Thursday, October 11, 2012

My Story...Part 1

I was raised in a legalistic denomination that insisted they were NOT a denomination.  They were the chosen, the few, those that walked the straight and narrow.  And by narrow I do mean narrow.  Rules abounded, based on a few handpicked Scriptures and leaving out a plethora of others that would have quickly negated, or at least balanced, said rules.  I walked the walk by all outward appearances until I was about 16, and then it all fell apart.

I just couldn't do it anymore.  It was impossible.

So I laid in bed at night repenting and determined to do better the next day.

But I just couldn't do it.  It really, truly, was impossible.

I was lost.

At the age of just barely 21 I met the man who would one day be my husband.  In the midst of his own attempt to get his relationship with Jesus back on track, God used him to lead me to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.

Suddenly I was made vividly aware that I was surrounded by a spiritual realm that was not only very real, but literally a breath away.  A battle raged around me and I gradually learned how to fight...by calling upon the authority that I undeservedly have in Jesus Christ and walking in the power of the Holy Spirit.  God was not only very, very real, but He was intimately personal...involved in details of my days and nights that astounded me.  He cared, and I was forever changed.

Two and a half years later I was a bride.  Surrounded by a cloud of witnesses and Christmas plaid I vowed to love forever, no matter what.  And He loved me.  Broken, baggage-ridden, still-figuring-out-what-it-meant-to-be-a-Christian-woman me.  He loved me through ups and downs and paycheck-to-paycheck living and years of training and infertility and times of feeling like I was drowning in the hard.  He loved me through and out of it and he still does.  I am not worthy, but I am so very blessed.

Our lives have been beautifully full.  We moved 6 times in 13 years.  Craziness for a girl who grew up in the same little town since birth, the same little house from the age of 6.  We finally reached that long-awaited summit where he was finished with his training and had a job and we settled down.  The kids have come one at a time over the course of 11 years and now we have five.

Five.  I remember begging for just one.

We have put down roots and now marvel at the new directions that God is growing us.

Our life is lovely.  We are blessed.  We are happy.

to be continued...

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