My boy Andy accepted Christ as his Savior last night. It’s something we’ve been praying for for quite some time. We’re so excited for him as he begins his life as a child of God.

He came bounding out of VBS last night and said, “Mommy, I got saved!” He was grinning from ear-to-ear as he told me the story about how he and Daddy prayed together in the church library. What a sweet time for him!

I kept hugging him and told him that a year from now, we’d have a birthday party at home for him. “Cause you’ll be one in God’s eyes then!”

“A birthday party? Will I get presents?” he asked.

I laughed. “Um, maybe. We’ll have to wait and see.”

“Can I get shin guards?!”

Leave it to my five-year-old to capitalize on a life-changing decision… apparently his new-found faith still has room for baseball.

And I’m so glad.

Ever think back to events in your life and know God used them to prepare you for where you are today?

I know, without a doubt, that He did that for me.

In college, the only work study job I could find as a freshman was to work at an outside after-school program that helped elementary school kids with their homework. We tried to make it fun and we also incorporated educational games and stuff. By my senior year, I had been named “assistant director” of the program and was very close friends with the director. (Hi Kris!) I was also given some of the more difficult kids to work with most of the time.

Fast forward to today. I practically run a preschool around here. We officially start homeschooling this fall.  Who knew back then that my insane incentives to encourage learning would one day help my life, happening in my dining room daily? This prior experience is the one thing that makes me a little less scared about the idea… (well, that and proof of answered prayer.)

The summers during my college years I spent as a camp counselor at a Bible camp. Each week I was assigned between 12 and 18 campers. I did my best to create a memorable experience, to teach them a bit about who God is and how He works in our lives, and to keep things hopping so their short attention spans wouldn’t implode.

Fast forward to today. My aforementioned preschool is starting to benefit from my experience as a counselor. Just today, Brady and I had some one-on-one time. We discussed just what sin is and how God views us. It wasn’t major, but it was a big step for him to understand that we all sin. I felt like a camp counselor as I showed him verses from the Bible. Also, my kids are starting to enjoy learning some of the wacky camp songs we used to sing. (”If I were a teddy bear, I’d thank you Lord for my fuzzy-wuzzy hair…” Everybody now!)

Also, back in college, I had one crazy roommate. (Hi Rosie! I miss you!) Not only did she use play-dough for study breaks, but she also drove an ambulance “signal 10.” (That means lights and sirens.) Rose was an EMT and kept the tumultuous hours to prove it. She was often “on station” all night long, or sometimes jumped out of bed in the middle of night to answer the “tones.”

Fast forward to today. My police officer husband often works midnights. He and his canine sometimes get called out in the middle of the night to chase down drug dealers. (I wish I was kidding.) I’ve been in the squad car numerous times when we’ve pulled over to help someone on the side of the rode, or blocked traffic so an on-duty unit could get the bad guy. I’ve watched many dinners get cold on my kitchen table because my husband was doing CPR on someone before the paramedics arrived. And though our 12-passenger van is not an ambulance, my husband sometimes drives it like he’s racing to a call. (Love you, honey.)

Oh, he doesn’t generally pull out the play-dough like Rose did, but my kids do.

I’m not trying to be all philosophical or anything. I’m just saying it’s fun to see how so many of my life experiences have helped prepare me for where I am today. It’s not that God hasn’t been teaching me new things, too. Otherwise, my husband would be an OB/GYN and, early on, I would have had lessons in how best to throw up in a helicopter. I’m just saying.

Do you see it in your own life, too? How?

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about ways to get my children to see the importance of service, specifically Christian service. We’ve been doing tiny things here at home, like actually serving dinner to siblings, etc., but I wanted it to sink in outside the home, too.

There’s a sweet older lady at church who has quietly been responsible for pulling all the weeds around the landscaping at church for years. She was so meek about it that it never even occurred to me that someone did it or even that it needed to be done! Anyway, she recently had surgery, so I volunteered our services. Friday, I loaded up the van and the six of us went to pick weeds while Daddy was working. (OK, really just three of us… Connor and Evan were easily distracted and Ferris was no help at all! )

Andy and Brady did fairly well for the first hour, but then their focus started to waver about halfway around the church. I decided to teach them a new song to keep them interested. Here’re the lyrics, just in case you’ve never heard it. It’s an echo song.

“I sing a new song …
Since Jesus came…
Serve a new master …
Wear a new name…
Walk a new road…
Have a new goal…
Know a new peace…
Down deep in my soul.”

Every single time we sang it, the boys would start to giggle about halfway through… Yet they asked me to sing it again and again. I couldn’t figure out what was so funny. Finally I tried to listen to exactly how they were singing it. Here’s what they sang:

“I sing a new song …
Since Jesus came…
Serve a new master …
Wear a new name…
Walk a new road…
Have a new goal…
Knowin’ who pees…
Down deep in my soul.”

What?! “Knowin’ who pees?!”

I had to try really hard not to laugh as I corrected them and explained what peace is. What’s even crazier, though, is that we don’t even use that word. (We’ve been a “potty” house since we first had kids.)

But what can I say? They weren’t completely wrong. God does know all.

