I am the little girl on the right. Left of me is my older sister. Behind me stands my mother and to her right is her best friend.
"O God, from my youth you
have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.
And even when I am old and
gray, O God, do not forsake me, Until I declare Your strength to this
generation, Your power to all who are to come." Psalm 71:17,18
Because I am 67, and
been a Christian since I was 19, I sometimes think of all God has done for me
through the years and I thought it might encourage someone who reads this post.
As a little child: My
parents took us to church each week. There, I learned there is a God.I learned
that God sees everything we do, that he made the earth and everything on it.
This has helped me all my life, because I see many people think God doesn’t
hear them. I know he always hears everyone. I know he is there for me whenever
I need him.
A teenager: God did not
let me die as a teen. It could have happened many times while driving drunk or
being in the car with drunk drivers. I remember one time I was driving a bunch
of my friends down a mountain. It started to snow and became very cold. I had
never driven in that kind of weather. We were in California, and had gone to
Big Bear Lake. We had gone to a cabin, smoked pot and drank that day.
As I came along a curve,
I could feel the car moving towards the oncoming lane. I braked, but kept
sliding. We started heading toward the edge of the road and the cliff. There
were no guardrails. We were going to go over the edge; I had no control of the
car whatsoever.
But the car moved back
into my lane. I believe it was a miracle, and I thank God for it. I can still
see myself that day in the car, terrified at what was going to happen.
My 20s: After I gave myself to the Lord, I was happy
and excited. I had no idea how little I knew about him. Because the church I
had been raised in stressed keeping the Commandments and never sinning, I
eventually became afraid. When I would sin or just make a mistake, I figured
God would send lightening and kill me. I couldn’t believe God could love a
person like me.
When your belief in God
is like this, you become judgemental because you also think all other
Christians should be perfect and never sin or make mistakes. Well, that is not
reality, so I became critical of people.
I was married at this
time to a non-believer. He was angry I became a Christian. I have to admit, I
don’t blame him since he married a girl who loved parties and drinking. Now he
had this self-righteous person on his hands. I refused to go to parties and I
quit drinking.
Eventually, we separated
and were divorced. I was devastated, because I loved him so much. He and his
mother tried to talk me into giving up being a Christian because it was ruining
our marriage. I remember his mother asking, “Why do you want to be a Christian?”
I looked at her like she was crazy, “Because I want eternal life.”
I could not understand how anyone would not
want that. I could not understand these people who were not afraid to die
unsaved.
I didn’t know God in the
right way, so I didn’t answer, “Because I love God.” I didn’t love God, I was
afraid of him. But I wanted my daughters and myself to live in heaven together
forever. I wouldn’t give up the dream of that for anything.
Well, I was going to
write about my whole life in one post. Lol
Yeah, that’s not going to happen. So, I will close with this thought,
God was with me during this terrible time of my family breaking apart and
seeing my husband fall in love with another woman. It was painful, but God was
with me.
