Ecclesiastes 3:1
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: Christmas is the time of year that God reminds me of His goodness and mercy. All that He has prepared me for in my life. You know, it is quite remarkable to think of the way the Lord orders our steps throughout our lives. He plans our future in a way that will glorify Him. When I think about what the Lord has done for me and spared me from, I am eternally grateful and can't help but to feel the overwhelming love of Jesus. He loved me that much!!! This is how my past unfolded to my present and I know God is not through yet! I am anxiously anticipating my future with Him!
When I was twelve years old I seeked God for the Holy Ghost...God delivered and filled me with His spirit! I was also baptized soon after in the one and only name of our Savior, Jesus Christ! Just two years later, after an awesome district youth camp meeting that to this day I'll never forget, God spoke to me and told me He wanted me to start a children's choir at my church. I later spoke to my Mom about what the Lord had laid on my heart to do but told her I was embarrassed to ask my pastor for such a position considering I was only fourteen years old at the time. My Mother lovingly told me to pray and seek God and if it was God's will, doors would open and it would come to pass. Later after much prayer I spoke with my pastor and he gave me a couple of weeks to organize a group of children at the church to sing during a Sunday morning service. He told me we would see then if this is something we would continue. Well....I ended up leading that children's choir for seven years. During those years God blessed me and taught me so much about perseverance and prayer. God allowed me to pray with many children over the years while He filled them with the Holy Ghost. Those memories are some of the most precious gifts God has ever given to me, just allowing me to witness Him moving in their little lives was an awesome experience I'll never forget. What I did not know was all though in my mind I was leading children in song and worship, God was preparing me for another ministry that would soon unfold in my life. Soon after the age of twenty I began visiting the church I currently belong to now where I also met my husband. My husband was a single father of two little girls when we met. God knew my future before I did, we tend to think we are in control of our own lives but there is one much greater than us who is in control of all. My faith in God grew, along with my love for Him. My husband and I were married just a couple years after we dated I then became a wife and instant Mother! This was incredibly terrifying for me being so young and not knowing how to mother two children. I became overwhelmed with thoughts that flooded my mind, "did I do the right thing", "what if I fail", etc,etc. The Lord in His on time way always intervened and lovingly guided me through every step of the way. One day the girls and I were driving home from my Moms house and one of the girls looked up at me and said, "Mom are you glad you married Dad even though you now have us?" At first I remember thinking, Lord how do I respond in a way you would have me to? I was so thankful for them but God has always showed me that my children are not my husbands, they are not mine they are His. I want to teach my children in a way that is pleasing to the Lord, not my way but His. Then God revealed Himself to me right there in that car, He reminded me of all those years I taught those children in that choir. And how they were the same ages of the little girls in my backseat that I was now a mother too. God took over my mouth at that very moment, and I told her that God has a purpose and plan for everything in our lives. I told them about that children's choir, and how God had taught me to pray with those children, and how to love, lead and guide them in His ways. He taught me that I was a huge influence in their lives and that I would be accountable for the the way I represented Him. I told her that God had taught me and prepared me all those years for her and her sister. He knew that one day I would be praying for them and leading them in His ways. My time with those children in my choir was part of His plan but her and her sister were His purpose for that plan! To this day I will never forget how God revealed Himself to me and explained His purpose to each of us in that very moment! He revealed the truth of His miracle!
Our third child my husband and I prayed for and once again God delivered. He gave us a beautiful, healthy baby girl. I know God has great things in store for her life, he filled her with the Holy Ghost at the early age of four years old, she was baptized soon after! After our daughter I became pregnant again just two and a half years later, but had complications and our son was still born. God used that time to minister to me greater than He ever had before. He gave me so much strength, and the experience taught me to lean on Him for understanding. I believe I prayed like Job possibly prayed to the Lord, I prayed with desperation, but my love for God never wavered. Not because I am something great but because I knew God was the only comforter I needed to get me through! My pastor said once in a sermon that God knows whats best for you and only wants the best for you. Those words I clung to through that time in my life and God proved His unfailing love through it all. I delivered my baby on December 30th of 2005 and almost two years later I delivered our very healthy son Will on December 31st of 2007. He is our miracle and testimony of what God can do! I have felt from the moment I conceived my son Will that He was going to be born not just for my own pleasure but that God had big plans for Him with great purpose! I know Jesus is the reason for all things good, and pray that all my four children continually draw close to Him all the days of their lives. I pray that they listen and are obedient to the Lord, I pray they put their trust in Him and depend on Him for answers and understanding! I love them more than words can express and am thankful for the benefits that come with serving the Lord fervently! God has a plan and purpose for each of them, it doesn't stop with me and I am so thankful for the miracles and blessings to come! Jesus was sent here on earth to fulfill a purpose! He was born on earth for the purpose of dying on the cross so that we could be forgiven for our sins. There was a plan for Jesus that He had to fulfill, more importantly was the purpose for that plan. I am so thankful for the love of Christ in my life, for His guidance, and His plan for my present and future! Jesus is the miracle in my life, without Him the blessings in my life would not exist! !
