Parents do not give up

Parenting is not an easy task with all the negative influences of this world. But I want to encourage parents that their positive contribution in the lives of their children will have a profound influence. Gods Word is powerful.

I was two years old when my mom got miraculously saved. She was sick in bed, dying and an audible voice spoke to her and told her to Repent or perish. After the third time still arguing, she admitted she was a sinner. A peace came over her and a brilliant light filled her room. She fell a sleep and when she woke up she was healed from bronchitis, and double pneumonia.

She started attending a Baptist church and she took all of us children with her. Every Sunday I heard the salvation message and one day at the age of five, I knew I needed Jesus and that I wanted to go to heaven. In elementary school my mom would put booklets called The Four Spiritual Laws in my pockets and I would walk around the playground handing them out. My mom would help me win contests in Sunday school to memorize the most verses and to read the Bible through in a year. Because I had invited Jesus into my life, my spirit was saved, but my mind needed to be renewed by the word of God. I was called ugly and stupid and I believed that was who I was. I was shy, withdrawn and easily intimidated. I believed I was a mistake and not wanted. I barely make it from one grade to the next.

Grade 10 was a significant year for me. I walked to school 45 minutes each way because I did not want to take the bus with all those mean kids. Every morning I would read the Bible, and I wrote down special verses on 3×5 cards. On the way to school I would memorize those verses. There was a battle going on inside of me. I would read You are created in the image of God and I would think to myself that God must be ugly. Then I read You have the mind of Christ and I concluded: Mmm, He must be really stupid. I remember memorizing Jeremiah 29:11 You are created for a purpose and a plan. Ya right! That can not be true because I was a mistake. It was when I read Romans 3:4 Let God be true and every man a liar that a bomb exploded on the inside of me. What if the Bible was true and I had believed lies? It was time to make a decision about whom to believe. It took years to get those crazy ideas out of my head, but by meditating on Gods word I am learning how to allow His word to be truth in my life. The Bible says You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

Now I am enjoying the benefits of being free and my heart is filled with gratitude towards my mother who never gave up on me. Those biblical principles have changed my life and the lives of others whom I reach on a daily basis. Gods word works if you understand how to apply it into your own life. So parents never give up. Your role is a vital one.