This is a bit of my story.
Almost 53 years ago, if you’d known me up close and been a fly on my bedroom wall, you would have said that I was a very broken, distraught, extremely fearful little girl. Although just a wee thing chronologically, my life was already very, very complicated.
I cried a lot. I mean, a lot. I remember going to elementary school and we had a “coatroom”. You need a coat room when you live in Buffalo! I would arrive at school, go in to put my coat on my hook in the coatroom and the tears would begin. I would stand and quietly cry. Others would come in to hang their coat or deposit their winter boots and I would turn, trying very hard to not let them see me crying. Day after day. Every day. It was the only release from grief, pain and torment that I had.
Every day my teacher would come in and quietly ask, “Are you going to join us today?” And every day I would shake my head and as tears steadily dripped down my little cheeks. It was definitely not an attention-thing. I was frustrated that I couldn’t stop crying. But I just could not. No matter what. I was so alone in my troubled, broken world.
And then it happened. And maybe it’s hard to imagine, but I honestly can remember it like it was yesterday.
My mom, who had lived through tremendous heartache, had done the only thing left to do. She had heard about Jesus and one night cried out to Him saying, “If you can use my life, it’s yours. Take it.” And from that day on, she put the bottle down, never to pick it up again. Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, met her in a very powerful way.
This is me about the age I prayed to Jesus for the first time. {I loved playing that I was the Sheriff!}
So it was, that one day, shortly after my mom’s life-changing experience, my mom sat me down at the kitchen table and told me about the son of God. She told me His name was Jesus and that He had died on the cross for my sins. I sat and wept and wept and wept as she told me. I understood heartache all too well. And I definitely understood that I needed a Savior.
That significant day I prayed and asked Jesus to forgive me for my sins and I also asked Him to come into my heart and live there forever. I meant it with every fiber of my being. I whispered thank you a billion times over to Him and from that day on I prayed to Him, many times a day, every day. I believe, with all my heart that my life took a dramatic change that day and I shudder to think that my life would have been like had I not asked Jesus into my heart that day.
I now had a personal miracle-working friend to talk to. He would even be up all night with me. He would never leave me – not even for a minute. I could whisper secrets to Him and He would not tell anyone. I told Him immediately that I wanted to spend the rest of my life pleasing Him – if He would just take my life and use it – I would live my life as a giant thank you for all He did that day.
As today we spend remembering Jesus’ death on the cross, I soberly overflow with bountiful thanks to Him. He’s been my constant friend ever since that day. He has never left me. He has loved me in spite of myself and He has faithfully healed the early heartache I had.
And I wonder about you my friends. Where are you at? Are you wondering what this life is all about anyway? Are you wondering what it would take to experience God as I write about His faithfulness?
This same Jesus can change your life too. All it takes is acknowledging that you need Him, asking Him to forgive your sins and asking Him to come in and change your life. He wants to. Then thank Him and tell Him to use you. And begin today by telling someone what you did. If you can’t think of someone to tell, write to me. I could not think of any greater joy then knowing my story changed your life too. It’s all about His relationship with each of us.
It’s not about religion but relationship with Christ.
Abundantly grateful for Christ’s death on the cross for me and ever-so-grateful that He rose from the dead, sealing the deal as our Savior and Lord!!
Amen!!! Beauty from ashes. Faithful God!! Lover of our souls. Oh how I praise the matchless name of Jesus! Thank you for sharing a bit of your story, Linny! I have no doubt God will use every last bit of it for His glory!! Thank you, Jesus!!
Thank you for sharing a part of your story, Linny!!
The older I get and the more “stuff” I walk through, the less and less I understand how anyone can think they can do this life without Him.
Our church has a 7-ft wooden cross with lots of holes drilled into the sides of it. At Good Friday service, they pass out slips of paper and we write down anything we need to “take to the cross.” Then during prayer time we can go up, twist up the papers and put them into the holes. After the service the papers are collected unopened and sealed into a bag until the Easter service, which begins with burning them as kindling to light the new fire for the Paschal candle. It’s very powerful.
Tonight I told the priest I was probably gonna need more than one piece of paper. He thought I was joking but I wasn’t really. Thanks be to God that He is big enough to take away and deal with ALL of my guilt and regret and pain and fear and mess.
Obviously, God has used you. You write about it all the time. The time that God used you in MY life was the first and only time I met you. It was in an elevator, at Phoenix Children’s Hospital, the day our 3 week old Noah was having open heart surgery. God used you to pray with us and encourage us in our faith walk on a seemingly scary day day. We never know who we will become or how God will use us. Blessings~~~~
Awww Shelli. Such a beautiful time meeting you guys in the elevator and getting to pray with you on such a trying day for you all. God definitely orders our steps! And by the way, we are speaking in Prescott on Saturday night. I will have to msg you about it, just in case you want to come by!
Faith makes all the difference.
I wish I’d understood that better while raising my son, but I will be better prepared (at least in that respect) for the next one. 😀
It’s strange to read this today, because I just this morning read an extraordinary story in the book “How Doctors Think”, about a woman (also Jewish, actually) who adopted an infant from Vietnam who immediately became dangerously ill and almost didn’t make it. She prayed through and pushed through during weeks in the hospital, and afterwards explained to the book’s author, “G-d is my best friend.” I was in tears reading the story – combine the fierce and unwavering love of a mother with G-d’s divine intervention, and miracles happen, as you well know!