but never at me), looked over my shortcomings
and encouraged me to run this race with grace through Jesus! She has taught me so many things that I could
not even begin to list them. I will be
forever grateful for her! She has a
passion for all to know HIM in a real and personal way and she took the time to
disciple me. What an honor to walk with
her and meet her Jesus and to
now be able to know that her Jesus is my Jesus too!
My third person is my grandmother. I was blessed with a grandmother who was a
Godly woman. She passed away about 7
years ago. She was a woman full of
wisdom who loved the Lord and had a passion for her family and others to know
HIM in a personal way. She wrote her 16
grandchildren letters through their adult years with scripture and words of
wisdom (whether we wanted them or not) for everything that we faced! Our importance in her life was proven upon
her death. Even though she was 93 years
old, her death was sudden and quite unexpected.
The morning before her death she walked ½ a mile to check on my
great-aunt who was 3 years younger than her and then back home again. She had a garden and canned and froze the
food, quilted, crocheted, and knitted and made the best bread you ever
tasted. I will never forget that day
after Christmas when my mother called to tell me that my grandmother had passed
away. So many people in our family were
devastated and just unsure of what to do.
She was who everyone looked to when things needed to be solved. In planning her funeral, my aunt took one of
my grandmother’s Bibles with her to see the Pastor who was preaching for her
funeral. My aunt requested the Pastor
use Buzzy’s Bible to read her favorite Scripture passages – but we were quite
surprised when the Pastor began by telling us how special we were to my
grandmother. He began by citing entries
in her Bible where she had prayed for us.
Her Bible was filled with prayers for her family over the years. He suggested that she used her Bible more as
a journal and that if we looked further we would likely find older Bibles with
more info in them. How touched I was to
find where my grandmother had written in the margin of her Bible when she began
praying for my future husband, Chip and then again as each of our children were
born. Everything that affected her
family – big or small was in those margins.
The pastor suggested that we take turns looking through her Bible and we
would begin to see our lives unfold through my grandmother’s prayers for each
of us. Praise God for the privilege of
this disciple in my life!
Each of these people opened their lives and showed me
Christ in action! Where would I be today
without Jesus active and alive in my life!
When my husband and I faced having a child who needed counseling to get
past some anxieties, when we made the choice to home school against the wishes
of our parents and some close friends, when we have adult children who struggle
to pass classes in college, when my husband lost his job and had to go back to
school and our only income would be from a home based daycare! The list goes on and on.
But God had
placed these 3 key people in my life for me to see how much He loves me. Deuteronomy 7:7-8 says “The Lord did not set
his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other
peoples….. but it was because the Lord LOVED YOU.” These verses tell me that this is what will
carry me through everything: God set his
affections on me and therefore I need to set my affection on Him! My joy does not depend on my circumstances! Satisfaction only comes from asking Him for
it. It is what I like to refer to with
my children as your “Jesus Joy” – Joy no matter what! There are so many things in this world to
capture our attention: ipods and ipads, fashion, awesome travel near and far,
great food, Facebook, texting – if we are not careful we will put them ahead of
what really matters – our relationship with God! He has to come first – by putting HIM first
in our life we can’t go wrong. We have
too many needs for anyone else to supply – our need for affirmation and
acceptance, our need for material things – and the list goes on and on. If we don’t fill ourselves with Jesus then we
will fill ourselves with something! Psalm
90:14 “Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for
joy and be glad all our days.” If we
begin every day by spending time with Him, then we won’t be in need of others
to make us happy! Our happiness will
come from the only One that matters.
I would not
change one thing in my journey! I am
blessed beyond belief! I have learned
from Kay Arthur that whatever we have learned, God intends for us to share. I have made a “purposeful” decision to share
what I have learned with children. Some
of you may ask why since as mother’s we sometimes find any excuse we can to get
away – but the Lord has blessed me with a love for children and my intent is to
teach them about Christ’s great love! I
enjoy my own children – I have enjoyed every phase of their life (although some
phases have been easier than others) it has honestly been great to watch them
grow .. to hear what they think… and to watch them grow into Christ
followers. They did not become Christ
followers by themselves – my husband and I set out with a purpose and a
passion. And along the way God placed
numerous people in their lives to help develop and mold them into those Christ
followers. Are they perfect at it? No… in fact one of them doesn’t go to church
at all! But I know that God’s Word
promises His love will not fail! So I
look forward to the day he realizes his need for the church!
I stand
before you shaking in my shoes – partly because I am cold, but mostly because I
am scared to death – but HE has called us to share our STORY and so that is
what I will do! I thank Jesus for each
and every blessing that He sees to trust me with. I am unworthy – but willing to learn and
share what I have learned – as small and weak as it seems – it is important to
my friend Jesus! The things that I have
learned I have learned from studying His word and learning who God is! My prayer for everyone is that they too will
have the same awesome experience of knowing God and trusting Him with
everything!
Who are you sharing YOUR
story with? YOUR story is important to
God and to His people!
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