S-S-Seventy...the new Seventy. Part 2

S-S-Seventy...the new Seventy. Part 2

I celebrate every year of being alive!

Hello...it's me...with Part 2 of "Lord, can you use me?"
(notes from when I spoke February 2016)

In my last blog, Part One, I shared one reason that keeps us from saying yes to God:

FEAR

Today I'll talk about another reason that keeps us from saying yes to God:

 Our PAST

Our failures and mistakes often haunt us, 

making us feel guilty and unworthy to be used by God.  

Believe me, my past haunted me for a long time.

...Pregnancy before marriage at age nineteen.  

Lesson: 

*One careless moment can change your life.*

Okay, lets continue...

Two failed marriages by the time I was thirty-eight, 

then living on the semi-wild side for three years, adding more guilt to the fire

.  

I am so thankful for a loving heavenly Father who never gives up on us.  

He never stopped gently hounding me, 

I'm eternally grateful for that kind of love that I have never found in any human being.  

Finally, I threw up my hands, repented, and said, 

"Okay, Lord, I give up.  I'm miserable so I want to do it your way, again."

That night when I allowed Jesus to shine his light on me,

I was set free from my shame.

Lesson: 

When we continue to look at our past,

we take our eyes off Jesus and focus on our sin,

which results in feelings of guilt and condemnation.

Instead, we must keep our eyes on what is ahead

so our spiritual journey becomes less about regrets and

more about the hope of our future.

Lesson:

You have to get past your past!

We each have our own journey.

We make choices.

We take different routes, often detours that lead us to a dead end dirt road,

 only to have to turn around and go back to the main highway.  

Are you getting the picture? 

Choices. 

Alas, getting back on that main highway to heaven is so worth the time

it takes to get there.  

Know why?  

So we can use our grungy, yucky, sad experiences to 

help someone who is on the wrong path and needs a helping hand. 

*That one careless moment gave me one the greatest gifts of my life,

My daughter, Jacqueline Shayne.

Day on Lake Murray on a hot summer day with my 'kids' Jacquie and Shawn
2015

I don't consider my two marriages as mistakes even though they ended in divorce.

I have two wonderful children and many fond memories of those years.

I hate divorce because of the scars it leaves,

especially on the children.

The pain of divorce haunts for years.

But sometimes divorce is inevitable.

I share my story to those who have been in similar situations to say:

God can use our mistakes for his glory if we allow him to.

God brings people in our lives (I call them his working angels)
to help us along the way.  

One of my angels was my friend, Tia.  

 In a nutshell--a few months after my 'hands up' moment with the Lord, 

she called to invite me to attend a singles meeting at a local church.

I answered non-enthusiastically, "Well, okay."

 That phone call changed the direction of my life.

My 'working angel' Tia at my west coast book launch 2013
(she baked all my goodies!)

So always be open for delightful interruptions.
Because I said yes to God and to Tia,

the following night at the singles meeting that I didn't want to attend,

I saw a man who caught my eye.
A week later he called to personally invite me to return, and I did.
Yep, love at first sight...for both of us.
A year later we married, and twenty-eight years later

we are still going strong!

Moral to this story: 
Always answer your phone because
you never know who might be on the other end
Now, that's what I call making a right choice.

(you can read my complete story in my book, LADY and the SEA
available on Amazon, e-books, libraries, and book stores)

Forgetting those things which are behind

and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling

of God in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:13-14

I wish you oceans of delightful interruptions!

www.sharonleaf.com