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Smol tok nomo |
Do you believe in the Creator?
Do you believe in the Creator? No, I am not asking you, “do you believe a higher being created the world or do you believe it simply evolved," but rather do you believe in the Creator? Do you believe in His nature to create? Do you believe He continues to create situations in our lives to create the traits we need built in us? Do you believe He creates opportunities in our paths to do amazing things for the kingdom? Do you believe He creates days, months and years that add up to a lifetime of submission to His molding and shaping? Do you believe every detail He watches just as the sculptor takes a lump of clay and makes it beautiful, that he takes us and adds details in the moments of our life to gently fashion us into His masterpiece? Do you believe He has gone even now to create us a place in which we can spend our eternity? Do you trust Him with each intricate detail of your life to allow Him to create in your every day the things necessary for His creation to unfold? Do you have faith that He is creating something in you even now? So I ask again, Do you believe in the Creator?
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Perhaps this is controversial to write and perhaps my story is one in a million, but I’d like to share about how God redeemed a situation otherwise viewed in my era as anti-family and anti - God. I don’t deny God’s perfect plans for family, I believe His design is one man and one woman, one family, one forever happily ever after. I must preface that this is my story and not my parents so the “whats” and “whys” before hand are frankly irrelevant to my point.
You see growing up for me I didn’t realize my family wasn’t normal. Yes, I saw other families who didn’t visit their Dads on the weekends, and I have to admit I was a tidbit jealous at times not to have my family together all of the time, but in other ways, many ways, I was happy for two families and two homes. The fact that I didn’t know better probably played a big role. I am going to be honest there was unrest at times sibling rivalry between step sibling parent rivalry at times and there were times I felt I had to play politician to keep every one happy, so yes, I can see how the situation wouldn’t be considered the healthiest by society. But as a child living in the situation, to me, I was the most loved girl in the world! My biological Father was the most loving and selfless Father to me. Filled with love and support and candy, always lots of candy. My step Father entered my world at the age of five and quickly became a disciplinarian in my life, as well as a constant friend and listener whom I adored. I lived much with my Grandfather and I had Uncles who were so very close and quick to mentor -all of whom were Pastors. I grew up in a story of redemption. When my mom and step-dad came home to tell the older siblings they had married, things were anything but peachy. Animosity and issues between step child and parent and siblings existed, all the normal things you would see,. However, as the years went by we became a family. My step sister is now one of my closest friends. I love her and couldn’t imagine her family not in my life, because truly family is more than blood. I have had the opportunity to learn that from some of the typically hardest situations can come some of the deepest loyalties and love. Family is not always blood relatives family are those we experience life with, our pack, our people. I consider it a story of redemption because after becoming a teen-ager I realized I was supposed to be pitied and considered less than. I had no idea. Seriously. None. To say I didn’t suffer from this in a sense would be wrong I suppose, but to say this wasn’t the most amazing and beautiful story filled with love and stories to make you cry and hardened hearts turned soft, and learning that love conquers all (the love of Christ that is), would also be wrong. I learned early on to help others change and to be changed, I learned how to work through less than perfect situations and in the end I was made better from it. I get it, to say I was better off coming from a broken home is almost anti Christian and of course I don’t believe this is Gods perfect plan, but to not be able to share the testimony of the beautiful redemptive power of my God would deny me the right to sing His praises! You see God took those broken things and despite the world and even the church worlds best attempts to create a victim mentality in me, I kept my eyes on Christ. I never believed I couldn’t do big things for Chirst. I never believed I would have to complete the cycle or family curse as some people say. I am who I am, and who I am is redeemed! God took those things and as we worked through so many hardships long ago I literally have one of the best most loving support systems. God flooded my life with mentors and God fans, people who saw all of the insecurities and assured me that God had big plans for my life. I literally have the best family in the world and am the furthest from a victim of it as you can get. You see GOD REDEEMED ME and my situation. I didn’t suffer, I placed it in His hands and such beauty has come from what has been deemed by many as ashes. Is my family perfect? No. Do I still pray daily for the family who has yet to come to know Christ as their Saviour? Yes. Do I lack in any way from the multitude God placed in my life? No. This is my story. Not the choices I made, but the choices that made me who I am. Redeemed, beautiful, healthy, a child of God in every way. I can still remember the day in my conservative Bible College class that without the professors knowledge, he momentarily made me slide down a bit in my seat. My heart began to race as I felt I had been marked. Statistically, he stated, those who come from divorced homes are more likely to divorce. All sound teaching I am sure but my mind left. I scanned the class I quickly realized I was the only one in a class of 32 who had in fact been marked. Many kids parents had attended Bible school as well. In fact, that was the pride of the area it seemed - families carrying on the batons for generations a spotless group from the loins of spotless seed. Then me. I remember my hand shooting up as my friends all shifted uncomfortably in their chairs. I don’t remember the full conversation with my professor but I do remember sounding more offended than I meant to as I made the point that it doesn’t mean you have to just because your parents did. Redeemed. I have had the blessing of being no one from nowhere. I have been able to see how my God rises above statistics as I have enjoyed a wonderful marriage for nearly a decade. Not taking flight when times got hard. Why? Because my eyes were on the God who gives beauty for ashes. Statistically the red sea shouldn’t have parted, statistically someone thrown into a well shouldn’t have become second to a king, statistically the Savior of the world shouldn’t have come from the seed of a harlot. Statistically I shouldn’t consider my upbringing one of privilege and love. Statistically I shouldn’t feel like one of the most loved girls in the world with a heart overflowing with thanksgiving for my family and our redemption. Maybe that’s how I can have grace for others. Please don’t discount this as anti biblical or even anti facts. This is just my testimony of what makes our infinite God so amazing. See I believe he does take ashes and gives back beauty. I don’t put him in the box and I write these words to say don’t let the church or world put you in a box. If we had to become what statistics say, if we could only do great things on the foundations of perfect generations before us, then why would we need God or redemption? I am happy for every generation who serves God spotlessly, but I am also happy to be called by God and for every one and everything God has allowed on my path. To realize my identity is in Christ and I thank God for the privilege to grow up in a redeemed home full of people who needed redeeming… people just like me - a redeemed person. That is why I am happy to follow the call to share this message with the world, God can redeem you, listen to Him. None of the other voices have the power to give you beauty for ashes but He does. A fairy tale you say? I like to think so, and I am pretty crazy about the Prince of Peace whose hand reached down, picked me up, dusted me off, and made me a child of the King |
AuthorWife, Mother, Missionary, Teacher, Friend ... just a few of the many titles I gladly wear. Never dreamed this is the journey God would take me on. Archives
July 2022
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