I told my husband before we were married that he had better be sure of wanting to marry me because there was no word like “divorce” in my dictionary. I may have acted like the normal early minded being, but my values were well rooted and strong. I knew what God meant when He said in Matthew 19, “Haven’t you read…For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
I took that verse to heart. That being said, and as most married couples know, it takes a little while to get to know someone on a daily basis going from just dating. I spent many a time taking long walks praying to God to help me understand the path I took. I was too sensitive for my own good and my hubby was too vocal and spoke his mind a little too much at times.
We needed each other and God knew what He was doing. I learned to toughen up a bit and he learned to be a little more sensitive. The long hours working and being so worn out would get the better of us at times, but we always talked things through after a little time cooling off after a tiff. Communication was a must because we weren’t psychic and no mind readers!
When the fall season was finished, I started to substitute teach for our school system. I stayed really busy and did have the opportunity to say no to a job if I needed. I would not know until real early in the morning if I was going somewhere for the day. As most employees do, the teachers would call in to say they weren’t coming in and the school would scramble at the last minute to find a substitute teacher.
I did not really have to go too far but on occasion I’d drive about half an hour or so to one of the schools. When I first started subbing, God gave me another lesson to learn. Babysitting for years for smaller kids was easy compared to teens! I did prefer the elementary schools but found the high schools a challenge for me. Not necessarily a bad challenge, but a mental challenge to give them direction. Remember, I had a tough way to go in school and hated it, but I saw similar situations and was exposing myself to let go yet be an instrument to God’s plan.
Teenagers were much different than our age group, but somewhat the same. The teens I subbed for were more out of control and mouthy than our teen years. I recall one young lady in a shop class running around the room chasing a boy and saw her begin to slip around a corner and could just see her head being split open if it hit the vice attached to the edge. I reached my arm out to prevent her from hitting and I ended up with her yelling she was going to sue me and then later in the office because her mother didn’t appreciate me touching her daughter.
Yes, times were changed. In our day, a parent would have thanked a teacher for protecting her child and scolded the child for running in the classroom and not doing their work when told. It amazed me how in just 4 years after I graduated, things had changed so much!
And then it hit me like a brick that God was being left out of lives! A turning point to my ambitions happened when I encountered an atheist. He was adamant that there was no God. Then, you could still freely talk about Him in class. At this time, I was also teaching a religious class at our church and another student that happened to be in that religion class was also in this school classroom. We were talking about church or something and one young man lifted his head and said he didn’t believe in God. He was the first I encountered that didn’t believe.
My mind raced with how to respond and all I knew better then to say was, “How were you created? Where did you come from?” He responded with, “My mom” then, “her mom,” and on and on back and forth. Finally I said “There was a beginning of where you came from and that was when God created Eve from Adam.” If only I knew then what I know now, I could have responded better.
Now, I was really concerned after that conversation about what I did not know about the Bible. That was another reason for my hunger for The Lord. I had to find out more so I knew how to respond to others about God and my passion for Him stepped up a notch!
