The Most Miserable Person in the World

November 24, 2017November 23, 2017 / hhooks / 6 Comments

What’s the worst mistake you’ve ever made? No, I don’t mean that time in middle school when you tried to cut your own bangs and ended up with about an inch and a half of hair in the front that stuck out from your forehead when you tried to curl it and spray it into submission.

Looks kinda cute on her but was horrific on me, and I did it more than once! Photo Credit: Pinterest

Yeah – you remember that time (or four – depending on how many times it took you to learn not to do it on your own). It was the time you tried to trim them when they were wet, and you pulled them down tight and cut them at the length you wanted them to be…when they were dry! Yeah – that time 🙂 Takes a while to get over that mistake, don’t it!?

But that isn’t the mistake I mean. I mean that big, life changing (or at least life diverting) mistake that took years, maybe even decades to recover from. I have a few like that, but one of the most costly mistakes for me was the time I spent trying to act like Jesus wasn’t real and wasn’t sovereign over my life.

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That all started back in 1997 when I was a freshman at UNCW. Fast forward to 2004, and I’m married and looking for a new church in a new town with my new husband.

Yes. You read that right. I was still ignoring Jesus but looking for a place to go to church. I was newly married and knew that, like my parents, my husband expected a girl that was going to church. And, I wanted couple friends to hang out with, so we visited churches in our area. I was raised in the Methodist church and Bill was raised in the Baptist church, so we went to both. Sometimes friends invited us to their churches and sometimes we went to churches we’d seen in the area around our apartment.

We finally visited First Baptist Church of Indian Trail (FBCIT) around 2005 because Bill’s mema had seen a service from this church on TV and suggest that we try it out.

Mema had mentioned this church to us several times after we moved to the area. I was against it though. It was a Baptist church for one thing, and it was huge! It took 3 services to accommodate people on Sunday morning, for crying out loud! But, it was around 5 minutes from our apartment, so we finally went.

The Wednesday after our visit, as was the church’s practice, they sent people to visit us and invite us to come back. We went back the second Sunday and asked to be placed into a Life Group (that’s a Sunday school class for those of you old-schoolers like me). That day, we were taken to a class that hadn’t been together very long but was for newly married couples like us. We met the teacher and his wife and 3 or 4 other couples. After service, they were all going to lunch and invited us. We went, and that was it. FBCIT became our church.

I don’t remember a ton from those early years except the life group. It was growing fairly quickly as other couples were added and some started having children. A few of the ladies in the class who sang in the choir invited me to join, and I did.

I know now that God meant for us to be at FBCIT. It was the church and those were the people God was going to use to woo me back to Himself. I sang in the choir. I went on the choir retreats. I listened to the sermons. I participated in the life group lessons. (Sounds a lot like the first 18 years of my life, doesn’t it)?

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God began convicting me during this time. I can’t tell you much of what He said or did though. For one thing, I don’t think I’d ever been convicted before – or maybe I just didn’t recognize God’s voice. For another, I’d gotten very good at ignoring anything that might be from God: ignoring it, rationalizing it, getting angry at it, whatever I needed to do, I did to avoid whatever He was doing or saying to reach me.

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Then, one morning during life group, we had a substitute teacher. I have no idea what the lesson was about, but I will never forget this one thing he said: the most miserable person in the world is a Christian who isn’t living for God.

I almost burst into tears right there in the middle of that class with all those new friends we’d made.

That was me!

He was talking to me!

I WAS miserable!

I hadn’t known exactly what was going on, but I knew something was wrong. I hadn’t realized it until that very moment; I had become an expert at pushing is back for after all those years. I had gotten good at doing church things and living like a Christian, but I wasn’t living for God at all.

Whoa! Talk about a turning point! I still had a very cold, hard heart of stone, and it would take a few more years to soften it completely, but this moment definitely got my attention.

Look back and take note of the life-diverting moments and turning points you’ve experienced? Would you share them here?

He’s a ‘Hold On To You’ Kind of God

November 17, 2017November 15, 2017 / hhooks / 2 Comments

Once you belong to God, He keeps you, even if you don’t want to be kept. I’m thankful He doesn’t let His children go. (I know somebody just said ‘amen’ to that)!

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I’m sure there were many ways God held on to me when I decided to walk out on my own, but one way was by keeping me in church. The whole time this mess was going on, I never stopped going to church. Weird, right? I really don’t even believe in Jesus at this point, but I am sitting in church!? I know. I know.

