Journey with the Lord Part 4

As I said when I first started this series, the parts of my journey with the Lord that I am sharing are just snapshots of my experiences with Him. I share in hopes that my experiences will be an encouragement to you, because what He has done for me, He can do for you. Remember Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

This current season of my life is the saddest. My wonderful husband, John, died on Sept. 22, 2020. If there is one blessing that came out of Covid, it was that because of Covid, I worked from home part time from Jan. 2020 and was able to spend those nine months at home with John.

About 6 or 7 years before John died, I was able to get a glimpse of how happy he would be when he would go home to be with the Lord. John had a heart catherization and was staying overnight in the hospital. Of course, I stayed with him. At one point, he said, "I don't feel well". I looked at his vital signs and they were dropping quickly. I immediately called the nurse and they came running in calling out, "Stat! Stat!"

While they were working on John, we had the most surreal experience. He had this big smile on his face and kept saying, "I'm only half way here." I was calm and just kept saying, "Don't go now." as if we were just having a conversation and I was asking him to stay for another cup of coffee. This went on for a while, and then he was alright.

On the night that John was going to die, as I was praying for him, a darkness came over me, and I started pleading with the Lord for a little more time. Then He reminded me that He had already given us more time by letting John stay here after the heart catherization. A peace came over me that has sustained me through this grieving process.

I started out in a deep, dark hole from which I thought I would never come out. Although I have God's peace, I was very sad. But God has a better plan for me. He sent an amazing number of people to help me, encourage me, pray for me and love me out of that dark place. I've spent the last two and a half years in prayer and seeking what the Lord would want me to do.

Then one day, I was watching TV, and they were talking about social media influencers. As I was watching, I felt as if God said, "Why don't you become a social media influencer for me?" I thought that would be pretty interesting, but I had to laugh at God's sense of humor; that he would use an old lady who knows nothing about social media to be an influencer for Him. But as they say, "Nothing is impossible with God."

I didn't know where to start, but God provided the people I needed to help me launch this website and create a logo and business card for me. Some things that were amazing to me were these: I didn't speak to the woman who was helping me about color. All she knew is that the site would be called your success advocate. I chose that title because I felt as if that was my calling as a guidance counselor: to help people get the resources they needed to become the best person they could be. I was their success advocate. And she knew that I wanted to share about the goodness of God. The colors she chose were purple and white and she chose to add a dove to the logo. The amazing part is that John's business card was purple and had a dove on the card. It made me feel like John was with me in this endeavor.

The next amazing part was how she added the dove on my business card. She put it above the title, "Your Success Advocate". When I saw it, I was reminded of Jesus saying that He must go, but He would ask the Father to send the Holy Spirit to us to be our advocate and to lead us in all the truth. The dove is a symbol that is often used to represent the Holy Spirit. Then I knew that this site was not mine. It is the Lord's. He is your success advocate. He will lead you in all the truth. My job was not founder, but as a facilitator who would populate the site. My prayer is that God will use my entries to encourage, empower, and bless all those who read it.

Thank you for letting me share some snapshots of my journey with the Lord so far. May God bless you in a mighty way as you pursue your journey with Him in your life.

Journey with the Lord Part 3

The next season of my life was the most beautiful. Being married to John. If you go to the Podcast section of this site, you can hear the story of how we met and our miraculous wedding by listening to "Mall Order Bride, A True Cinderella Story."

That was just the beginning of living a life in which my husband loved me as God loves me. He loved me just as I am and always encouraged me to be my best self and to do everything as unto the Lord. (Colossians 3:23 "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.") I had never experienced anything like that, and I can tell you that there is nothing better. John loved my children in the same way and was able to show them what Godly love looked like in daily living. I was so blessed that God gave me a husband who was so surrendered to God, that he was capable of loving me as well as everyone he met, the way God loves us all.

Of course, having a blended family, presented its challenges, but through it all, God was with us, helping us every step of the way. In Ecclesiastes 4:12, Scripture says, "Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not easily broken." The three strand cord described our marriage: John, myself, and the Lord, holding us together.

Having God as the centerpiece of our marriage set the tone for our relationship and life together. I learned so much from John about loving God and loving others. He sought the Lord in all that he did, so I learned how to do that. He encouraged me to always check the attitude of my heart to see if my motivation for doing something was out of love for another. He always said, "The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy. If one of those components is missing in your life, draw close to God to find out why."

