I was fortunate to be born into a family with a rich Christian heritage and with parents who loved and served the Lord and were committed to teaching their children to do the same. I grew up in east central Wisconsin, and from birth on we attended a Bible-believing, gospel-preaching church, and I understood very early that I was a sinner and needed a Savior. One night during our family devotions at home, at the age of three or four, when it was my turn to pray, I asked Jesus to be my Savior. As I grew older, I started to realize that I didn't actually have any memory of that prayer as a toddler. Whenever I was asked to tell about how I was saved, I was just repeating the story that my parents told about what happened. This made me nervous, and I started to doubt my own salvation. After church on Mother's Day, 1979, I talked with my mom and told her my doubts. She explained to me that once we are saved, we are always saved, but that I could pray for assurance of my salvation if that would help relieve my doubts. So, at the age of 10, I prayed again, affirming that I knew I was a sinner, that I knew God couldn't allow me into His heaven in my sinful state, that I trusted in Christ's death on the cross to forever pay the penalty for my sins, and that I wanted Jesus to save me from my sins and make me one of His children. I couldn't remember if I had been sincere as a toddler, but I knew I was sincere this time, and now I had the confidence of being able to clearly remember a place and time when I put my trust in Christ.
I continued to grow in my relationship with Christ and became a strong believer. Attending a public high school was a good test of my faith, and although it was often uncomfortable, I did manage to take advantage of some opportunities to share my faith.
After graduating from high school, I attended Faith Baptist Bible College. I wasn't 100% certain of my major--I was interested in elementary education, missions, or possibly combining the two and being a teacher on the mission field. After two years at FBBC, I needed to stay out of school for a year to work and earn more money so that I could go back to college. I accepted a nanny position in Connecticut which lasted for one year, and I loved it.
Wherever I happened to be, I would find a Bible-believing, Bible-teaching church to attend and serve however I could. As with many believers, maintaining a consistent daily personal devotions time reading God's Word and praying has been a roller coaster--at times I do better than others--and it's always an area in which I struggle to improve.
That summer before my junior year of college, I was back at home working, waiting for the fall semester to begin, when we found out that one of my cousins whom we were very close to had been diagnosed with breast cancer. She was only 30 years old with five small children, ages seven and under--like stairsteps--and she was going to have to go through strong chemotherapy treatments and all the side effects that go along with it. God started working in my heart, and I considered the fact that I had just finished a year of being a nanny to three small children and that although I was planning to return to college, I still lacked definite direction and had no commitments. I was in the perfect position to go and help my cousins. I prayed about it for a couple weeks and then approached my parents with the idea. Then we called my aunt and uncle to run it by them before presenting it to my cousin. Everyone was on board, so I ended up moving to Michigan to live with my cousins and help out with the house and the kids while she went through her treatments. I stayed with them for several months, and then when it seemed like she was doing well and didn't need help anymore, I found other nanny jobs in the area. My cousin had quite an ordeal with her cancer going through cycles of receiving treatments, going into remission awhile, then relapsing and having to have stronger treatments, remission, relapse, etc. She even went to Denver to have a bone marrow transplant, but eventually the cancer won, and she died of pneumonia. It was heartbreaking. After her death, I returned as a live-in nanny for a year to again help care for her children and home so her husband could continue working.
After that year I found another job, started dating my future husband (whom I had met at church), and we were married eight months later. Four months after that we moved back to Wisconsin because Bob was hired at Kohler Company where he had applied during one of our visits to see my parents. We have lived in Wisconsin ever since.
I do find it ironic that after having my life significantly impacted by the experience with my cousin, I would be diagnosed with breast cancer as well. But it's not just the irony--it's awareness that God really does have a plan for each of our lives which He is actively working out
No comments:
Post a Comment