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On the surface, the thing that kept me in church was my parents. I knew they expected me to go, so I went. From the time I was 18 and moved out of my parents’ house, I found a church to attend in the difference places I lived. That was God keeping me. That wasn’t me. Now, I’m not saying that I went every Sunday, and I certainly wasn’t involved in the activities at the church like I was when I was young, but I still went. That’s one of the major things that kept me from totally going into oblivion. That, and God had a Christian husband in store for me, but I didn’t know that yet.

I’d known who Bill was since high school although we’d never spoken to each other that we can remember. But, we were in a group of friends who were hanging out while some of us were home on break over the Christmas holiday in 2000. Over those weeks of break, he and I met and started dating. That was 17 years ago, but God had Bill planned for me when He separated the dry land from the water and said it was good.

Bill grew up in a close-knit, Southern family just like I did. He was raised in church (the same church where his mom went as a girl with her family). He spent summer days running through the woods with his cousins, and he spent many a meal with his feet under the table at his grandmother’s house. It’s a little eerie how many similarities there are between his childhood and mine.

Memmie’s house (Bill’s grandmother)

But all those similarities don’t negate the most important reason: Bill believes in Jesus. God knew that I would need a Christian husband to hold my hand and help lead me back to Him, so He sent me Bill.

Bill and me – 2014

Bill and I met in December 2000. We got engaged in July 2003 and were married in June 2004. During the 3 years of our courtship, I don’t recall telling him a lot about my worldview although we did talk about it a few times before and after we got married. More recently, he told me those conversations scared him and that he prayed that I’d go back to my faith for the sake of our family.

Thankfully, God was working in my life to reconcile me to Himself.

It took a while.

He let me walk out on my own for a long time.

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In Psalms 81:11-12, God says, “But My people did not listen to My voice: and Israel did not obey Me. So, I gave them over to the stubbornness of their heart, to walk in their own devices.”

This verse makes me shiver; it is as if God were speaking specifically about me here because this is exactly what He let me do. He gave me over because that was what I wanted. He knew His child well enough to know that I had to learn the hard way, so to speak.

I was going to have to walk away to get back to Him.

In a recent Bible study, I heard Elizabeth Poplin explain why God gives His children over to their own devices. She said, “That’s what God does. We think we’ll get freedom out there, so we leave and taste it, but it doesn’t free us. He does. So we go back. We have some of the world in us when we come back. He will clean us up”.

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And He’s kept us the whole time. He’s just waiting for us to get our fill of whatever it was we thought we wanted more than Him. He’s been watching. He’s been working. He’s been waiting – like the father in the famous parable of the prodigal son. God waited for me to look His way, and as soon as I did, He came running!

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Hallelujah!

Please share your stories of how God held you!

Those “What If” Moments

November 9, 2017December 14, 2019 / hhooks / 3 Comments

When you look back over your life, and see how things are coming together, and understand how one decision in one moment created a mistake that changed things and brought you to where you currently stand, do you wish you could go back to your 18-year-old or 25-year-old self and warn yourself not to do it? Sometimes I do. Then, I realize that our lives were set in motion long before we were even being put together in our mothers’ wombs. What we did we were probably going to do no matter what, so it is a waste of time to wish you could change it. The best we can do is to ask God to show us what He wanted us to learn from what we did and how He wants us to glorify His name through that experience and move on – as the person He intended for us to be as a result.

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But, there are times when I still can’t help but think, “What if?” What if I hadn’t taken that Introduction to Religion course? What if, when I began having doubts, I’d prayed for God to show me the truth? What if I had opened the Bible to see what God had to say?

What if, a few semesters after the Introduction to Religion course, I hadn’t taken that Survey of Asian Religions course? This was another elective, and I chose it so I could have a class with the guy I was dating at the time. Turned out to be an extremely stupid thing to do for many reasons, one of which was the fact that we broke up early in the semester, so I had to sit through the other 3 ½ months of the semester in a classroom with him!

This class covered Buddhism and Hinduism and other minor Asian religions. What I saw were a few similarities between these religions and Christianity: how to treat others and how to live, for example. It seemed everyone had a variation on the Golden Rule. There were also a myriad of creation and flood stories. All this information and these perceived similarities burst through a door in my mind, further muddling and blurring what was true about Jesus. Things started mixing up. I continued to hear that Intro to Religion teacher explain that religion was what man created as he tried to figure out how he got here and what he as supposed to do.

