I began yesterday’s entry saying what a blessed day it was starting out to be. That didn’t change. All day remained the same. It seems there are few days in life that pristine. One of the surprises (blessings) was finding how many raspberries were ready to pick. I had picked a couple of them next to the garden that were ripe so I thought I’d go through the patch to see just how many were ready. Well, that picking turned out to be about 1/3 of a gallon. That’s not a lot compared to the ones to follow, but it is great for the first. I now know I’ll be picking every other day for a couple of weeks!

For years and years I wondered why God allowed the abuse of my childhood to come about? Then when I married the first time, why He allowed a divorce when my two girls were only 2 & 4? I had tried so hard to live well for Jesus and obey His leadership in my life, but still all of this happened. One of my devotional readings started with a quote from Charles Spurgeon. It reads: “No man ever became holy by chance. There must be a resolve, a desire, a panting, a pining after obedience to God, or else we shall never have it.”

My biggest reason for making a resolve, having a deep desire, a panting, a pining for obedience to God was because I could not do this on my own. I had tried for 30 years only to find my self hurting deeply. Full surrender of all my efforts was the only way I was ever going to find FREEDOM in Christ Jesus! All these years later God has made it abundantly clear about my childhood. He never created it, but He wanted to use it for His Honor and Glory. When I finally committed to partnering with God to share my story, I began to find what I never had before hand. What a humble honor it is to be able to serve God in this capacity.