This evening, tornadoes ripped through our area, not too far from here. In fact, the town of Monee, Illinois is just 40 minutes from us got hit pretty hard, and some good friends of ours live there. Thankfully, they were unharmed and all of their property remained untouched!

(This is a photo of the tornadoes that went through northeast Illinois tonight!)

After viewing some of the footage on the news, the boys had millions of questions. Since I’m not a meteorologist, I answered their questions as best I could. I also used this opportunity to remind them of the way God is always in control and how He protects us. “He kept us all safe, just like He does with Daddy each night,” I said.

“Cool!” Brady said. “How come God is so strong? Is He stronger than the tornadoes?”

“Oh, yeah, Buddy,” I said. “God is way stronger than any tornado. He controls the wind. He’s in charge of the weather and everything else.”

Brady sat quietly as if he was amazed by the Lord’s strength. Then he asked, “Did God protect Alfonso Soriano and Derrek Lee, too?!”

That’s my boy. Even in the midst of a deeply spiritual discussion, his mind is never far from the Cubbies. Such concern for others! ‘;)

As a teenager and college student, one of my favorite Bible passages was Psalm 37:4-5:

Delight thyself also in the LORD: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.

I remember having all of these wants, but desperately wanting to do the things that would please the Lord the most. I found this verse and took it to heart. By letting go of my own desires and turning to Him, He’d see to it that my needs and wants would be taken care of. I just needed to get out of the way!

I really wanted to find a great guy to marry. I always said, “I’d rather be single than settle.” Along came my husband, just months after I graduated from college. (Someday maybe I’ll share that story.)

I wanted to be able to be a wife and mother, but still get to do graphic design. I really wanted to use it as a ministry… To be able to help out missionaries and the like. My dream projects were prayer cards and cd covers. Now, I have enough of that kind of business to keep me busy! My husband recently said it could easily turn into a full-time job if I let it. (Alas, I’m a wife and mommy first!)

I wanted children, if God allowed it. Along came five babies in a little over five years.

And, selfishly, I wanted my kids to be Cubs fans and my sons to maybe play baseball. Well, just last night, all seven of us sat around eating a leisurely dinner of pizza and watching the Cubs game. You should have heard the cheers when they won the game… And the noise wasn’t all from me!

Above all, I wanted — and still do — to know that “my children walk in truth” 3 John 4). I see tiny evidences of their growth toward God everyday. May I be a help in that direction and never a hindrance!

God is faithful and His Word is true. Once I got out of His way, He worked everything out in my life. I’m so thankful.

DidiLyn over at Meyers on the Hood is hosting a truly unique Bloggy Carnival this week called “Tell Me Your Story.” You’re to share your testimony! What a terrific way to share the way you came to Christ and to share exactly who the Lord has been to you. I’m looking forward to the encouragement of reading them all. Here’s a bit of mine: 

My freshman year of college, my English 101 professor asked us to write an essay on “the decision that changed my life.” It was my first semester of college. Our college was a party school masked as a highly academic university. I was a Christian finding my way away from home for the first time.

I wish I had the exact essay, but here’s something like what I wrote:

Growing up in a small town in central Indiana, I was always a good kid. I was a great student who tried hard to please everyone and a fun girl who had decent friends. I was an athlete and part of the Honor Society. I was very much ”the girl next door.”

Yet I always felt like something was missing.

My parents had instilled good morals. My older brother and I knew we weren’t to drink or “get around,” but we didn’t have reasons not to. We just were taught it was wrong.

I had never really been to church. I’d attended a few times with friends in elementary school and junior high, but nothing ever sank in. My freshman year of high school changed all that.

My brother had started dating a girl who was a Christian. She invited him to church and he got “saved.” I wasn’t even really sure what that meant. In March of that year, the two of them asked me to go out to dinner with them.

We sat in the corner booth of our local Pizza Hut. His girlfriend began telling me about how all men are sinners. That much I understood. Then she explained how Jesus Christ died to provide forgiveness of my sins. She showed me in the Bible how Jesus lived a sinless life and then acted as a substitute for me by defeating death and raising from the dead . . . All so that I could one day live an eternal life with God in Heaven.

I remember thinking, “OK… that’s all fine and good, but what do I have to do?”

Then she read Romans 10:9-10 to me:

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

I remember thinking, “That’s all?! Just believe and confess?! Admit it and agree that Jesus died and rose again?”

Surely, God could have made things much more difficult — if not impossible — for us. After all, the penalty for one sin is death!

The Lord could have required us to do any number of things… He could have said, “You have to swim the English Channel with one leg while wearing a straight jacket.” Or “You must master five languages, two of which must be Greek and Latin.” Or “You must conceive 16 children and raise them all to have successful marriages.”

Instead, He simply points out that His gift to us is eternal life through Jesus Christ! AHH!

“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13.)

That’s it. That’s ALL. We must simply ask and receive. Acknowledge that we’re sinner and call upon Him. Rest in His promises!

That Friday night (March 27, 1992,)  I bowed my head and humbly asked Jesus Christ to save me from my sins and I placed my eternal trust in Him alone.

My life has never been the same.

Even now, more than 16 years later, I marvel at how simple God made things for us. He really loves us, doesn’t He?!

more later . . .

Now head on over to the Meyers on the Hood blog to read more testimonites. Just click on “Tell Me Your Story.”