To_Him_Be_The_Glory

TO HIM BE THE GLORY FOREVER! AMEN.

As a child I grew up with unbelieving parents. Although my mothersays that she believes in God and is good enough for heaven, she stillhas not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ into her life. How distressedI am over this.

I remember one summer that some neighbors took my brother and I toVacation Bible School. I can recall having an enjoyable time, but themessage of salvation or the love of God never made an impression onme. I can’t even remember what the name of the church was. That isthe earliest experience with church I can remember. I do recall thatI asked my mother what religion I was. She said Presbyterian. It gotme out of many situations I got into with other kids that went tochurch and asked me about my convictions. I didn’t have the slightestnotion what I was saying. Saying that I was Presbyterian gave meacceptance.

When I was eleven years old my father had a fatal heart attack.Oneday he was there and the next he was gone. What a terrible time mybrother and I had without the Almighty God to comfort us. That was ahard summer. I didn’t go outside or play with my friends. Justwanted to curl up and die with my dad. Eventually, after returning toschool that fall I came out of my shell.

Later my mother remarried and we moved from Maryland to New Jersey.I was a freshman in High School. I made a friend in the neighborhoodwhose family were “Presbyterians”. What a surprise – they really doexist! He talked me into joining the Bell Choir at his church. Wow,what a hard time learning to play those bells without any musicalexperience, but Craig would transcribe the music into a numberingsystem for me so I could be part of the choir. Again nothing that wassaid at church ever convicted or interested me. I thought it was alot of ritual and nothing more. I still remember the sweet sound ofthose bells. Eventually I became interested in girls and had landed apart time job. This took me away from my friend and the bell choir.

In my senior year of high school a second tragedy took place in myfamily. My stepfather died suddenly and without illness in his sleep.This time I think my mother almost went off the deep end. Again, noGod to help and comfort us. I recall helping the paramedics lift himinto a rubber bag. It was pretty hard to handle a corpse at 17.Especially one you had loved as a father. The funeral was terrible -I never cried so hard before. This only hardened me toward God. Icouldn’t understand why God would take my stepfather away from us andleave my mother alone a second time. The time that followed werehard.

Shortly after the funeral my mother suffered a slipped disk and wasbedridden for months. I was the acting head of the family and learnedabout shopping, house cleaning (including cleaning the toilet) and thelike. I felt under terrific pressure. I would go out with my friendson the weekends and we would drink beer to get drunk. It relieved, atleast temporarily, the pressure I felt.

That fall I entered college and found myself under more pressure -pressure to perform academically. Living in Wisconsin, a thousandmiles from my home, unable to cope, I began smoking pot, taking speed,ingesting LSD and mescaline. My grades fell and soon I was thinkingof quitting school. During this period of time I was dating my firstwife. All we did was party, party, party! Of course one thing led toanother and we were in bed together. About six months later we brokeup. It was the end of the school year and it was one argument afteranother.

By now the Vietnam war was nearing an end. I received my lotterydraft number and it was 227. I changed my classification to 1A thatNovember. I knew that I would escape the draft. Finally I quitschool and returned to New Jersey. I got my high school job back andearned enough money to return to Wisconsin and my party friends. Thatfall I received a call from my soon to be wife. She was pregnant. Idid the right thing and we were married several months later. Iremember that wedding as one of the darkest days in my life – no job,no school, and a family on the way. I felt life had dealt me anotherbad hand.

I found work in a foundry. I thought I was working in hell. Theheat, smoke, dirt, and noise was unbearable. I worked there a coupleof tough years. My partying had come to an end with the added burdenof a family. My wife was spending us out of house and home. We hadmany arguments about finances and family. She wanted a divorce, but Italked her out of it and instead, we had another baby. That didn’tend the marital problems – only increased them. We now had anothermouth to feed and we were on the verge of bankruptcy.

My wife started working to help with the finances. Somewhere alongthe line she began having an affair with one of her bosses. One thingled to another and she served me with divorce papers. The marriagewas over after seven years. I will never forget my pleading,terrified little three year old daughter hanging onto my car door as Iwas leaving. She was crying and telling me that everything was goingto be all right and to come home. I cried and cried as her pleadingface haunted me for the next several days. I felt like my entireworld had finally came tumbling down.

