I offer this to you all...
Our Story
When we met, we had no idea that God was going to take us on a journey that would involve our hearts, our finances and my husband’s eternal salvation.
When I met CG and became friends with him, I did not know that I would eventually marry my best friend. I had a bumpy past with a couple of marriages and divorces (but I did believe in the sanctity of marriage and had Biblical permission to divorce both times… I was young and not very smart!) I found myself a single-mom of two great kids (Bradley and Chandler), with a house full of possessions and a very slim thread of faith left to sustain me. God was on my side though, and I believe it was divine intervention that caused a series of events that led me not only to my future husband, but also back to HIM.
Before CG met me, he had recently dealt with a long period of joblessness, taking care of his mother who was terminal and subsequently passed away, and after finding a new job, trying to find some enjoyment in it. He was at his limits with debt incurred while taking care of his mother before she died, and was not only unhappy in his job but it did not allow a for a steady stream of debt repayment. Then he and met me and only later did we realize this was a God thing.
We met when working at the same company and after some time, we chose to date, got serious, got engaged, and then about two years after we met, we got married. Shortly after we married, we were forced to begin a long process that involved attorneys and large sums of money, but we eventually lost. The process is what we call “The Bradley Thing”. It basically went down like this; my son was convinced he wanted to go live with his father. We were convinced that this was not a good idea, and so we fought this in court – for three long, hard, sometimes debilitating, years – and lost. During this time, we chose to go back to church. I must confess – my faith was slim as I had been through more in my adult life than I cared to recount, and my husband, CG – well let’s just say that he and Jesus were not so much on a first name basis. If I am to be totally honest, our first visits to BTBF were merely because our attorney had suggested this would look good for the courts while we were in litigation land. Little did we know, Jesus would grab a hold of us and not let us go, until we surrendered into his grace. What a sweet surrender that was – but not an easy one mind you. During this process, our first major obstacle was that my son was sent to live with his dad on temporary orders. This is when my heart broke into a million pieces, and I was too depressed to even try to pick them up. This is where I know that God was in the middle of my choice of mates and my life because for the next year as I could barely go through the motions of each day, my wonderful husband picked up all of the slack. After a year or more, I finally began to accept our new life. It was not easy and it was a constant struggle each day. During this time, when we were going to BTBF we were invited to go to a LifeGroup. We ended up attending the Gentry LifeGroup. At first we were a little hesitant to get too involved, I because I had a history of being hurt by people, and CG because he was still not so sure about these Jesus people. At one point, we went to a group meeting and our community pastor was there that night. I had been praying for CG to know Christ, and I think this night, he was formally introduced so to speak. CG asked questions, and everyone came around us to answer them, humbly, honestly. I saw a light turn on in him that night. Then we were hit with the next big bump… our financial world began to collapse.
We signed up for Financial Peace University – the Dave Ramsey Diet – I call it. During our second class meeting, we found out we were served with papers – we were being sued for outstanding credit card debt. We went back to class and tried to listen but inside we feared the worst. After some advice from friends, we created a plan. We had now hit rock bottom, not only emotionally with “The Bradley Situation” but also financially. Because our faith was growing individually and as a couple, we were able to see that God was with us in the middle of all of this. How else do you explain that we were led to clean up our mess financially and were in our second class of learning how to do so, when we got the news… we think it was a God thing. We began to work the plan, create a savings, get smarter about our money and make more educated decisions about what to do and how to live. We began to think of ways to cut our spending – from no more eating out to hanging our clothes to dry on a make-shift clothes line in the back yard to avoid using the dryer and heating up the house. CG got a second job to get us over the first big hurdle. Then, over time, we figured out even more ways to spend less and pay more on our bills realizing that it is not our money, but instead only what God has entrusted to us. By the end of the summer, we were doing pretty well. We were feeling pretty good, as our plan was working and we were working our plan. Then we faced the next hurdle. I was sick, much sicker than I thought and I ended up spending the better part of a month in the hospital…
I had been feeling not so great, but in typical “me” fashion, I had ignored the biggest symptom I had. I ignored it for months, until finally I could not ignore it any longer. In great pain and running a hefty fever, I called the doctor and after a short conversation, was told to go have a test run. That test showed that I had a problem that must be addressed right away, so I was immediately admitted to the hospital. Long story short, two surgeries, three CT Scans, one EGD, one colonoscopy, one nuclear scan and twenty-five days in the hospital later, I was released to go home. During my stay at the hospital I was reminded that God is in control. From the community of friends we have that took care of my kids and my hubby during this time, to our LifeGroup itself bringing food over to the house after I was released. There were hospital visits and phone calls, and the prayers were so thick I could FEEL them. Don’t misunderstand, I was still scared and I am sure my hubby will admit to a little fear or uncertainty, but we were in the grip of God and he was just not going to let us go so easily. I even remember one particular evening when I was feeling so lonely and I was literally crying out to God for comfort. HE sent my nurse in to comfort me and she asked if she could pray for me. I felt His hand that day. It was truly AMAZING.
Now we find ourselves on the other side of the health hurdle – mostly, I still have a few things that need to be taken care of – but for the most part I am good. And we are still fully aware that we have to center our lives on God. Pete has drawn a picture of an equilateral triangle and says that as you get closer to GOD you get closer to each other. I think for us it definitely works that way. The closer we get to God the closer we get to each other and the closer we get to each other, the closer we get to God. We are not perfect but we are exactly what God planned for us to be, and we are always seeking to be closer to HIM. We have had some rough patches and if we had let the world get in the middle of our faith – of our relationship with God – it would have been devastating to our marriage and to our faith. But because we have close relationships with other couples in our LifeGroup, friends at BTBF, and other Christian friends that we have surrounded ourselves with, it helps us to stay accountable to ourselves and reminds us to keep our hearts focused on God.
The rest is nothing more than speed-bumps.
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