All this jumbled together. I didn’t take captive any thoughts. I didn’t guard my heart. I didn’t pray and ask God to show me the truth. I didn’t talk to any trusted Christians. I just jumped head first into this…hole.

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I remember thinking, “Everybody’s just trying to figure out the meaning of life!” That led me to conclude that everyone was right; all religions and belief systems were valid. Everyone just created their own realities – little ‘t’ truths. What is right for me and works for me isn’t necessarily right for you. This led me to another conclusion: How can I tell someone of a different belief system that they are wrong?

Ugh! I hate talking about this! I feel so silly. Why didn’t I guard my heart? Why didn’t I take captive those thoughts? Why did this happen to me so easily? Why didn’t I give God a chance to straighten me out?

By the end of my four years in college, I had developed a tolerant, open worldview. I know a name for it now: relativism. You do your own thing, have your own beliefs, and you’re right. I will do my thing and have my own beliefs, and I’m right, too. I picked off the buffet of world beliefs and created my own worldview that suited me and the way I wanted to live my life. It was “I won’t mess with you and tell you that you’re wrong, and you won’t mess with me and tell me I’m wrong”. We’ll all just get along! It was very nice and non-abrasive. There isn’t much to argue about or stand up for with this worldview.

What can I say? It seems like total craziness when I write it now, but that is where my mind was, and I was totally happy with it.

The problem with this type of thought process is that there isn’t any room for Jesus to be a real man, much less the Son of God. I never thought of that when all this mess started, and by the time I had arrived at my own worldview, He didn’t fit in anymore. If everyone’s reality is right for them, then Jesus isn’t who He said He was. He wasn’t born. He didn’t walk among us. He did not turn water to wine or heal people. Most importantly, He didn’t die for me, walk out of the grave, or ascend back to heaven. He isn’t alive and loving us today.

All the truth about Jesus and who He was got gobbled up by worldview I created for myself. There was no room for Him. Before I knew it, He was gone.

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That’s scary, isn’t it? It is scary on this side of that experience, now that I have been reconciled back to the Lord. But I wasn’t scared at the time. I didn’t realize the seriousness of my situation. I didn’t realize that I had turned my back on God. It just happened. I was just living in it. And, I thought I had been so smart to figure it all out.

Have you ever doubted something you thought you knew? If you are a Christian, have you ever doubted that God existed? That Jesus was real? That He really did all the things the Bible says He did? Maybe you’ve questioned that God had your best interest in mind. Maybe you wondered if Jesus was really the only way to salvation. Are you willing to share those doubts and questions here?

When It All Changed

November 2, 2017December 14, 2019 / hhooks / 5 Comments

Have you ever been walking along through your life, happy in your own little bubble of comfort and familiarity, when all of a sudden – BAM – the bubble bursts, and you realize not everybody is like you? Yep! That’s exactly how I felt when I was 18 years old, and I stepped onto the campus of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington (UNCW).

UNCW

The first 18 years of my life were fairly structured and sheltered. I had a simple childhood. Most of the people around me had grown up in a similar way. Most of my friends were from middle-class, southern, Christian families, too.

My family went to church regularly, and I was saved sometime around 12-years-old. To add to that, my parents were fairly strict, so I stayed out of trouble in high school. I grew up in a small town anyway. Everybody knew my parents and me, so it would have been challenging to get away with very much. I was what you’d call a ‘good girl’, for the most part, but it wasn’t necessarily because I was convicted as a result of my relationship with God and wanted to bring Him glory. It was mostly to avoid being grounded and having my car taken away. 🙂

But, when my parents cut me loose on the campus of UNCW in August of 1997, I took full advantage of the 150 miles between my hometown and the exciting new place to which I had moved. I had my wild streak and made up for the lost time in high school.

(It is noteworthy to mention that, although they were a two-and-a-half-hours drive away from me, my parents and my upbringing still held pretty strong sway over much of my behavior. I did what I wanted to an extent, but I still held it in check. That distance didn’t mean they had no influence or power over me at all. I didn’t want them to make me come home, so I took my rear end to class and made decent grades).

Although I got to exercise my freedom and experience some of the things my parents warned me about, the thing that was damaged most by my choices was my faith…and I didn’t even realize it was happening.