Party time again. Wow how the single life had changed. The womenwere bolder and sex was easy to find, but I missed family life. Ijoined a single parent group and began dating different women. Thisis where I met my second wife. There was something different abouther. I knew there were special feelings we had for each other fromthe beginning. I stopped dating other women and centered my attentionon her. May was a Christian, but a weak one. She also had adaughter. During our courtship we would spend weekends togetherplaying house. Her daughter would tell her she was bad. Many timesat night she would cry herself to sleep and I didn’t understand why,but she knew that she going against what God wanted for her. I neverdreamt that those nights would come back to haunt me.

After over two years of seeing one another we were happily marriedin a small ceremony. Things were fine, except for some rebellion frommy stepdaughter. It took more than a year for her to accept me as herstepfather. My daughters from my first marriage would come up andvisit every other weekend. My wife would take them to church on thoseweekends. I never interfered with this as long as no one pressured meabout God. My children loved going and learned so much. I rememberseveral times when they asked me to come with them to church, but Ialways refused, saying that it wasn’t for me.

Things were looking great, I had a sensible wife who loves me andwho I love. She was money conscience and had a career of her own.She had raised her daughter all by herself and I respected her forthat determination. Our families got along with an occasionalsquabble or two between my stepdaughter and my children. Still thingswent along pretty smoothly and life was finally looking up.

Then, at the end of my stepdaughter’s freshman year of high school,she was suspended from school for having alcohol in her locker. Mywife and I took this very seriously not knowing whether she had adrinking problem or what. I was hurt and disciplined here severely.It was summer and we had her meeting with a psychologist to work outher rebellion, but she didn’t seem to be getting anywhere. We triedtrusting her that summer by letting her home alone while we worked.Little did we know that she was getting involved sexually that summerat the age of 15 with a 21 year old in the neighborhood.

That fall when we finally figured out what was going on I becamefurious. I was determined to separate her from this boyfriend and ourhome became a prison for her. She wasn’t allowed to go anywhere andshe spent a great deal of time in her room. Still we had problemswith her. She ran away a couple of times to meet her lover. I beganloosing my hold and control on her. For the first time I feltdefeated by this relationship. I wasn’t getting any sleep, our familywas constantly arguing, and I was about to crack up. There seemed tobe no solution. This was a long winter.

One day at work I began crying uncontrollably and had to leave.This situation was driving me to a nervous breakdown. God finally hadmy attention. That weekend we went to a Billy Graham movie that wasshowing in town and it touched my heart. I heard about things likeGod’s love, the sinners prayer, and being born again. I was convictedat that theater, but couldn’t bring myself to confess Jesus Christ asmy Lord and Savior. It only took a couple of days more of the mentalanguish I was suffering before I confessed that I was a sinner andaccepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.

It happened at home alone. It was the most marvelous thing thathas ever happened to me. My burden was lifted and I knew that theLord would work out our family problems. That evening at dinner Itold my family what had happened to me that day. My family could seethe joy and happiness I had, my wife was excited and said her prayersabout me had finally been answered. I began attending church andpraying about my stepdaughter and several months later God showed mewhat to do to help her. I wrote to several teen mission groups aroundthe country and finally had her involved in summer mission work. Sheknew that she couldn’t spend another summer alone with this boyfriendin the neighborhood. I think that by this time she wanted to end theaffair, but didn’t have the will power to do it.

We spent the summer praying that this impossible situation would besolved. I’ll have you know that the day before we were expecting ourdaughter home, her lover and his family moved out of our neighborhood.We praised God. Our prayers were being answered. When we picked herup the next day one of the first things we said is that we forgave herfor all the heartache and trouble that had occurred. She had changedover the summer and grown spiritually. She even told us that she hadgiven her testimony in several of the local churches that her missionteam had ministered to that summer. Oh, how she has grown in the Lordand I will always praise the Lord for he heard our prayers and workedeverything out for good.

We have our daughter back and I have become a “born againCHRISTIAN”. My little three year old daughter, who is now eleven yearsold, became the first soul that I helped to God. And my mother – I’mstill praying for her salvation.

“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! Whohas known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? Whohas ever given to God that God should repay him? For from him andthrough him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever!Amen.”(Romans 11:33-36 NIV)

This article originated on The Salvation Online Network