Good afternoon to everyone. Hope that your life is just fine as frog hair for you today. For the last week or so my life has just been crazy so this could not be a Sunday Morning Post. Sorry about that. I just could not get it together. This is a just a quick one for you. This weekend at the church our youth had a Discipleship Now weekend. It is very cool weekend for the youth. The first thing they asked them was when the last time you told anyone about God? Why do you believe what you believe? I thought that was a pretty good question. So here ya go. I am going to tell you a little about why I believe what I believe. I cannot stress this enough, this is my belief and it works for me. I know that there are folks out there that disagree with me, that fine. We are all here to learn and I see disagreement as part of the learning process. Besides that if we all agreed on everything this world would not be much fun at all. How we are different is what makes the world go around. First off, I am just a sinner like everybody else. There is nothing special about me. I am just a plain old boy trying to make it from day to day. Unlike all of the pretty ladies on this page, ain’t much to look at so I post this as humbly as I possibly can. In no way am I trying to toot my own horn or anything like that. Just want to share with you a little about why I believe what I believe. I have Meniere’s disease and I struggle with all that comes with it. I walk around some days and I know that folks think I am drunk or something, but as many of you know it is just the nature of the beast some day. I hate it, I have asked God what did I do to deserve this a thousand times. But, He has a plan and there is a reason. It has given me a chance to learn about you folks so I guess it is OK, and I will make the best of the rest. There are some good peeps out there and I look forward to the day that we can meet face to face some time. I walked down the isle when I was a teenager but I am not sure I was saved at that time. I would say that it was more of a seed that was planted. That seed would not start to grow for many years. I still had some wild oats to sow before I became a serious Christian. I have had several things throughout my life that have influenced the way that I look at things and have helped my Christian life and my walk with God. When I was little my mother made sure that I went to church and made me live it as much as she could. Sometime that was not always easy, but she just kept plugging along. I believe that this is part of the problem today. Children are not getting the Word enough at home. There are not getting enough of nothing that is important at home. That is a different topic for a different time. The second thing that came along was my wife. She came along at just the right time. That wild oat field was starting to grow pretty quickly she helped to get me out of that field. I believe that God put us on this earth to be together. You may ask what has that God to do with it; people get hooked up every day. My direction in life was about as far away from her as it could have been. I was going away from everything that she was. The chances of us getting together without it being a miracle are just off the charts. She came at just exactly the right time in my life to make a difference. I cannot tell you what a blessing she has been to me. I thank Him for that every day. Along with my wife came my daughter and I can with all my heart say that I have proof that there is a God because and I get up and see what miracles he can perform every day. In my mind my daughter is a miracle of God. I believe that she was prayed into this world. The reason that I say that is my wife was pregnant 4 times before my daughter was born. The magic number was 13 weeks, if we could make it past that we were in the clear. She would make it to about 10 weeks then she would start spotting. Then a week or so later she would miscarry. Then she would have to go to the hospital to do the things that they do so we could try again. Her doctors told her that we do not have an answer. Science had no explanations or answers. When she was born and that nurse handed me that screaming bundle, I knew there was a God and He had blessed me with a miracle. So when I say that my daughter was a miracle, I believe it and mean it. The next thing that caused a change in my life was a car wreck I was in. All I can remember about it is that I blew the horn at friend of mine mowing his front yard. He had on one of those big straw hats. I thought that was kind of funny. My dad always called them Colonel Cornpone Hats. The car hit me right about where the driver’s side door meets the rest of the car. He was traveling in the neighborhood of 60 miles an hour when he hit me. Everything that I have seen and read about it says I should be dead right now, was not buckled up. The van was bent about double. The next that I remember is telling the ambulance driver that my wife worked at the hospital and that is where I wanted to go. She had not worked there for several years at this time. The next I remember after that I am laying on a board and I am so strapped down and I cannot move a muscle. My wife is holding my hand telling me everything is going to be OK. At that moment in time what is important and not important in life became very, very clear to me. I had peace and I knew it was going to be OK. I walked myself to my car that night and my wife took me home. Nothing but a few bangs and scratches and a hurt pride. The next thing is the first time that I took a class called Experiencing God. I changed the way that I looked at everything concerning my beliefs in God and what I was supposed to be doing. Before I took this class the first time I felt that God and me had a good relationship. I did not realize how wrong I was until I took this course. It caused me to see what a relationship with God was all about. That it was a 2 way thing, not just Him giving to me, I was supposed to give back. This leads me into why I am doing this. The worst part about this for me was there was a preacher man killed in the wreck. It was my fault. I still believe that I killed that man. I have had my problems dealing with that thought. I could not understand how God could let a preacher man die and keep me. Someone who had a wild oat field as far as the eye could see. As clear as a bell it came to me one day, just like someone was standing there talking to me. God had some thing in mind for me. He has something he wants me to do. So when God calls me to do something I try to do it. I could just as easily be where the preacher man is and he could be here typing this up for you guys. One of my worst fears is that I will stand before God and He will ask me why you didn’t do that my child. I saved your life for specifically that purpose. Since the beast has crawled up on my back I have been asking why a lot. I felt myself here lately letting my end of my relationship with God down a little bit. As a family we have been desperately searching for God’s will. I will be honest I have had some trouble hearing what God has to say, physically as well as spiritually. A very clever fellow calls it the smoky fog of sameness. WE get into a rut doing the same ol same ol. Doing these posts gets me out of that sameness for a while. Being a part of this forum shines some light for me. I get to share the gospel with folks that I would not have the opportunity to do otherwise. May give someone else the chance to smile, and shake their head, think that’s right, I hear ya brother, bring it on. Others may shake their head and disagree, think he is as dumb as a box of rocks. But, it gives me the chance to understand why they believe what they believe. We may disagree from time to time but I have never had any bad feelings toward anyone on this page. Maybe I can give just a ray of hope where it might not otherwise be. I get to read and learn about you guys, get to share some laughs, some tears and just sharing with people that are experiencing some of the some problems that we all deal with daily. I have said it many times I am not the brightest bulb in the box. I am a little slow and it takes me a few minutes sometimes to catch on to things, but hey I like ridding the short bus. So without God there is no way that I could do these things for you guys. I believe that God is calling me to do this, at this time this is His job for me and just like Moses and all of his trials God will get me through. If you want to PM me with questions I will try to answer as best that I can. Would also invite anyone else to share their “story” with us. Please remember that it is their story. It is what makes them who they are and what they are. Let’s all try to keep our comments positive and encouraging. HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL. God bless each and every one of you.
Your story reminds me that everyone has a story that would knock our socks off. We are just unaware of it. Thank you for sharing yours.
I remember a Discipleship Now weekend way back when I was an attendee! It was awesome. We broke into pairs an were told to practice sharing our faith so we could lead someone else to the Lord. (Ever since, when I've taught discipleship, I've always included a practice session because this one meant so much. My partner looked me in the eyes and told me "This is real. I mean this." That made me more nervous, and I started at the end and worked backward to the front. That partner became the first convert God used me to bring into the faith. Thanks for sharing Ted
Ted, I keep trying to PM you, but it says "member does not exist." Are you still visiting this board? I sure hope so. HOpe you are doing well. Skye
