My Testimony
I was RAISED in a Christian home, in fact my three siblings and I are the legacy of several generations of faithful followers of Christ. Much of my growing up was spent at church attending services or serving. I prayed “the prayer” as a young child and did all the churchy things. When not at church I was either playing house at the family furniture business, at the gym flipping and twirling on the mats and beam, or you could find me in my favorite tree writing stories or poems. We were huge sports fans (Angels’ season ticket holders), and I was a competitive gymnast for ten years, so it only seemed natural to study physical education in college. I had dreams of being an Olympic gymnastics coach one day.
In junior high I was a “Jesus Freak” of the early 70’s. In high school I was a closet Christian, only expressing my faith when it was “cool” to do so. In college the REBELLION was strong. I no longer found my identity in Christ, but in sorority life. That rebellion led to poor choices, heartbreak, sadness and hopelessness. But God in His grace pulled me from the bottom of the pit as I cried out to Him in the darkness of my attic room. He RESCUED me and put me on a new path in a college church group that became my spiritual boot camp. It was a five-year reclamation and RESTORATION project as God pruned, shaped, and guided me back to His plan for my life. I finally graduated and was coaching gymnastics and teaching at Biola University.
The next thirty years would be all about RELATIONSHIP. I met Phil in our college group, we started dating in September of 1984, and a year later we were engaged. In February of 1986 we were married, and eleven months later we had the first of our four children, a beautiful daughter. Her first two brothers soon followed, and I traded in my college faculty hat for the home-schooling mom cape. Six years into the well-oiled routine of school, baseball, gymnastics, musical theatre, and Awana, God blessed us with another boy. I was a goal-oriented mom, often too busy and driven to enjoy the blessings I had right in front of me. I was checking off the boxes and outwardly appeared to have it all together, but inside the joy was often missing.
2007, as the recession began, Phil was in job transition, parts of nine months with no work. The following year I re-entered the workforce, and after spending 20 years in children’s ministry, I decided to step away for a time. I was weary and defeated. Yet, even thru the trials, we REMEMBERED God’s faithfulness to us.
From 2008-2010, God began working on my restless heart of discontent, and I began to REFLECT on God’s character and His promises, His grace, and the joy-filled life He intended for me to live. I had transitioned from children’s ministry to women’s ministry director. God had given me a wise mentor and caring friend (our pastor’s wife) who patiently taught me that the heart and soul of ministry is more than administrative tasks, but also compassion, hospitality, servant leadership and most of all a joyful blessing. I was a broken vessel, whom God REDEEMED, refashioned for His purpose, created in Christ Jesus for good works (Eph.2:10), and called me to do that work heartily for the Lord (Col. 3:23).
With three of our children graduated and two married, I had more time to write and began reflecting on the lessons God was teaching me. Writing these lessons down REVEALED areas where I still needed growth and areas where I had found victory. This became the foundational steps to writing my first book, The Road We Walk On: Navigating Life with Joy (2023)
Over the next few years, I began to more fully understand Paul’s exhortation to “REJOICE in the Lord always,” even in the midst of difficult circumstances, and to “consider it all joy.” (James 1:2) I came to experience true joy in the Lord for the first time. And now, a decade later, I am embracing the joy of writing. My purpose at this time in my life is to be an ambassador for Christ through my writing, imploring my readers to study scripture further, to either be RECONCILED to God, or to be transformed by the RENEWAL of their minds.
I am still a work in progress. I haven’t arrived yet. Every day I ask God to reveal what He wants me to learn and how He wants to use me for His purpose. I rely on His Word and rest on His promises, respond to His promptings, rejoice in His mercy and grace, and hopefully reflect His glory to those around me.