How I came to know Jesus.
It wasn’t until a friend of ours invited us to church, and invited us to see “passion of the Christ”. I had been to church enough and been exposed to God and Jesus just enough to have a little head knowledge. Just enough to know that all of my life I was accountable to God, and that I had been rejecting Him all along. We attended a study group to learn more, and then we started to attend Sunday services. We both wanted to know more. I felt as if my entire life was lived in vain, a waste and with no real meaning or purpose, just living for the moment, until now. Just hearing a little bit of the word of God put a desire in me to know more. So I prayed to God and asked Him forgive me for wasting my life, forgive me of my sins, to be my lord and savior, to teach me and a guide me through the rest of my life. The overwhelming desire in my life became God, to please Him and live my life for Him. I continued to pray every day and ask God to draw me closer to Him. During the next few months I learned of how I was still living in sin. Nothing hurt me more than to know that I was going against God. My fiancé and I talked about it and realized that the reason we wanted to get married in the first place was to be joined by God in marriage. How could we ask God to bless our marriage if we were not living His way, the way He had intended us to live? So we stopped, my fiancé and I immediately separated. This was difficult and a burden on us. We had been living together for a couple years with all of our children under the same roof. But no matter what the circumstances were we knew that we needed to live by God’s rules. We started to attend church regularly, we started taking membership classes. I couldn’t wait to be baptized; I was excited every day about what the lord was doing in my life. I was changed forever. Our children wanted to know what was going on, why weren’t mom and dad sleeping in the same room? And why was dad was moving out? It was easy and a delight to explain. A lot easier than the reality of what we were doing. This was a trial, the first of many to come. As I failed, God is always quick to forgive me and to lead me; failures became less, the strength and guidance of the lord became stronger every day. The more I prayed, the easier it became to follow the path that God was leading me up. Our wedding day, in October 2004 was awesome. The day was blessed by God. Our lives were changed, not by anything that we had done, but by knowing what God has done for us. Shortly after returning from our honeymoon we finished the membership classes, were baptized and became members of the church. We couldn’t have been happier about what the lord was doing in our lives, and the wonderful futures we were going to experience together. On January 20 2005, I was diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. No big deal, I feel great, I couldn’t be happier, that was until I looked it up. We were devastated, within one minute of reading what it was. 30,000 people throughout the U.S. currently have ALS, and 8,000 new cases are diagnosed each year. There is no cure for ALS. The mortality rate of patients with ALS is 50% within five years, 20% will survive five years, 10% will survive up to ten years, 5% will survive up to twenty years. The words “no cure” we’re stuck in my head. How can this be? This must be some kind of mistake. My life was thrown into chaos; I began searching for anything that could help, trying to diagnose myself and treat myself for something other than ALS. It wasn’t until I was driving home one Saturday morning, after having breakfast with a friend out of town did I realize God is in control, what do I have to be worried about. So I called out to Him, I prayed, asking God to bring me peace and guidance. While I was driving, the pain and anguish disappeared. He did it, “instantly”. He revealed something to me that morning. He reminded me that I belong to Him; and if I died today at 42, tomorrow or 100 years from now, I still belong to Him; absolutely nothing can separate me from Him. That’s a relief, I thought, I had something to lose, and that I was getting shortchanged, and I would have to figure out a way to save myself. What a load off my mind, to know that the God of the universe is in control of my life. What I needed to do from the beginning was to cast all of my cares and worries to the lord. He is faithful, just like a Bible says. I thanked the Lord for saving my soul, and repented for not turning to Him from the start. It’s been two years now since I was diagnosed. And there have been more trials during this time than I can count. My entire way of life has changed. Every day is a new challenge. But I don’t face these challenges alone. God is with me every step of the way every minute of every day. I cannot imagine my life without God. As my body goes away, he renews my soul day by day, every day.

- 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
Do Not Lose Heart
Therefore we do not lose heart.
Though outwardly we are wasting away,
yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
For our light and momentary troubles
are achieving for us an eternal glory
that far outweighs them all.
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen,
but on what is unseen.
For what is seen is temporary,
but what is unseen is eternal.

Thank you for sharing such a beautiful and touching story.
Linda

I will agree with Linda that was a wonderful story.

I have always felt very good under God hands, for I know he cares for me. I have had epilepsy since I was 10. I have learn to life with it for I know he is watching over me. I may not get to do many things but I am use to getting along. I have been so lucky God brought my husband to me, he has always stood right by me. We have been married 34 years and each day get better.

Thanks again for your story, and may God be with you.

Darlene