With the recent talk about appropriate and inappropriate music I prayed about sharing my testimony in Jesus Christ with all of you, now in keeping with privacy, some things like names and dates will not be included but the story remains the same.So here goes, I was raised in an average middle class area with very moral parents, and true to the red, white and blue.  The first seeds were planted: Occasionally we would go to church; I was in Sunday school at a church in 3rd grade and given a bible, with my name in gold letters on the cover, after that we never regularly attended, church, only a rare Christmas Eve service.  I did know most of the main stories in the Bible, like Noah and the Christmas story, but only on a superficial level.  I always wanted to know more.  Fast forward to college, I met these kids who called themselves “Christians” they seemed to be always happy and having a great time, I wanted to be one of them, but back then it was sort of an exclusive club.  I went to some of the first Amy Grant concerts…more seeds being planted; but the dirt just wasn’t quite ready.  Then through a set of circumstances meeting a very manipulative fellow, I found myself a single mother, (in my mid twenties) my parents in true Richard and Emily Gilmore fashion (Gilmore Girls, the TV show) tried to hide me as I was an embarrassment to their social status, however they adored my little baby girl.  Then my little girl was of preschool age, I found a preschool in a church, during her first few years my dirt was improving into some luscious soil… My thought was that if my sweet pea was going to be at this church for school that I should be attending the church on Sunday’s to help her feel more comfortable, as she had never experienced daycare from strangers, only family.  As I was getting us ready for the first Sunday she and I would go to the church services, the phone rang; it was my sister telling me to turn on the TV that the church had just burnt down.  I remember just standing there in front of the TV, and the phone doing that slow motion slide thing away from my ear.  I thought what this guy is God thinking, I was ready and now the place is gone.Well, I quickly found out that God is faithful.  He allowed me to find out where the congregation would be meeting the following Sunday, the following March my sweet pea and I were baptized together, I made great friends, through those friendships I met my husband (a whole ‘nother story!!).  About ten years ago we were lead to leave that church and join another more conservative church, which is where we are now, raising our five children in Christ.  That little sweet pea is 20 now and serving the Lord, more like a beautiful rose!! As we have grown as a family in Christ, worldly things are always leaving the house; lottery tickets, TV shows, then TV, various types of books, music, and movies; the NIV for the KJV; wearing dresses only; practicing modest living-sorting out needs vs. wants; more prayer…

As I look back and can pinpoint those moments that seeds were being planted in me, it makes those tough times, seem not so bad. I have repeatedly thought that while I was not ready,  God was persistent, He never gave up on me, even though I wasn’t always there for Him, He was there for me, He has completely forgiven me of all my sins and He loves me!

I heard others say this about God, that if He can take someone like me who was broken and scarred and heal me, into one of His own, then what is impossible with Him?