How God Saved a Preacher's Kid, part 3

The Bible college I attended was Presbyterian. In my Bible doctrine class, a debate came up over infant baptism vs. believer's baptism. Not recognizing myself as the hypocrite I was, I argued fiercely for believer's baptism. Not until I transferred to a Brethren college where I attended a believer's baptism service did I realize my own need to obey God in this matter. The more I prayed about it, the more I was convinced that I needed to go back to my home church and make this right. I talked to my parents about it, confessing to them the lie I had been living, and asked my father to baptize me again.

Going before my church was not nearly as hard as I had expected it to be. In fact, it was a huge relief and a source of great joy. People I'd known who no longer attended my church brought their families to witness my baptism. This meant a lot to me because I had always been considered the "big sister" to their children, and I had not always been the good example to them that their parents thought I'd been. I was thankful for the opportunity to tell these children the truth myself and to apologize to them publicly for failing to point them to Christ as I should have.

At the same time that the Lord dealt with me concerning my baptism, He also showed me plainly another path He wanted me to follow. I was increasingly becoming dissatisfied with college, and was doing badly in all my classes. I had never really wanted a career, and couldn't see the point in continuing to pursue a degree in elementary education. My heart's desire was to be a stay-at-home wife and mother. The only problem I had was that I didn't know anyone I really wanted to marry. After much prayer, it became clear to me that God wanted me to quit college, go home and live with my parents, and wait for Him to bring me the man He wanted me to marry.

In May 1986, I came home from college. Along with the baptism issue, I needed to explain to my parents why I was not going back to college. They accepted this better than I thought they would. Other people were not so readily accepting, but one couple saw the hand of the Lord in this and decided to help me out. Largely through their arranging of things, my future husband and I got together. We had our first date in June, and were married the following November. Several people protested to my mother that we had not known each other long enough, but she reminded them of Isaac and Rebekah, who had never met until the day they were married. She said that God had clearly brought us together, and that He would see us through.

And He has seen us through. We have been happily married for almost 19 years (at this writing in 2005) and God has blessed us with eight children. From the beginning He knit our hearts together with a desire to serve Him with our lives and our service. The path He picked for us has not been an easy one. I've often failed Him and have had to learn many bitter lessons the hard way. But God is faithful, and I trust Him to finish the work He has begun in me.

"Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6).