Once long ago, I was a child with a mother to monitor my sense of right and wrong. Then I grew older and had to leave the kiddie pool and learn to swim amidst the sharks and other dangerous creatures in the big murky adult ocean and I felt very alone, very afraid of wandering too close to danger or getting lost in its depth.
I met Christ at age 7 or 8, so I always felt sure I belonged to Him and eventually will go to meet Him in the sky someday and resolved to do my best to obey His rules for my new life. I tried to do things to please Him--while in high school I taught 4 year olds in summer Bible School Later I taught tiny tots in Sunday school--knowing I wasn't prepared to teach anyone older. A new chapter began at year 42 of my life, with losing my 62-year-old mother to cancer and my husband to divorce. Time to look upward instead of to my mother for encouragement and wisdom.
Revivals, seminars enriched my spiritual life: For a time, I worked early Sunday mornings as a local evangelist's telephone councilor during his TV sermons. I started a weekly fast-and-pray group in a conference room at work with a couple of friends at work. And Satan shifted into high gear--he thought I would be easy prey and resent the loss, feel fear of hunting another job at my 40+ age. During this time, I found myself recording my emotions on the written page and joined a writers' group, which continued for several years as I developed whatever ski;; or talent I could manage.
The devil overlooked the strong base I now had. Instead of feeling rejected by the divorce I had felt very loved, totally protected, bulletproof. You really think after that I would quake at being jobless? In a couple of weeks, I had a temp job thru an agency which led to a much better permanent job at Abbott Labs, where every individual received respect, great working conditions, and a fair pension, much higher after 13 years' service than the prior job gave after 14 years. During my years at Abbott, I found myself putting my emotions on the written page and joined a writers' group, which continued for several years as I developed whatever skill I could acquire.
With this training and encouragement from the group, I attained some success in publishing poetry, short stories and one sale of non-fiction. Along with learning to express myself effectively, I grew confident enough to tackle minor home improvements and to invest savings for future needs. Friendships and my morale grew because of the group. Stronger now, I was ready to face fresh attacks designed to bring fear and insecurity when I had lost that job after 13 years!
Satan paid close attention when I retired. 14 years later. He saw my physical difficulties and reduced income and that I now would be alone--perhaps this was his chance. Helplessly he watched as I leaned to guard my finances, shared my home from time to time with someone needing help, and began spending lots of time in Bible study and in 2016, at age 83, began boldly declaring the glory of my God in this blog
Now I see God's hand in my decision to join the writers' group to prepare me for His blog.
Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, my God, till I declare your power to the next generation. Psalm 71:18, NIV
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