My Story - Part 20

I reconnected with a childhood friend who I was friends with around the 7th grade. The times I had stayed the night with her in middle school, her family had taken me to church. I remember she would listen to Amy Grant too :) Her name is Christie Man she is still very much a part of my life today.

She had wandered away from God for a season. During that time she had a sweet baby girl who was 3 at this point in time. She had come back to God a year earlier and was living at home with her parents John and Janny. Her parents had a deep love for God and a commitment to those who were hurting. Christie also had a tender heart for those who were wounded...she still does.

Jessica was having some tough issues with the man she was engaged to be married to. It was clear that she needed to focus on those things and I needed to find somewhere else to stay. Christie Man eagerly asked her parents to take me in. They of course agreed. This was one the most special seasons of my walk.

Christie, Christine (Christie's daughter) and I lived in the upstairs part of her parents house. We would do bible studies together all the time, pray together, laugh together and cry together A LOT! John and Janny were a CONSTANT source of encouragement. They treated me as if I was their own daughter. I had never experienced so much love and acceptance. I soaked it all in and the love of Christ thru this family in such large doses healed some of the deepest wounds of my heart.

They spent countless hours counselling me...directing me and praying for me. Christie took me to work everyday. She was a servant to me in many ways.

My emotions were all surfacing and I was not fun to be around at times. The emotion that began surfacing more and more was anger. I would get angry for no particular reason. I had a very hard time crying. I would pray so much for tears but I had built such a wall of self preservation around my heart that they rarely seemed to come.

Christie and I loved worship and went to many Dennis Jernigan "nights of praise." We would come home on a spiritual high and talk for hours into the night about all that God was doing in us and marvel at His goodness.

I had precious alone times with Him too. I would get up in the mornings and kneel by a chair in the upstairs living room and pour my heart out to God...I would take walks in her neighborhood and tell God all that was going on in my heart. I was so in love with Him and so in awe of His provision for me that I felt like I could float away at times.

Oh...just writing this makes me cry. He has been so faithful to me. He is so faithful period. When we just let go and let Him have His way with us trusting in His plan as we lay ours on the alter life is as it should be...lived for Him in complete abandon.

Next post I will talk about my women's group.