During my first semester as a college freshman, I took an elective called Introduction to Religion. It was a survey of religion as a whole – more of a philosophical look at the institution of religion, if I remember correctly. I have no idea why I took it though; I must have needed an elective, and it fit into my schedule.

I distinctly remember a lecture early in the semester when the teacher said that religion was man’s creation. He explained that man-made religion was a way to answer life’s big questions: Why am I here? How did I get here? What happens when I die?

Those words stand out to me even now. That was a pivotal moment for me. I should have followed Paul’s warning to the Corinthian Christians in 2 Corinthians 10:5…”take captive every thought to obey Christ.” But I didn’t do that. I highly doubt I even knew that was a thing.

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Instead, I remember thinking that my eyes were being opened. I was excited! I felt enlightened! I felt as though I were figuring out some mystery all by myself. This was an epiphany – an important revelation to which I was privy. I thought, “Everyone is just trying to figure out life and make it in this world! We just do it differently.”

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This enticed me further onto a path that I happily walked down. I was willing. I was discovering. I was eager to uncover more of this new reality about which I was learning. I didn’t see it at the time, but these patterns of thought were what led me to completely turn my back on Jesus and spend more than 10 years walking out on my own. I thought I was liberated. I thought I was so modern. But I was heading toward a dangerous place, a place God doesn’t intend for His children to go.

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Our minds can be our own worst enemies, would you agree? What we think has a great influence over us. That must be why the Bible discusses thoughts and thinking so much and why we’re encouraged to “lean not on your own understanding” but to go to God so He can refresh our minds with His word. What thoughts do you have trouble taking captive? What do you do when those enter your mind? How does God lead you back down the narrow way?

Belief Isn’t Necessarily Faith

October 26, 2017September 19, 2022 / hhooks / 6 Comments

Many people can tell you exactly where they were when they got saved. They know exactly what was going on and can even tell you a specific date. I can’t. I know I was in the 6th grade, about 12 years old. I know some specific things that led up to me making the decision. But, I don’t know exactly where I was or what was going on or what date it was when I asked Jesus for His gift of salvation. I just know I did it.

What I do remember is that it was very important to me that my friends to be saved, too. I didn’t want any of my friends to be left here after the rapture to endure the things I’d seen portrayed in the movie I saw at my youth lock-in. I recall being very excited and telling them all that they needed to be saved. However, I didn’t personally lead anyone to Christ, and I don’t recall anyone saying they got saved as a result of my efforts, whatever they were.

I also don’t recall any real change in myself. I still did everything I’d done before: I went to church and youth meetings and sang in the choir, and all the other good churchy stuff, but there was nothing different about me as far as I can remember. I had asked God to save me. I told Him I believed in Him…but, at that time in my life, I think it was mainly because I didn’t want to go to hell; it wasn’t because I wanted to glorify Him with my life. You could say that I gave Him my mind but kept my heart clutched tightly in my fist.

Maybe that doesn’t sound like a bad thing to you, and evidently it was acceptable to me at the time. I was saved. I wasn’t going to hell when I died. Eternity, for me, was taken care of. All was well. But, you’d be wrong to find security in this, and so was I.

What I have discovered since then, through this journey I have been on with Jesus, is that it isn’t enough to simply acknowledge that there is a Creator God or that there is a real man named Jesus. Even Islam accepts that Jesus lived; to Muslims, Jesus was a Jewish prophet. Simply having intellectual knowledge of the fact that God and Jesus exist will not save a person.

In James 2:19, Jesus’ own brother reminds us that even the demons believe God exists. They’re even afraid of Him!

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But the demons haven’t acknowledged God as sovereign over them. They do not love their neighbors, as Jesus instructed disciples in the gospels, as an outward sign that they belong to Him. Belief in God isn’t enough to save them.

The book of Daniel discusses a succession of kings who saw God’s greatness displayed and even verbally acknowledged His power but may or may not have actually given their hearts and lives to Him. (It should be noted that some commentaries including those in Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible accept that Nebuchadnezzar and Darius may have converted to a monotheistic belief in God based on their experiences with Him. However, neither king made a confession of faith that was recorded in scripture).

