There are times that ministry requires me to fly, but there are many times I drive. I do not mind driving, and I am much less likely to be delayed. The invention of the Global Positioning System (GPS) has become a life saver! No more reading maps that have way too many roads to figure out. No more writing down directions or hoping to find the right streets. Thank you to the inventor of GPS!

My husband Gaylon was with me as I was driving to a speaking engagement in Florida. We entered our destination into the GPS and saw an extensive list of directions and many turns on the map. We began our trip, and it was smooth sailing until it wasn’t. There came a point that the GPS directed us to exit the interstate in the middle of nowhere. As soon as we got to the end of the exit, our GPS directed us to get back on the interstate. We chuckled but did not think too much of it.

About an hour later, the GPS directed us off the interstate, through a small town, and into a small neighborhood, only to direct us back to the interstate again. These unnecessary turns were adding time to our trip, time I did not have to give. I had no interest in all the twists and turns. I just wanted to arrive at my destination! Why can’t the road just be straight?

Have you ever asked yourself that about life – why can’t the road just be straight? How about when walking with God? Why can’t I just take the easy path? Direct paths in life are rare. Can I get an amen!

As I walk with God, I want Him to give me direct paths. No curves. No wrong roads. No dead ends. No long, winding paths. There have been a few times I have experienced a straight path, but I have found that when I walk with God, it takes faith to believe He can get me where I am supposed to be.

As I look back over fifty plus years of serving God, I can honestly say that I am glad there were times that God put a curve in the road, got me off the road, or put up a roadblock. I would not have my wonderful husband of fifty-two years if I had stayed on the path I was walking. I would not have seen my son two weeks before he died, if my speaking engagement in Alabama had not been cancelled. After that cancellation, I scheduled a speaking engagement at a conference where my son lived. God gave me a few days of pure joy with Bryan. I did not know that would be the last time I would see him. Thank God for the detours! I could tell so many stories of how things came up that seemed, at the time, to complicate my life, but God had a hand in them.

Paul wrote to the Galatians, “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. … If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16, 25, NKJV). The NIV says, “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”  I want to stay in step with the Spirit, don’t you? There is no better way to live than to walk at the Holy Spirit’s pace every day.

In the natural, unexpected interruptions on the path can be frustrating, but God can use them for Kingdom purposes. Are you experiencing an unexpected turn? Invite God to be on the detour with you and trust Him to take You where you need to be. Embrace the detours.

“The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” Deuteronomy 31:8 NIV

When our children were small, we would tell them stories of what it was like when we grew up.  I could see their eyes get bigger, and I could hear their giggles as I shared my childhood. I had a crazy childhood!

As the youngest child of eight, I had a lot of training in how to find ways to have fun.  We were dirt poor, had few toys, and watched little television. My father ruled with an iron fist, and the television came on at night only if he said it did.  The lights went out when he said they went out, and often that was early.  So, we had to have creative imaginations as kids.

My home growing up was not very nice.  There were two bedrooms in a four-room house, with ten people needing a place to bed down at night.  The kids often packed like sardines into one bedroom. We had to be very quiet because making noise would have made for a mad father. 

Quietly, we waited for our father to go to sleep. Once our dad was snoring hard enough to open and shut the front door, we put our imaginations into action.  We had learned to remove two or three boards from the old wooden floor beneath a bed.  As noiseless as possible, we would slip through the hole and escape from captivity to freedom.  Underneath that old house that sat a few feet off the ground was sand, dirty old sand.  We would crawl through that sand and run out into the field to play.  When we sneaked back to our beds, we were filthy, but we were happy. 

Another story that made children’s eyes get larger was explaining how we played hide and seek when neither parent was home.  When it came time to hide, the older kids would take the younger ones to a great hiding place.  (Being the youngest, I now realize it was amazing that I lived through it.)   I was put in the oven, in the refrigerator when it was empty enough, and a host of other “great” places. 

My children heard so many stories of a childhood that consisted of an over-bearing father, but also creative kids that had fun despite it all. 

On September twenty-fifth, I will turn the ripe old age of seventy-two. I still like to share some of those stories with my grandchildren, but those are not the ones which are most important to me.  Of great importance to me is that my descendants know the story of how my life was rewritten by the Lord Jesus Christ.

When the opportunity arises, I tell them a story of a woman who saw me in my Granny’s front yard and started taking me to church with her.  She treated me like she really cared about me.  She introduced me to Jesus Christ which set me on a journey that recreated my future. 

I have told them of being afraid as I shook like a leaf in a storm when I stood up in my speech class at college.  Standing before that class, with tears starting to well up, I mentally declared that I would never stand before people again.  I kept that promise for many years.  Yet, I can testily to my grandchildren about a God who can empower us and strengthen us through times of fear.

Because God is forever at work in my life, I will never run out of stories to share with my grandchildren!  

As I turn seventy-two, what advice would I give?  Tell your children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and others about the God-moments in your life.  Share the marker moments when God brought you through something bigger than you could handle alone.  This is your God-story.  Share it chapter by chapter and be intentional about it. Write down the next chapter you want to share and be ready to tell them about a divine moment when God showed up. 

