life? That
pivotal moment thatwhen traced back gets to the root of who you are. It’s that “What if?” moment.
For me, mine can be traced all the way back to when I was
four months old. That was how old
I was when my mother had her stroke.
That was when my whole life changed. From that moment the rest of the events fell like
domino’s.
After my mother’s stroke, she was at a hospital for two
years to go through rehabilitation, so my father took care of me. I got really close to my father during
this time, and lost what little bond I had with my mother. When my mother came home I was about
three, and she was handicapped, in a wheelchair. You can imagine the life adjustment all of this was and
eventually the stress of it all was too much and my parents divorced. After a gruesome custody battle my
mother was awarded custody. However,
because she was handicapped, my grandparents had to be my legal guardians as
well, so I moved to Los Angeles with my mom and brother.
Whe
n my brother and I moved I was angry, mostly at my mother
and grandparents. Not only had my
mom “abandoned” me when I was a baby, but now they were taking me away from the
person I had a close relationship with, my dad. Much of my childhood I remember fighting with my mom and
grandparents a lot. I remember missing
my dad so much, wishing I could live with him and blaming my grandparents and
mom for our separation. I realize
now how all of that was God’s will.
Had I known then what I know now, I might have given them a break. It was while I was in California, I received
a decent Christian foundation. There
were still some major gaps in it but God would take care of that later. I think I would have missed that if I
had stayed with my dad in those formative years.
When I was 12, my mom, seeing my defiance and rebellion
let me move to Texas to live with my father. Again, looking back I can see where this was completely
God’s will. The foundation I had
of Christian morals was cracking
under the influence of friends and teenage
curiosity. When I moved to Texas,
my Christian faith had the chance to grow away from all the anger and
rebellion. I met my best friend at
the time who was pivotal in my walk to salvation. The Christian foundation I received in California was based
on telling Bible stories, but there was little about salvation. I was saved and started going to church
with her and doing a Children’s ministry called “Caraway Street” (kind of like
Sesame Street, but with Christian morals and lessons”. I taught these children Bible verses,
and salvation, and the love of God, and even though I was their teacher, God used
this ministry to fill in those gaps from my own childhood.
From that point growth in God was unstoppable. He really was the one thing I could
always depend on, and with encouragement from solid Christian friends, my
relationship only strengthened from there.
To Be Continued…
