My Father never had any spiritual knowledge from his family at all. My Mother on the other hand was raised on a so many horse farm with eleven other siblings and a very spiritual Mother and Father. Against my Mothers family's wishes she ran off with my Father and got married. After a few years of marriage, my Fathers nerves got bad and the DR told him to have a glass of wine (the devil's brew, any alcoholic beverage) every night. From that he started drinking very heavy. Now I have told you this so you can understand what kind of home I was raised up in, the Lord and the Devil in the same house. But is that not the way the whole world is?
My older brother and I were sent to church, but my Mother would not go, because she was ashamed of the way my Father would come home drunk and try to beat her and cuss and swear so bad. But she would always talk to us about the Lord and try to plant the seed of Jesus in our hearts through it all.
At the age of 16 , even though I had never been saved or baptized, the Lord used me to teach people my own age at church. He was working on me even then. The years went by and at a very young age of 18, I married a young man who was not a Christian and did not go to church. This was not what God had intended for me to do and after we had a beautiful little red-haired daughter, I found out that my husband was seeing his boss's wife and had gotten her pregnant. You could imagine how my heart was broken and the anger I felt. I felt anger at the Lord. Why did He let this happen to me, I hadn't done anything wrong. I went a little wild you might say after that and did not go to church. I had to hold down two jobs to make my bill payments for my young daughter and myself, this was very hard and I still blamed God.
A few years went by and I found out I had a tumor that had to be taken off my ovary and not knowing where it was malignant or not, I checked myself into the hospital alone. I felt I had no one of course, the Lord was always by my side even if I did not realize it at that time (reminds me of footprints in the sand). When the DR removed the tumor and told me it was benign, I could not believe it and did not realize the Lord had blessed me.
I worked in a factory and this is where I met the man who is now my husband. He was my boss and had a problem with alcohol, which at the time I did not know. I told myself that all he needed was someone to care for him. After we were married things did not change. He became worse and it seemed like he had married me to have more money for the alcohol. I cried out to the Lord again, Why Lord? Still angry and rebelling.
During this time my Father had accepted the Lord while watching the Jimmy Swaggert ministries on television. People can say what they want about this man, but the Lord did use him to help bring so many people to Christ. My Father found out he had Kidney cancer. He had an operation but it had already gotten into his blood stream and spread over his body. My husband's true heart showed through at this time. We lived down the road from my parents and when he would come in from work,he would go down to my parents house and move my father from one bed to another so my Mother could bath him and change the sheets. Soon my Father got so bad that he went into the hospital. My husband and I would go and sit with him at night and my Father would ask me to read the Bible to him. One chapter especially....Psalm 23..his favorite. My Father passed away after 3 weeks in the hospital and during this time I felt in my heart what I had been missing. I told my husband and daughter I wanted us to go to church and our family started back to church.
After attending church for about 3 months the Pastor gave the alter call. I had been fighting going down to the alter, why I do not know, unless the devil was pulling the other way like a tug of war. But while I was standing there holding onto the back of the pew in front of me, I heard a voice which said , "I HAVE WAITED LONG ENOUGH."My whole body begin to shake with a feeling I have never felt before and words cannot really describe. I had no control, I felt my body move out of the pews and I felt like I was floating down the isle. When I got to the Preacher, I could not talk. I do remember getting out, " I want the Lord to come into my heart, I love Jesus."The Preacher had a big smile on his face. Later my husband told me that I was talking in tongues. He could not understand a thing I said. Now you have to remember that this was a Baptist church....LOL..no I was not kicked out, you see the Pastor knew what I was saying.
Yes, My husband was saved later on, that is his own story. The Lord has worked so many wonders in our life since then, We had aother beautiful little girl, who now goes to college. We have had a singing gospel group for the Lord until my husband had a heart attack. But even then the Lord has opened other doors for me to serve him in other ways, teaching Sunday school, singing in the church choir, I even have a small ministry online.
Oh how the Lord has blessed me in so many ways. Just in this last year, the Lord has healed me of an eye impairment that I was told I was going blind but prayed and had other prayer warriors praying for me and went back to the eye DR to have them tell me nothing was wrong and have to change my eye glass prescription to normal. I prayed just recently about a stomach problem I have had for over 7 years and after 2 months of praying about it, my stomach pain got worse. I went to the DR and had a lot of tests done. I was told by the surgeon that I was probably born with this gallbladder problem and it was what had caused my other stomach problem. When it was taken out, just one and a half weeks ago, the surgeon said to give it three more months and the other stomach problem would go away. This was the Lord's way of answering my prayer and in His own way healing me of my problem by letting the DR's with the knowledge the Lord has given them help me. In God's own way and in His own time.
Since I wrote this my husband has had another heart attack. He fell at my feet, and he was fighting so hard. He said, "If I close my eyes I'll never come back." I felt he was leaving me and Oh My Lord, did I pray. He was only 52 years old with this one. I managed to get an aspirin in his mouth and kept on after him until he swallowed it. My Pastor was having Bible study on a Friday night and I called down there at the church. He told me to call 911 which I had never had any dealing with doing this. I called 911 and my Pastor got here the same time the ambulance did. I prayed all the way to the hospital. My husband's heart Dr.was out of town so his partner took his place. From the time John started having the heart attack and the time they did the surgery and put the stint in his heart valve was 2 hours. The Dr walked out to a room full of people, family and church family, waiting and praying and said. "Miracles do happen, it was a massive heart attack." Now people, that means his artery was 100 percent clogged and he lived 2 hours with it clogged completely. Our Gracious Lord at work again in my life. Now this has been about 1 yr. and 10 months ago. There has been so much damage done to my husband's heart that the whole bottom of his heart is dead and only the top beats all the blood to the body. The Dr did a test on him last year because he was feeling so tired and said there is nothing else we can do for him. He was told a month ago that he was getting weaker and he is very tired all the time. He sleeps a lot which I know is not a good sign. But I am very proud of the faith my husband now has and his attitude. He does not sit down and give up, he says if the Lord is going to call me home, he will call me where I am here sitting at home or in another state on vacation, or at work. So he has decided to go on with his life as normal as possible. When we take trips, I do most of the driving, while my husband sleeps on and off. I know my heart will break when the Lord does call him home, but I know where he will be and I know I will see him again.
Now I am not saying I do not have my times where the devil tries to pull me down and cause problems in my life. I am just saying, I try to keep my faith and eyes on the Lord, who I now know walks by my side everyday and every minute of my life. I talk to him every day as if I would one of you. He is my constant companion. Jesus, you have been so good and merciful to me.
I LOVE YOU JESUS!!!!!!!
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