Don’t preach, TELL.  Tell them of a God who shows up.  Let some of it be old stories, but share current stories of a God who is still showing up in your life.  After sharing the story, pray, pray, pray for God to use those seeds in the lives of your children and grandchildren. 

When my life is over, I don’t want to take all my God-stories to the grave.  Our children and grandchildren are living in a time when faith in God is often ridiculed.  I want them to hear of a God who is real and is present.   Tell your stories.

“Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children to another generation.” – Joel 1:3

The room was packed with women who had no idea what I was about to say.  It was one of the first times to share my testimony of God’s redemptive work in my life.  I am by nature a quiet and private person, so to tell the story of childhood sexual, verbal, and physical abuse was not easy. 

It took years before I was ready to share the healing and rebuilding God had done in my life.  I had fought an intense battle with shame, self-confidence, and worth.  There finally came a point that God began to lead me to share my story so that others might be healed.   I refuse to waste the pain I have endured through the years.  God has brought me through so much, and I am going to use it for His glory! 

As I was sharing my story on this occasion, I saw a woman who was sitting in the audience.  We knew each other, and I was well aware that she did not like me.  (Hey, it happens!)  She sat with the others and listened.  When the meeting was over, she approached me, and I thought that maybe my message had softened her. 

We will call her “Sandra.”  Sandra walked up to me and with a smirk on her face, she said in a babyish-type voice, “Awww.  Did her have a hard life growing up? Boohoo.” Ouch!  I could not believe what she had just said to me.  It was shocking, it was mean, it was immature. Sandra almost made me want to quit standing before anyone.    

All of us have faced times when harsh words were spoken over us as children or adults.  The Bible tells us, “The soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit.” Proverbs 15:4 (NIV). Words matter. Some people are still under the burden of what someone said to them or about them.   

Sandra’s words brought me to a point of decision. I could allow her to take away my voice, or I could choose to remember God’s words in Romans 8:31. “What then shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”  Those are words that I have had to tell myself many times over the years. 

The reality is that life throws pretty hard punches.   Let’s be careful that we don’t fixate on the temporary hurts and inconveniences of this life. Take the “ouches” of life to God, ask for healing, and recite, “What then shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” 

Romans 8:31 teaches us that we will confront opposition, but that our opposition is doomed to failure. In other words, there is no one who could be more powerful than God and no one can destroy us. They might be against us, but they cannot defeat us. 

God is FOR you.  God is FOR you. God is FOR you.  Do you hear me saying it loudly?  GOD IS FOR YOU! I am still telling my story of redemption, regardless of Sandra’s words.  Let God’s words determine your actions. He is for you!

I have walked with the Lord for more than fifty years now, and more than ever I am trying to live a life that honors God.  It’s not because I think God will not love me or will be mad at me.  It is because I love my Savior who died for me, and I want to honor Him.

For way too many of my years as a child of God, I lived a shallow Christian life.  Oh, I read my Bible, taught Sunday School, and even led worship.  What I did not do was grow in the image of Christ. 

I cannot tell you the precise year, but there came a point in my Christian walk, that I realized I did not look very much like Jesus.  Kneeling before God, I repented and set out to die to myself and to be resurrected to a life that was pleasing to God.  While I have not arrived, I am simply not the woman I used to be. 

Not too long ago, I really lost my temper with my husband, and it was over a ridiculously minor issue.  As my emotions began to rise, I knew each moment that I was not reacting in a godly manner.  (Thank God for Holy Spirit who says, “Don’t do that.”) An evening was ruined along with my peace.  I had not allowed the fruit of the Spirit to control the situation – the fruit of self-control and gentleness. 

The next day, I apologized to my husband, took ownership, and repented before the Lord.  He forgave me instantly, but I could not forgive myself.  How could I have been so ungodly!  The voice of the enemy reminded me hour by hour, and sometimes minute by minute what a failure I was.  “If only people could see you now.”  “You should never stand up to teach anyone again.”  “God is really disappointed in you.”  Over and over and over I heard the accuser.  I could forgive others, but myself?  That was a whole different issue. 

Are you struggling with forgiving yourself?  We all have struggled with forgiving ourselves, but we will never have joy if past struggles still control our thinking.  I had to get over myself and look to Jesus, the great forgiver. With His help, I had to forgive me.  I walked around and began rehearsing what God said in His word.  I played music and sang along with it.   A breakthrough came, and I was able to forgive myself.

Many are stuck today because of something in their past.   Struggling under self-condemnation is not the way God wants us to live.  Stop replaying in your mind the old recording of your sin which stirs up guilt. Instead replay the truths of God’s Word. God says in Romans 8:1, 2, “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.  And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.”    God says in Ephesians 1:6 – “He has made us accepted in the beloved.”   Rehearse these promises when the recording in your mind starts playing.  As you take hold of His forgiveness and release your guilt, you will walk out of that jail of self-condemnation into the joy of abundant life.

Whatever is in your past, whatever you have done that the devil keeps throwing up in your face (lying, cheating, immorality, debt, fear, unhealthy habits, hatred, anger, bitterness, etc.); whatever it is, you need to know that Jesus died to pay the price.  He wants you to know that He loves you and that you are forgiven. The wonderful thing about God is that when you ask for forgiveness, He not only forgives, but He also forgets.  You do not have to be a slave anymore to your past.  Be free!