Pamela's Testimony

(Blue Italics are my thoughts from last year) I was blessed to be raised in a church-going family. Sometimes, when sitting through a baptism and testimony service and I hear how some people have literally been rescued by God, I feel that my testimony is rather dull. My whole life I have known about God's love and his gift of salvation through Jesus. I can't say that while I was growing up that God was a primary focus in our household, although we did pray a memorized prayer before every meal and a memorized prayer before bed. However, I am thankful that my parents saw it as a priority to go to church each and every Sunday. Growing up, I was very involved in our church, attending and later teaching at our weeknight kid's club and also as a Sunday School student and later teaching as well. When I entered my teen years, I am eternally grateful for the friends and youth leaders of that time because I know they protected me from many of the teen peer pressure that so many others face during adolescence. I met my husband at the church we both grew up in (another reason I am thankful my parents chose to attend each week :)) and I am thankful that God blessed me with such an amazing soul mate and that we could grow up together. I was baptized and and became a member of our church when I was 16 and my relationship with God has had its close moments and moments where I feel distant from His presence. I am [still] feeling the need to become closer to God and to also instill the importance of a relationship with God to my children. [This is one area that I feel my own parents did not prioritize and I feel it important to me to change this in my own family] I feel that helping my children make a decision about their eternal home is a huge responsibility and if my life is not an example to them then I have failed in my job as a parent. I feel that I have improved in some of the ways that I feel my parents fell short of but I still have so far to go and my hope is that reading the Bible this year will help me grow closer to God and so be more focused on Him and His plan.

I know without a doubt that God is at work in my life and he has blessed me so richly especially in the last year. I just graduated with my B.Ed in the [Spring of 2009] and God led me to the most amazing job. I am teaching in a private Christian school where I am encouraged to share the message of salvation with all of my students. Last February, I was told that there would be no room to stay at my dream job and I began to question God about how I could be given this amazing first year, just to have it ripped out from under me. I cried. often. I prayed. often. Then, in God's amazing timing, He fit the pieces together that allowed me to stay. You can read the details here if you are interested. God is so good all the time and we just have to remember that.

I see God at work in our family as He strengthens my marriage when so many relationships around us are failing. I see Him guiding and protecting my children and helping them to make good choices. I know God has a plan for me and my future and He is teaching me to be patient as He reveals it in His time. I totally suck at being patient but God continues to use situations to stretch me in this area. I am thankful for His patience with me.

My goal for participating in this blog is to actually accomplish my goal of reading through the Bible. I have been attempting to read through the entire Bible in a year for the last couple of years and have failed miserably each time. I fall behind and then get too overwhelmed to catch up and then instead of picking up where I left off (or even jumping in and continuing!) I just give up and resolve to start again. If it weren't for the commitment that I made of having to make 1 post every other Saturday, I would have surely given up completely. This year, I have committed myself to commenting on each post this year and if any of you don't see me commenting for awhile, please hold me accountable! I still want to deepen my relationship with God and make spending time in His word a priority. There are so many things in my life that push my time with God to the back burner and I want to change that...starting now. Ok ....now!