John brought joy and laughter into my life. Once, we read a book called, "Men are Like Waffles and Women are Like Spaghetti". It was fun to read. The basic concept was that men are pretty single minded and tend to put things in categories, so that when they talk about something, they stay on topic. Women, on the other hand, tend to be more like spaghetti, with their thoughts intertwining with each other, so that if they start to talk about something, it reminds them of other things that are related, so they might go off in another direction during a conversation. Without realizing the differences between men and women, that could be frustrating, but understanding this concept eliminates the frustration. John and I would often switch places: sometimes I was waffles and he was spaghetti and then the opposite. Those conversations usually brought some laughter to a situation.

We were blessed with 26 years together. One of the other benefits of being in a Godly marriage like ours is that we each were able to be our authentic selves. We had no prescribed roles that we had to live up to. We worked together and helped each other in whatever way was needed. (Read my Sept. 20, 2022 and Oct. 11, 2022 posts in lessons learned "Completer or Competer" for more on this topic.)

An example of working in our strengths came through our work. After the first year of our marriage, John became the sole provider for our family. He was a painting contractor and even though he suffered from back pain, he worked through it and never complained. I worked with him for seven years after my business closed. As we got older, I could see that, although John never said anything about it, working in such a physically challenging career was becoming more difficult.

I really wanted to be John's best helpmate, but knew that I could never do a painting job by myself, and I was getting older as well. So, I prayed about how God would help me be John's best helpmate, and He answered my prayer by giving me the opportunity to return to school and get a job as a school guidance counselor. (You can read more about this in my March 28, 2023 post "God's Provision" in the testimonies section). With John's unfailing support, I was able to get my master's degree and work at something I loved. This also freed John from having to paint to earn a living. Now he could do what he did best: minister to people everywhere he went. We were both working in our strengths, happy, doing what God created us to do. Praise the Lord!

To be continued May 9, 2023

Where Does the Rainbow End?

Did you ever wonder where the rainbow ends? I often have, but one day the Lord showed me when I most needed a sign from Him. In Genesis, God speaks about the rainbow being a symbol of the covenant that He made with Noah to never destroy the earth again with a flood. So to me, the rainbow reminds me of God's promises and faithfulness.

Ten years ago in May, I received a call that no mother or father ever wants to hear. My youngest daughter who lives about an hour from us was in a horrific car accident. She was leaving home to pick up her four year old daughter from preschool. To leave her neighborhood, there were two exits. One had no light and one had a traffic light. Since she had to cross several lanes to turn left, she chose to exit by the light, the safer route.

She was the first in line at a red light. When the light turned green, she looked both ways and proceeded forward. An old steel truck, going at least 60 miles an hour, ran through the red light and hit her car at the driver's side door! The door was crashed in so that where she was sitting, there were about only four to six inches between the door and the center console.

Immediately, the Lord sent people to try to help her. One was an off duty EMT. Somehow my daughter had the presence of mind to tell them to call her husband and gave the phone number. A neighbor, who had been right behind her called her husband repeatedly until he was able to answer the phone. He called us and we went immediately to stay with our granddaughter and pray. My oldest daughter is a nurse and had been a volunteer fire fighter, so was trained in treating trauma patients. She called off work and headed to the hospital.

Because of her background, she was able to go into the emergency room to assist the doctor and to be with her sister. My oldest daughter is anointed to bring peace to those types of situations, and she was able to bring peace to her sister and brother-in-law during this horrific time.

My youngest daughter's femur (thigh bone) was crushed. Without God's protection and provision, I don't know that she would have ever been able to walk or use her leg again. But God provided just the right surgeon who was able to pin and wire her thigh bone together. At the time, he said that he had never seen such a bad break. I thank God for giving him the wisdom and supernatural ability to put her leg back together and for God's healing presence completing the healing.

During her recovery and rehab, I moved to her house to be able to spend time with her during the day and make dinner for her family at night. I was very concerned for her. John and I were praying for her total recovery.

One night, I was driving to the rehab, to visit her. There were no cars on the road. It had been raining and now it was drizzling. I looked to my right side and saw a rainbow. I wondered where the rainbow ended. When I turned back to look at the road, I saw that the rainbow ended on the hood of my car! It stayed there for about twenty seconds: long enough for me to realize that through this miraculous event, God was showing me that my daughter would be alright. God had His hand upon her and she would be healed and walk again. Today she has full use of her leg. Praise the Lord! I am so grateful for His love, protection, provision and healing presence in our lives.