As it stands now, I wouldn’t have the wonderful, truely life-giving family as I do today without Lord Jesus Christ living in my soul by the Holy Spirit. I want to make sure I give Him credit for the marvelous work He has done in me & my family, which are actually His. All the praise and honor goes to Him for me and my family’s life, as temporal as it may be.
Well, let me start off by saying it has always been my dream to have a family since I was young. Dreaming of “My perfect” family, I pursued the “perfect family” through getting in trouble for passing notes to a girl in elementary, to dating when I was a teen to a young adult, to having my own wonderful family. Reason being, cause I wanted to show my parents what a marriage look like. However, it would be a lot of work, work that I wasn’t expecting, to get a resemblance of what I thought was the “perfect family.”
Yet, my parents gave it their all; however, they suffered a separation and 2 divorces. Then, a few years later, they had gotten married to different people. Like a rollercoaster with highs & lows & deep turns where the wind is in tour face, momentum carries you through. Such was my emotions during that time. With ever more resolve, I was determined my life wasn’t gonna to be that way. However, it takes more effort with God right there behind you to have a good family. This I would soon learn.
Once we through our honeymoon, we faced many challenges of everyday “normal” life, such as living together as 2 incredibly stubborn people living life as 1. Then, on top of all that, we faced an additional set backs as we had a horrible diagnosis thrown at us, the miscarriage of a child which we named Ashley Marie, the problem of moving back to NH when I was offered a job down in Orlando, Fl. (my college was in Lakeland, Fl.), etc… We had it rough just like many newlyweds. Did I mention that we were stubborn? That same stubbornness which I talked about earlier was the same stubbornness that saved our marriage because we knew who to look to, God.
3 years after our marriage date (5/19/1995 😁) we welcomed a precious little girl, named Sarah Michelle (May 1998). Nearly 5 years later, we welcomed an additional bundle of joy, named Hannah Grace (February 2003). We couldn’t have been more blessed, although there were definitely moments we considered divorce in the heat of anger.
It was around January 2007, my wife prayed for patience. I was soon out of a full-time job. Meanwhile, searching for a job, I got to spend time with my 2 girls which I treasure. Even though we were somewhat limited with finances, we made up in family time: playing cards and board games, going over to the grandparents’ house, going out for short drives to get ice cream from our favorite ice cream stands, ect…
There are more stories that I could tell. And, although I wish that were the end of our family’s struggles, but unfortunately it is not. Our family will take the blessings over struggles any day. Who is going to refuse a blessing? However, what if your family has to through that particular struggle in order to get the blessing? In fact, there is a song addressing that very issue. It’s called, “Blessings,” by Laura’s Story.
Listen to the YouTube link & tell me what you think. ☺ That’s my family’s story. 😁
TrueLifeChristianity.com 