I was a 70’s baby which meant my carpet growing up was green shag. I even inherited my sister’s bamboo long, hangy-down things in the doorway to the closet. There was no sneaking into the closet without it sounding like a rain forest. This made my room super cool. My record player was the next best thing with speakers that blared out Disco Disco Duck and Elvira. There was a bad word in one of the songs which offended me greatly so I tried to scratch it out. But this didn’t work like I planned and the record got stuck on the bad word and repeated it over and over. This brought me to a moral crisis that culminated in the breaking of my record over my knee cap. It doesn’t work out like you think it does. The movies show it snapping in half but it totally doesn’t work that way. I was ever so disappointed.
My childhood involved water skiing, camping, church every Sunday, soccer, visiting Grandparents, talking on the front porch, rope swinging, white Huffy bike riding, playing shoot-to-the-moon with my Dad, roller skating in the Waffle House parking lot and more awesome stuff.
Incredible Hulk, Dukes of Hazards and Scooby-Doo were my favorite shows. I wanted a Members Only jacket and a pair of Sebago’s so bad but never got them. I didn’t understand then but I did later when we started teaching our kids they couldn’t have everything they wanted either… even if we could afford it.
The greatest part of my childhood and life to date was when my third grade teacher led me to the Lord. Meaning my eyes were opened to the fact that I was born with very real sin in my heart. This sin separated me from God forever. But I learned that Jesus died for me and made a way possible for my sin to be forgiven. When I prayed and accepted Jesus into my life it started something new inside of me. While I was only nine years old even my teachers noticed a big change in me within in months. I noticed a change in me. God was making me different although I was still a hyper, cartwheel-turning, joke playing, mischievious kid.
As I grew in Christ my heart became warm towards Him. I wanted to do what He wanted me to do. I was wide open to serving God wholly. For a long time I thought this meant I needed to be a Missionary. I went on several Summer-long mission trips and surrendered to full time ministry whatever that meant. In my heart of hearts it meant I was telling God I’d do whatever he wanted me to do. And I meant it.
God led me to a wonderful godly young man who swept me off my feet. One of the sweetest things he did early on was give me support money on one of my mission trips. He mowed lawns as a means to save money and he had saved enough to give me money towards my mission trip. It melted my heart. We dated all through high school and college and soon I realized that full time ministry for me meant being married to a pastor. Even though I faked my way through singing and couldn’t play the piano and had never heard of Habakuk God saw fit for me to be Randy’s wife which meant I was also a Pastor’s wife. And I couldn’t be more blessed to serve my God in this way.
Life got super hard when we went through infertility and several failed IVF attempts. But God continued to show his great love toward us as we walked through dark days of loss. With his comfort he showed us he would do something good out of it and he did. He brought us two divinely knit together children we could’ve never put together ourselves. We wouldn’t trade those dark days for anything yet we wouldn’t wish them on our worst enemy.
Today I feel incredibly blessed. Having received the greatest gift I could ever receive at a young age humbles me. I want salvation for everyone. It’s free to everyone! Oh friends please ask me if you aren’t sure you have this life changing gift. I know I might be sounding cheesy right now and maybe cathartic but this stuff is real you guys. It’s so very real. And it’s the difference between life and death like for.ever one day. Not only that it changes our lives here on earth. And the older I get….the closer to going home I get…..the greater the burn inside my soul for others to know Jesus.
It’s all about Him. Even on our Birthdays it’s still all about Him. Oh don’t get me wrong people. I’m gonna have a good day enjoying a special lunch or dinner with my man. I’ll surely eat something chocolatey and maybe open a cutey patootey something or other. But at the end of my day I’m going to realize I have already opened the greatest gift I could ever have. And it compares to nothing else in this world. It simply can’t get any better than this.
Happy Birthday to me.
Thank you Jesus.
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