To God Be the Glory.....Great Things HE Has Done!

I never get tired of sharing the experiences in my life where God has done great things.  Not only is it a chance to testify to others of God’s unfailing mercy and grace, but it also serves as a reminder to me when I am in yet another trial, that he is always faithful.  God wants us to remember his good works.

In Joshua 4, God had twelve men, one from each tribe of Israel to build a memorial out of stones from the Jordan River.  The memorial was to serve as a permanent reminder of what God had done.

⁶ Let this be a sign among you, so that when your children ask later, saying, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ ⁷ then you shall say to them, ‘Because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off.’ So these stones shall become a memorial to the sons of Israel forever.”

I believe that God intended us to recall his work, whether we choose to make a physical reminder of it or we choose to tell of it. There are quite a few times in my life where God has done the unthinkable, reminding me that nothing is impossible through him.  Today, I will share one of those experiences.

6 months before I left my abusive marriage one of the most severe physical altercations took place.  The girls were sleeping, and I was in trouble over something that he had ordered me to do, that did not play out in the way he thought it should have.  He had been tearing into me verbally for quite some time, when I disappeared in a room on the other side of the house, in the dark with the door closed, crying in distress.  He came in, angry that I was crying and began yelling and spitting in my face. As he escalated in rage, he positioned his 250 lb body over top of me, grabbed my arms, and began beating my 105lb body into the floor.  While I had grown accustomed to his abusive episodes over the years, this particular night had escalated to far more than it ever had and I was sure I was going to either die or be put in the hospital with severe injuries.   In the midst of his fury, I managed to pull away enough to grab my cell phone and frantically began dialing 911, but he took my phone and threw it against the wall before I was able to press send. I was hopeless, I was scared, and I had absolutely no way of escaping. My dialing 911 only made him grow angrier and he pulled me up by my arms and began smashing my head into the dresser that was next to us.  When I began screaming as loud as I could to wake the girls up for help, he began suffocating me. I knew I was going to die.  It was about this time that something happened that perplexed me.  Just as I had accepted the fact that I would not make it through this situation, out of nowhere he grabbed his chest and fell onto the floor in pain and shortness of breath.  He kept repeating to me “You gave me a heart attack!”  I sat motionless for a few moments staring at him…..then I got up, walked out, and left him on the floor to reap the consequences of his actions.  I felt in a state of shock. I wasn’t sure what had just happened.   I went into my bathroom to gain composure. There were dark bruises in the shape of large fingers on each arm where he had been squeezing them, marks on my jaw line where he had covered my face, and on the back of my head I could feel bruises where my head had been hit continuously. I cannot begin to explain the emotions I had inside.  While I was filled with pain, I was also thankful that I had somehow been given a chance to walk away alive, though I couldn’t understand how.  As I began looking back on that evening, it grew clearer to me that God had acted on my behalf, in my weakness.  Like any father, intervening after watching his daughter suffer, it seemed to be an action that said, “THAT’S ENOUGH!” Had it not been for that, I doubt I would be here today speaking of it.  I am so thankful to him for saving my life that evening.  It’s one of those things I’ll never forget. 

I thank God every day for rescuing me from abuse.  Even more for doing in my life more than I could have ever imagined in my wildest dreams……for giving to me a husband who loves me like Jesus does.  I am so blessed! Imagine what it would look like, if we had a trophy for each time God worked for the good in our life.  What an awesome reminder it would be to us on a daily basis that God’s promises are true!

I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the LORD has done.  Psalm 118:17



Reflecting God's Strength Through the Storm

When I look back at my life over the past 15 years, I am amazed at how God has worked in it. When you are drowning in a sea of suffering, it’s hard to see that God is even there with you let alone that he’s pulling you out. It isn’t until you have come out of the water that you see he was right there with you the whole time. ….giving you the strength to endure while shielding you from things you weren’t even aware of.  In the midst of it all he not only pulls you to safety but brings something extraordinary out of the suffering you’ve endured, teaching you life lessons that can only be taught by him.

I wasn’t convinced that anything good would come out of my life or my situation as I walked out of an abusive marriage 6 years ago. I felt like a damaged product that had no good use anymore.  I had endured so much and had no physical or mental strength left in me the day I walked out. I was scared to death of what was going to happen when he found out I had left and taken the kids. I wasn’t even sure I’d live to see the results of my actions.  There was physically no way I could move on, and at best I just wanted to dig a whole and lay in it and die.  I was sure that God had given up on me.  After all, I had endured unthinkable things and if he had not given up on me, surely he would have rescued me long ago.  But what I saw as a bad ending to my life story was only the beginning of a much better story. The aftermath of leaving brought equally devastating challenges. In myself, I was so weak that I lay on a bench in the court room with no motivation to get up and fight. But I did get up and it wasn’t my strength that got me through.

 My mother had always driven into me from the time I was little, one particular scripture verse from the Bible. It says, “I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me” Philippians 4:13. As a child, I wasn’t able to grasp the depth of this verse, but today it holds deep meaning to me. Even though I wasn’t aware at the time where my strength was coming from, it wasn’t too long before I began to see that the only explanation for my ability to have walked through that darkness and come out in the light was for God to grant me his strength.  “He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless,” it says in Isaiah 40. Having been powerless in an abusive marriage, he gave me the strength to get up each day and live life for my children.  Having been weak, too weak to fight, he gave me the power to stand up and survive and to conquer the challenges that emerged (sometimes daily) on the long road to security. I am grateful that even when we doubt God, even when we question His ability, and even when we question His love for us, that He still holds us in his hands. 

Life is full of challenges.  God never promised that our lives would be free from suffering, but he did promise that he would be there to get us through.  You can bet that as sure as we have gotten through one challenge, another will appear in some way or another.  I can tell you this though, having had God teach me the lesson of trusting in him helps me remember that when I am in the middle of yet another trial, that he is there (even when it doesn’t feel like it) giving me the strength to get through it and that there is more to my life story than what I can see of the moment I am walking through.  

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. Isaiah 43:2