Reflections

Looking back over my life I think about all the things that I have gone through and how God allowed those things in my life to prepare me for something later down the road. Today I am a 39 year old mom with 3 very distinctive and wonderful boys. I can remember at the age of 18 graduating from high school not knowing what I wanted to do with my life and heading off to a Christian camp in the beautiful area of Livingston, TN. There my life changed and God implanted in me the desire to go into ministry...AND somehow involved in that ministry would be working with special needs children. Little did I know that those special needs children would be my own along with other special blessings. At this camp I found the meaning of ministry....people. I found out that some times ministry isn't all it is cracked up to be in an earthly perspective. People treat you bad, take advantage, lie about you, falsely accuse you, gossip about you, persecute you and so on. Then there are the blessings....you find out who your true friends are in the midst of all these trials, God shows up in ways that you least expect and you see just how blessed you truly are. Yes there is truth in that old hymn "Count your blessings name them one by one...see what God has done..." Your focus is taken off your circumstance and placed on Jesus. In the here and now I find myself wearing different hats of ministry and in the family. I have 3 boys John Allen 14, Joshua 9, and Jacob 4. Three days a week finds us in Cookeville attending different therapies. Joshua has been diagnosed with ADHD and Asperger's (high functioning autism) and sensory issues. Jacob has been diagnosed with speech problems and is developmentally delayed. We are in the process of having more test done at Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tn. Along with family I have a group of ladies that in my pridefullness I thought I was ministering to them. Come to find out they ministered to me. I have learned so much from them and one thing I learned was that people are dear to God's heart. Being genuine goes a long way and trust is hard earned. I love my family and the different ministries that He has given us. God has been so good and faithful through the years and I am honored to be an instrument God uses for His glory in family and in ministry. Our heart's desire is for God to use our boys in great ways for His glory and to use my husband Tim and I to tell others about Jesus and just how good and faithful He is.