I come to you this evening in great humility and amazement for how wonderful God's grace truly is. After everything I have been through in my life, the one thing I have always wanted was a family who I could love as much as they loved me. I married the first time knowing full well it did not have God's blessing, after all it didn't even have my family's! God brought me to the point in my life where I had come to the realization that if I was ever going to be happy with ANYONE, I had to be happy without anyone. After many years of working on this, and many years failing at this, I had finally made it to that milestone. I had been content with being single for about a year and a half when I met my future wife. We hadn't really shown any interest in each other, other than a friendly smile in passing at our workplace. However, it is my sincere belief that God brought us together. We had worked together for about eight or nine months, and she asked me if I wanted to go to a college reunion with her, it was simply a few of her closest classmates getting together for an evening of "catching up". I agreed to meet her in Joplin, and go there with her. The rest of the story wrote itself!
Although we hit it off good from the beginning, she knew I was the "one" for her when she invited me over for supper, and her oldest threw up on my shoes. My response was simply,"Do you have a mop?" However, even though I believe God joined us, we were not always on his path. Neither of us were churchgoers when we met, although we did profess Christianity as our faith. We moved in together after just a few short weeks of dating, which did not please my family at all, however, they were almost numb to those type of actions by me at that point. We would go out to clubs and parties, and really feel no guilt over doing so. During our first few months together, we lived in a rental house in Republic, and had very reasonable rent. However, since we could not stand to be apart, we would both call in quite a bit, and "offer" to go home early. Needless to say this caused quite a financial strain on us, and we ended up moving to a trailer park in Webb City to "save up" some money. We had been together about a year when we decided to go to Eureka Springs and get married. We got married on the 23rd of September and it was was one of the happiest times in my life. However, our total disregard for God in our lives was getting ready to be repaid.
The following Tuesday she was in a bad car wreck, thankfully she didn't require any hospitalization, aside from the normal check up. The next few months that followed she started having seizures, which had been controlled by medicine at that point. As time went on, the frequency, duration, and intensity of her seizures increased. They were simply not able to be explained or treated. She ended up being of work for two years, and luckily after a couple of LONG months she began receiving disability pay from her work. We had decided that this was as good as she was going to get. We were able to move back to Republic, and at the same time take over our parents house payment to give us something we were paying on, and help the burden of some of their financial strain. Shortly after, her mom who had been sick for years, passed away. Her father came to stay with us, and Marsha was slipping into a feeling of numbness.She had provided for her family for years, and was extremely intelligent, and as the days went by her memory progressively got worse. We were able to find a Dr. in Springfield who was willing to give her an implant would shock her vagal nerve, and send the electrical current to her brain in order to disrupt the seizure activity. Within a couple of months she was able to go back to work full time, and regain her self-worth.
None of this would have been possible without God, so we decided to find a church home. Although we were still paycheck to paycheck, bills were getting paid, though I am wasn't sure how! We started developing our walk with God and the blessings kept pouring in. She decided to go back to school to become a Physician's Assistant, and still work full time. We started receiving checks we were not expecting, along with school refunds, and were able to help others that were in need. I have no doubt that she will make it through school, and no doubt that we were brought to each other. We have a trust in each other I never thought was possible, and believe she is God's single tool for keeping me so emotionally stable. I don't deserve to be loved by her or our kids as unconditionally as I am, but am not surprised by it either. Had it not been for God's divine intervention in our lives, I shutter to think where we would be. I thank him every night for the many undeserving blessings he has brought into my........our lives. That is why I say, "May you have a light heart, and God's richest blessings!"
Although we hit it off good from the beginning, she knew I was the "one" for her when she invited me over for supper, and her oldest threw up on my shoes. My response was simply,"Do you have a mop?" However, even though I believe God joined us, we were not always on his path. Neither of us were churchgoers when we met, although we did profess Christianity as our faith. We moved in together after just a few short weeks of dating, which did not please my family at all, however, they were almost numb to those type of actions by me at that point. We would go out to clubs and parties, and really feel no guilt over doing so. During our first few months together, we lived in a rental house in Republic, and had very reasonable rent. However, since we could not stand to be apart, we would both call in quite a bit, and "offer" to go home early. Needless to say this caused quite a financial strain on us, and we ended up moving to a trailer park in Webb City to "save up" some money. We had been together about a year when we decided to go to Eureka Springs and get married. We got married on the 23rd of September and it was was one of the happiest times in my life. However, our total disregard for God in our lives was getting ready to be repaid.
The following Tuesday she was in a bad car wreck, thankfully she didn't require any hospitalization, aside from the normal check up. The next few months that followed she started having seizures, which had been controlled by medicine at that point. As time went on, the frequency, duration, and intensity of her seizures increased. They were simply not able to be explained or treated. She ended up being of work for two years, and luckily after a couple of LONG months she began receiving disability pay from her work. We had decided that this was as good as she was going to get. We were able to move back to Republic, and at the same time take over our parents house payment to give us something we were paying on, and help the burden of some of their financial strain. Shortly after, her mom who had been sick for years, passed away. Her father came to stay with us, and Marsha was slipping into a feeling of numbness.She had provided for her family for years, and was extremely intelligent, and as the days went by her memory progressively got worse. We were able to find a Dr. in Springfield who was willing to give her an implant would shock her vagal nerve, and send the electrical current to her brain in order to disrupt the seizure activity. Within a couple of months she was able to go back to work full time, and regain her self-worth.
None of this would have been possible without God, so we decided to find a church home. Although we were still paycheck to paycheck, bills were getting paid, though I am wasn't sure how! We started developing our walk with God and the blessings kept pouring in. She decided to go back to school to become a Physician's Assistant, and still work full time. We started receiving checks we were not expecting, along with school refunds, and were able to help others that were in need. I have no doubt that she will make it through school, and no doubt that we were brought to each other. We have a trust in each other I never thought was possible, and believe she is God's single tool for keeping me so emotionally stable. I don't deserve to be loved by her or our kids as unconditionally as I am, but am not surprised by it either. Had it not been for God's divine intervention in our lives, I shutter to think where we would be. I thank him every night for the many undeserving blessings he has brought into my........our lives. That is why I say, "May you have a light heart, and God's richest blessings!"
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