In Daniel chapter 3, Nebuchadnezzar witnesses God save Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

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After they came out of the fire, unburnt, not even smelling like smoke, the king says (verse 28), “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who sent His angel and delivered His servants who put their trust in Him…” The king goes on in verse 29 to make a decree that “any people, nation, or tongue that speaks anything offensive against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb and their houses reduced to rubbish heaps, inasmuch as there is no other god who is able to deliver in this way.” That is a quite a lot of reverence coming from the king of the Babylonian empire. However, notice that King Nebuchadnezzar refers to Him as someone else’s God.

Then, in Daniel 4:37, the king says, “I praise, exalt, and honor the King of Heaven…” But does he actually give God his heart and life? It doesn’t say for sure.

Daniel Chapter 6 introduces King Darius of the Medes who makes similar statements after Daniel survives a night in the lion’s den. Darius decrees that everyone should tremble before God. Because of the lion’s den, Darius learns to respect God, but does he ever come to faith in Him? I’m unsure based on what I’ve read. What I do know, is that faith is the step we must take after we acknowledge who God is.

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These instances are both sad and telling. I imagine there are many people who are in this same predicament. They have seen God work, maybe even believe He is real but won’t surrender to His sovereignty over their lives. I was there. That was me, too! I was like the demons, Darius, and Nebuchadnezzar: I knew Him, but I didn’t live for Him. And my failure to take that next step is what led to more than 10 years of my life spent in spiritual darkness.

What is your understanding of the fate of King Nebuchadnezzar and King Darius based on your reading of the book of Daniel? Do you believe these men came to faith in our Lord and devoted their lives to Him, or did they merely add Him to the list of gods in which their culture already believed?

Do you remember how you met the Lord? Can you recall where you were, how old you were, the exact date? I would love for you to share you stories here.

Scared Straight?

October 20, 2017October 19, 2017 / hhooks / 8 Comments

Jesus has been a part of my life since the beginning – well, since before my life began if you want to go further than that. My dad was “born and raised” in church as was my mom. So, my younger sister and I couldn’t help but be, right? We grew up in the same church where my mom had gone her whole life. As children, we sang in the children’s choir, went to Vacation Bible School (VBS), participated in church fundraisers, and went to youth lock-ins and retreats. You name it, and we did it if it was church-related.

Children’s Choir at Olivet – mid 1980’s. My mom is playing the piano, and my sister and I are in the choir (she is front row, far left, and I am second row, far right).

Youth retreat – mid 1990’s. (I am standing on the bench, 5th from the left).

I never felt forced toward God though. It was just an expectation that my parents had that they made clear to my sister and me: If you live in this house, you will go to church. So, I went. I was christened as an infant. I read my Bible. I went to Sunday school. I invited my friends to VBS. I went through confirmation and joined the church. I took communion. I was an acolyte. But, there was never a time I thought any of that would get me into heaven. I knew what salvation was and that only salvation would get me into heaven.

Confirmation Sunday – early to mid 1990’s (the day we joined the church after going through Confirmation classes to learn about the Methodist denomination). I am the second from the left.

VBS Final Presentation – mid 1990’s. (I am second from the right).

As some point, I told my piano teacher that I understood that I could die at any time. I told her that I knew I wasn’t going to live forever; I wasn’t invincible just because I was young. I must have been 10 or 11. She told me that since I was mature enough to accept that fact, I was ready to be saved.

Now, I have to tell you, I have no idea why I was compelled to tell her this! She wasn’t someone I was particularly close to or with whom I have a spiritual connection. I guess my preteen self just had this on my mind at the time and she was the one who I felt I could tell. Who knows! Whatever the reason for the conversation, it has stuck with me as something that was part of what led me to accept Christ as my Savior.

Then, when I was about 12, I was at a lock-in at my church. We stayed up all night and watched a series of movies about Jesus’ second coming when He will rapture the living Christians to heaven and about the tribulation and what will happen to people who become Christians during that time. (This wasn’t the Left Behind movie series; it was earlier than that).

What I remember most is the depiction of the tribulation and what life would be like for people who became Christians after the rapture. In particular was a scene where Christians were being beheaded because they wouldn’t renounce their belief in Jesus Christ. The guillotine and the actual beheadings weren’t shown, but what was happening was clearly discussed so I knew what was going on. The scene played out in a dungeon or cell where the Christians were being held. Someone was coming to get them, one by one, to take them out to the guillotine. They were given one last chance to renounce Christ. If they didn’t, they were beheaded on the spot. I remember this scene especially because there was a child in the dungeon. Just before he was taken, the adults told him that he’d be asked if he loved Jesus. He told them he would say that he did. Then, the adults told him that he’d be laid down on a stone. They told him to close his eyes and the next thing he knew, he would see the Lord. Then, the bad guys came and got him and gave him a red balloon. He goes out with them; you see the sky through the dungeon’s window, you hear the guillotine fall, then the red balloon rises past the window.

