Patti’s story
She turned out to be a beautiful, tall, long-legged blond. She turned heads wherever she went. She had a smile that would brighten a gloomy day. Her long, blond, thick hair flowed over her shoulders and cascaded half way down her back. She appeared almost doll-like.
It would be easy to think that her life would be wonderful, great, free of the normal hassles that plague most young people. It’d be easy to think that….and it’d be wrong.
Raised by a mother who favored her two younger brothers and was overly critical of her, her parents divorced when she was eleven. With her Mom going back to school, she was the main cook for the entire family from age 11 and beyond. Hearing only criticism from her Mom, an inferiority complex set in. Her new step-Dad turned out to be an alcoholic smoker who sexually abused her. When she got up enough courage to tell her Mother about the abuse, she didn’t believe her.
Then the mood swings started to happen. But nobody really noticed because she bottled her moods up inside of her. The person God created her to be was buried under a lot of criticism, inferiority and bipolar disorder. Nobody cared enough to help her peel back the layers of garbage that covered the person God made her to be. Most men just wanted her body. Though she graduated summa cum laude from high school, she just worked as a clerk at the Department of Motor Vehicles.
Then she came into contact with some beautiful, successful, confident Christian women. Thru conversing with them, she saw the reason that they were this way was because of a relationship with Jesus Christ. She invited Jesus into her heart in February 1974 at 19 years of age. In November 1974, she met her future husband at a bible study. He saw not only her outward beauty but an inward beauty also. He saw the person she could become as she continued to walk with God. They married in July 1976. Thru many toils, trials, tears and help from a professional Christian counselor, she has become the person God made her to be. She now has a ministry to women in the church, encouraging them to let God do the hard work of molding and shaping them into who He made them to be. I know this woman quite well, because you see, she’s my wife.
God has created each of us with certain gifts and a calling. But before we can step out in that calling, He has to prepare us for it. What is your calling? What are your spiritual gifts? Are you willing to let God do the hard work of preparing you for the life He has called you to?
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…”
For His Kingdom,
Dave Maynard
http://BSSSB-LLC.com
