I was brought to Jesus by a 4th grade Sunday School teacher by the name of Mrs. Baker. A gray-haired lady who sat with me and told me of the love Jesus had for children. My mother was born in Austria and raised Catholic. My father was Dutch Reformed but they went to church together and raised their children in a Christian home. My parents, especially my father, fiercely protected me after discovering I was being assualted by a physician during recovery from a horrific car accident at age fourteen.
My father insisted I attend Hope College, not only because I was third generation going but because at the time he was on their Board and he felt he could protect me from harm. I, of course, thought he was being overprotective because the Lord did not reveal to me what happened at age 14 until forty years after the fact.
At Hope, I met a wonderful, caring, compassionate Dutchman on my first and only blind date! This year we will celebrate 49 years of marriage.
The seed planted by Mrs. Baker has taken me through the suicide of my only brother, several miscarriages and the death of my parents. He has nurtured us through ups and downs of married life and the raising of a son who was born with the math genius of my father. Our son who is now 42, can still remember conversations he had with me at age 3! He is an awesome, talented young man who has blessed us with an adorable granddaughter and a beautiful daughter-in-law.
We have lived around the USA from Alaska to Mississippi, and New Hampshire to Arizona and parts inbetween. The Lord is always with us. When in doubt on making decisions that may affect our journeys in life, we lay out a fleece...
6:37 behold, I am laying a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that thou wilt deliver Israel by my hand, as thou hast said." 6:38 And it was so. When he rose early next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water. 6:39 Then Gideon said to God, "Let not thy anger burn against me, let me speak but this once; pray, let me make trial only this once with the fleece; pray, let it be dry only on the fleece, and on all the ground let there be dew." 6:40 And God did so that night; for it was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew.
In modern terms, we ask for three answers to our question the same as Gideon did, and we follow the answer we are given. Sometimes it is not the answer we want, but we abide with the answer He gives us.
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