I can only imagine what must have been going on in that 12-year-old brain of mine as I watched that movie. My heart is racing and I am breathing a little faster just thinking of that scene.

At this point, I must be totally honest and tell you that I don’t want to tell you any more of my story. I am embarrassed and ashamed. When God started working on me to write a blog and share my testimony, I told Him no. Me! I said no to the King of the World! I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want people to know who I’d been and what I’d done.

God has seen our unloveliness - the deep brokenness and rebellion in our hearts - and instead of withdrawing, He pursues us to the very end. - Matt Chandler - Postcard available at https://www.zazzle.com/our_unloveliness_postcard-239551337646667759 #postcard #MattChandler #brokenness #unloveliness #rebellion #Jesus #Christ #withdrawing

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But, if God has ever convicted you to do something, you know He won’t let you go until you obey (remember Jonah?!). I kept telling Him no, and He kept pursuing me and encouraging me.

Earlier this year, a friend encouraged me to find out how other Christians were blogging. So, I started looking around and found several blog posts by Ann Voscamp. One series of posts in particular was very inspiring, so I prayed and journaled about what I was reading; I wrote my thoughts, my fears, and my prayers.

When you get tired of it all, God’s there

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Finally, God showed me that people have to see who I was so they can know who God is. This is why He gave me this life – my story. And this is what He intends for me to do – write it for you so you’ll know that God loves you. So, I’ll put aside my fear and obey. If you’ll keep reading, I’ll keep writing.

John 15:16-17 God chose you to write a letter to the world. That letter is love.

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Has God ever convicted you of something, and you said no? What did God want you to do? How did He pursue you? Did you finally obey?

June Cleaver? Who me?

October 6, 2017April 18, 2018 / hhooks / 14 Comments

Leave it to Beaver
Beaver Cleaver and his mom, June (photo credit: Pinterest)

I am not June Cleaver. I’m just not. My mom was pretty darn close, so before I became a mom, I assumed I would be great at it, too. I was wrong! I’m not June Cleaver nor Carolyn Murdock (my mom). I’m just Heather Hooks; that’s all I can be.

I have a relationship with Jesus. I am a wife and a work-from-home mom of two children. I am a daughter, a sister, and an aunt. I have only ever lived in North Carolina. I am a teacher and a photographer. I discovered, once I had kids, that I was a selfish control-freak with a short fuse on a bad temper that my children see far too often.

At our house, dirty dishes sometimes stay in the sink overnight and bathrooms aren’t cleaned as often as they should be. The floors usually need to be vacuumed or swept, and I am pretty sure I have become nose-blind to the trash can in the kitchen.

I am learning to be a wife who respects her husband. This hasn’t always been the case in my marriage. Learning to trust God and accept His sovereignty over my life has shown me pieces of my own self that could be more God-centered: my marriage, my parenting, my relationships with others, how I spend my free time…

God hasn’t always been the focus of my life though. I was raised in a Christian home and was saved when I was 12 years old, but when I got older, I chose to turn my back and walk away from God and do my own thing for a while.

How’d that work for me, you ask? You’ll have to keep reading to find out ;-)…that’s what this blog is all about.

This blog will be an honest and open look at my life and my faith journey. I will be as transparent as possible. You’ll read my testimony, how God has worked in my life, my struggles and triumphs, what I am learning about marriage and parenting…who knows what else…maybe even a recipe or cleaning tip here and there. I am letting God take the lead and direct me on this; I’ll just do the typing.

The main goal here is to write to you so you’ll know who God is based on what He has done in my life. These aren’t just my stories. These are God’s stories, and I write to share them with you.

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Feel free to introduce yourself. I’d love to know who is here with me.

Servant Girl Stories

Writing the stories God gave me so others will know His love

faith journey

The Most Miserable Person in the World

He’s a ‘Hold On To You’ Kind of God

Those “What If” Moments

When It All Changed

Belief Isn’t Necessarily Faith

Scared Straight?

June Cleaver? Who me?