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| Road site crosses along a highway in Montana |
In the quiet stillness of the
predawn hours, I awoke with a clear message.
I call it a God Kiss. For a while
now, I’ve been feeling the gentle but insistent prodding from God to do more since
I’ve been committed to deepening my relationship with Our Lord.
But I didn’t know what it was until I read Isaiah 6:8 “I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.” I felt like it was a calling, I must answer. And I knew that God wanted me to use my words and passion for writing and telling stories.
After interviewing and writing stories
about others for the magazine Home & Harvest for a few years now, I gained a true love of
interviewing people. I felt privileged
that they allowed me into their life and hear their story and then have the
honor of putting it in words. I loved it
so much that as I await my next writing assignment for a different segment for
the magazine, that I knew that I wanted to continue to write about people. That I would seek out people to share their stories about how God works
in their lives. There are so many blogs out there on how to do this or that and
I can only hope that this finds its way to those who need to hear it. All I
know is that I’ll do my part and Jesus will do the rest. It’s that simple.
And as I begin this journey of
writing about being blessed by Our Savior, it’s only fair to first start out with a
little about me as I dip my toes in the holy water of writing about how God
works in people’s lives.
On a recent trip to the 406 (Montana) it’s common to see
little white crosses along the highways. I’ve seen them all my life and it was just
part of the landscape, and I never gave them a second thought. However, this time the significance of the
marker registered that this was not just a cross, but it represented an actual
person whose last day on earth was documented at the exact spot that their life
ended on that fatal day. And as we came
upon each one, I wondered what that person was like, what were their
hopes/dreams and did they have a good life? And if they knew that this was
their final day here on earth, would they have wished they had lived a better
life? Would they know that their pathway after death would be to go to the
eternal kingdom?
As for me, growing up we weren’t a religious family. My dad was raised as a Seventh Day Adventist
and seemed to have little regard for that religion as an adult. My mom didn’t
have a strong religious life either. But they were good hard-working people
trying to raise us right the best they could. They baptized all of us kids as infants, but
that was the extent of our religious guidance.
However, I had a longing even as a child to be a “Child of God”. One of
my first memories as a young child was riding in a car with a woman who was
taking me to Sunday School. I must have
loved it and talked about it a lot. However, my parents didn’t want the Mormon
influence of this woman to impact their daughter, so they didn’t allow her to
take me to church anymore. I was envious
of my Montana cousins as they regularly went to Sunday School and church with
their parents. However, that was not the case in our household, our life was chaotic
as we moved around so much, and we never had a permanence in anything. By the time I had reached 7th
grade I had been in 9 different schools in different towns as moved all over
Montana and the Dakotas.
Fast forward to my teen and early adult years ….by then the
world had gotten ahold of me and I didn’t pursue becoming a Christian. I felt I was spiritual, but God definitely
took a back burner. I made good
decisions most of the time, but I did make mistakes, truth be told…. lots of them.
I used God as a 911 call and then I’d let him step into my life while I
was in a crisis. And slowly when life was better, I’d put him back on the shelf
and go it alone until the next major crisis. For this I’m ashamed. Would my
life have been better? Different choices made?
Most definitely. I can remember at least 2 separate times that I was bound
and determined to take a wrong path… and God quite definitely steered me away
and down the pathway he wanted. Whew!! Praise be to God! However,
I was and still am not perfect and I still will make less than stellar choices.
Those tough life lessons learned have
helped give me insight and strength to help others. When you weather a storm,
you understand and hopefully can help someone else get through a difficult
time. Silver linings by the grace of God.
In my mid-20 and being a divorced mom of a 2 yoa, my mom had
remarried and she and my beloved step-dad had invited me to attend a church
they had started going to. It was the
most beautiful little country white church located in Genesee.. My daughter and I lived in Moscow but drove every
Sunday to this picturesque church with its charming congregation that consisted
of members mostly my parents or grandparents’ age. About a year later, a young
man suddenly started coming and he sat behind me. He had come home to farm with
his dad. Long story short, we married about 1 ½ later. A couple years later we had
a daughter. We raised the girls in this close-knit
farming community, farmed, attended church and life busy & full. It was a
beautiful part of our lives & I will forever treasure it. While I loved the church community, it wasn’t
fulfilling my spiritual needs. I felt
closest to God on my walks. In 2012, after
28 years of marriage, tragedy struck with deaths of 2 close family members and
my marriage ended all within a couple weeks of each other. It was a brutally hard time for all of us. I stopped attending our church. However, I
continued my talks and felt God in my long walks. He urged me to blog about healing, forgiveness
and moving forward, which I did. I look back during those dark days and know
Our Savior was walking along side me and giving me the strength to heal. Once
again I have seen, felt and know I’ve been blessed. Looking back, I can see how
God put certain people in my life for a reason, some to help, some to learn lessons from which would serve
to help me in the future. He has a plan
for me. Plus by his grace he put the
perfect man for me in my life. Rod is truly
is my earthly rock and haven and soul-mate. We each have a deep faith and absolutely
love the Venture Church that we
have started attending.
Each morning I read my life application study bible ( it is
the best – as it explains what I am actually reading) and it’s so helpful. And somewhere in my journey, I noticed a shift
in myself. It’s hard to explain, and the
best way to describe it is that I feel
blessed beyond measure and have a contentment knowing that God is with me every
step of the way. Seriously, it’s the
best feeling ever!
For the first time in my adult life, I look forward to going
to church, it feeds my soul and I make it a priority. I wake up thinking about Jesus and try to see
all the beautiful little miracles each day.
And best of all, I know he will still love me when I make mistakes.
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith- and
this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” Ephesians 2:8
I will say of the LORD,
he is my refuge and fortress: my God. In him I will trust. Psalms 91:2
As always, thank you for stopping by. I urge you to share
this blog in hopes that it will brighten someone’s day knowing that we all live
an imperfect sinful life and that life can be so much better if we give
ourselves to Jesus. And come on back as I
share stories about others and I’ll title them “God Kiss Series ” as I get to share
their story about their lives and how they have have been touched by God.
Wishing God’s best for you,
Gayle
