Wednesday, November 30, 2011

A Little Bit About Me

My Graduation
Many of you weren’t alive during the 70s.  I was married in 1971 and by 1977 I had two daughters.  I am still married to the same man.  We now have two grandsons.  Where has the time gone?  Years from now you could be writing this same type of letter to other women.  Why do I say that?  Because when you get to be my age (well over 50 – okay over 60) you have lots of experience to share with those younger than you.  Experience is another way of saying testimony.  When you are my age, the things you have lived through are amazing.  Did you know that there was only black and white TV when my father brought home our first TV when I was 7 years old.  It was a “used” television.  Cable TV hadn’t been invented.  Neither had the internet or VCRs or DVDs.  We hadn’t had the humor of Bill Cosby yet, only the humor of “Leave it to Beaver”.  There hadn’t been a “news channel” invented to make us aware of all the things we think we need to know about, or to persuade us to believe.  Commercials weren’t any different than today, though, they were designed to SELL SELL SELL.  Did we want the newest and greatest?  Absolutely!  We had washers when I was little, but not a dryer.  My Mother hung out all of her wash.  My first dishwasher came after I was married – just about the same time we got a color television. 
My father passed away when I was 11 years old and my Mother was 2 months pregnant with her fifth daughter.  Being a widow didn’t put her in a position to lavish us with luxuries.  This meant that if you had a desire for something, you needed to earn money outside the home.  I wanted to be a model.  I babysat until I had money enough to take a modeling class at the local department store.  At 5’1” they didn’t see much potential in my being a model.  They did, however, offer me my first job.  I was 14 years old when I became the Easter Bunny in the department store.  I had to get a special work permit to work because I was under the age of 16.  This work permit also allowed me to continue working for them after Easter on weekends and the Christmas holiday season.  This job allowed me to help provide for my family.  Why tell you all of this?  Because the experiences/testimonies of my life are what make me strong in prayer and faith today. Most importantly, experience can build faith in others.  Why? Because at my age, you have walked through some pretty rough times. 
My Mother taught me how to have faith and know that God does provide.  Like I said, my father passed away when I was 11 and Mom was pregnant for her 5th daughter.  She was also 44 years old.  My father worked in a steel mill.  Just writing that down brings back memories of my Dad and how I would grab his lunch box when he came home and just bury my nose in it and smell the scents of where he worked.  My parents purchased a different home in June of 1961 and Dad passed away in November of 1961.  Dad had an insurance policy through his work.  Mom knew she couldn’t make changes in her life until after she had her baby but then knew she would have to go to work outside of the home.  My Mother’s education ended two weeks into the tenth grade when she was hospitalized with a blood disease and not expected to live.  Mom, by faith, went down to the business college and took a GED test.  She then gave them every bit of my Dad’s insurance money to pay for her first semester of school and trusted that God would supply what was needed for her to obtain a college degree so she could go to work at a job that would provide for her family.  Without an education she wouldn’t have been able to have a job that paid well.  The blood disease (incurable) that put her into the hospital when she was in 10th grade, is the same disease that allowed for her to go to college tuition free.  Plus it covered her books.  Mom graduated from college with a Junior Accounting degree at age 47 – with honors.  That isn’t the end of her legacy though.  When she retired, in her mid 60’s, Mom went back to high school and received her high school diploma at age 67.

 I hope these experiences/testimonies have bolstered your faith a little.  Each of us has a testimony that is meant to be shared with others.  Experience builds my faith; testimonies boost the faith of others.  



Sunday, November 27, 2011

God Always Provides


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I have a million experiences I could tell you but the one I would like tell you about today was when I prayed and God answered.  I didn’t call anyone else to help or to pray with me.  It was God and Julie.
In the late 70’s unemployment was much like it is today.  There were several differences, though.  First,  we didn’t have all of the expenses we do today.  We had one phone line in our home and we only made long distance calls if it was an emergency. There wasn’t an internet bill or a cable bill.  We wrote letters and sent them across country.  Imagine that! 
My husband and I owned our own business at that time.  Times were tough.  I worked only on Saturday and only for my husband so it meant I worked for free while he watched the girls on Saturday morning.  He was also in college at the time so most weeks he would go to work on Monday morning, then drive to college 45 miles away for evening classes, drive back to the business after class and work for the night and through the next day then come home and sleep for one night.  Wednesday it would begin again and he would sleep Thursday night.  Friday evenings were always reserved for playing cards with another couple that was also struggling.  That way each couple got some recreation without either of us having a baby sitter we needed to pay. 
When I say things were tough, I mean really tough.  My husband was working so hard and so many hours every week; he was exhausted.  It got to a point that one day I had to pray that God would supply the food we needed to have dinner that night.  We had plenty of venison in the freezer so meat wasn’t an issue.  No, we didn’t have store bought meat at that time, we really couldn’t afford it.  This particular morning I realized I didn’t have anything to put with the meat.  I had used everything else I had in the way of fruit, eggs, veggies, cereal, pasta, potatoes.  Everything was gone.  I had flour and sugar in the cupboard but nothing to put with it to make anything edible.  This is a frightening thing for a Mom with two little girls that needed to be fed.   Baking my own bread had become my way of releasing stress, and still is in troubled times, so I baked all of our own bread.  Unfortunately, I was out of yeast.
I was also embarrassed to tell anyone how desperate we were so I took all of the “talking to God” on my own shoulders.  When my husband left for work I began crying out to God.  All by myself I called out to God.  I had to say to Him that I didn’t know what we were going to do.  That I knew He “wouldn’t have his people begging for bread” but we didn’t have any bread so he would need to supply bread to us.  I needed to feed my children and I knew that He loved them even more than I did so he would need to supply the food for them.
About two hours later I received a call from the wife of our pastor, Babs.  She said that someone had called her that morning and said that God had told her in the summer months to home can twice the food she would normally can and when the time came, God would tell her where she was to take the food.  Today was the day.
That morning God told her to call Babs.  She told Babs that God hadn’t told her who the food was to go to, only that Babs would take care of it.  Babs told me that at first she didn’t know who the food was to be taken to but then the woman with the gift of food said there isn’t any meat.  She said she then knew it was for our family.  Babs said she was going to pick up the food and would bring it that afternoon.  The woman asked to remain anonymous. I was so amazed.  Amazed doesn’t even seem like a strong enough word! When Babs arrived she brought BOXES of home canned fruits and vegetables along with frozen vegetables that filled our freezer.  I was in awe as I put the jars on the shelves.  It was amazing as I stood back and looked there were many things I realized.  God had known 6 months before this day that I would be crying out to Him on this date and at this time.  He had planned ahead for me.  He didn’t provide Del Monte or Green Giant or the store brand, which would have been great.  He provided food that was home canned with love. 
Why is this story important to you?  It is important because we all have times when we are alone with our burden.  We don’t always need to be on a prayer list or share our burden with someone else.  God is there for each of us individually.  He wants YOU to call on Him.  He is ready to provide.
The pictures are the actual pictures I took that day to never allow me to forget what God did for a frightened young Mother.