Reflections

This article is a reflection upon my life journey, the direction and the special people God placed along the way.  My dream, after high school was to pursue nurse's training.  I did succeed in getting a job at the local hospital.  There two God-appointed ladies, the supervisor of the hospital and a retired army nurse, took special interest in me.  They trained and taught me more about nursing than I sometimes cared to learn.  After helping the nurse with a particularly nasty procedure I heard her brag to the supervisor: "She hung right in there with me."

After three years I moved to Salem, Oregon, and got a job as a typist in the motor vehicle department of the state of Oregon.  That move, and the people I met at the First Baptist Church in Salem, forever changed the course of my life.  One of the friends I made at the church had a cousin who was tall, good looking and a lot of fun.  Therein lies a whole new story!

I thank my wonderful Heavenly Father for those growing up years.  He was always guiding, protecting and providing for me.

My dad's mother, a tiny lady with seven children, was a staunch Christian who read her Bible and prayed every day.  I credit her faithful prayers for me that God specifically answered.  We corresponded until she stepped into God's presence shortly before I graduated from Northwestern College.

God faithfully provides answers to prayer, sometimes even before we are aware there is a need.  Early one spring, our son-in-law Mark Skorheim traveled to North Dakota to help his parents set up in-home health care.  A few days after Mark arrived, our daughter Donna sent the following email to our family:

Today I have thanked our wonderful God for His perfect timing.  Shelly, the in-home health care giver (Mark had hired) had taken care of a lady for 2 1/2 years before the lady passed away.  Shelly had taken a little break and was just getting ready for another patient when she was called for Mark's parents.  She is respected, well known and comes very highly recommended.  It blesses me realizing how our awesome god's timing is perfect and how He went before to bring all this together even before we knew of the need and prayed!  Talk about amazing.  He is already working on prayer requests He knows we are going to pray in the future!  When I let that soak in - it is overwhelming!

With this history of God's continued watch care I have every confidence He will be faithful until I step into His presence in heaven and my eternal home.  Please read Psalm 139 in the New Living Translation, or your favorite translation, to renew your mind, trust and restore faith in God's eternal love for you. 

Even before birth and through death and into His presence in heaven you are His beloved one.

A note taped on my bathroom mirror reads "Walk steadily toward God without fear" (Psalm 23:4 Paraphrase).