How God Proved Himself to Me
PART 1 of 6
Christians are just something they feed to the Lions, aren’t they? That’s what I used to think. That is until I found out the truth.
Let me go back to the beginning. I was born as an illegitimate child, although as a little girl, I never knew the meaning of the word. But, being raised by a dad who never, for one minute, let me forget that it was something terrible. When Daddy got mad at Mama, he also got angry at me. In a fit of anger, he would strip off all her clothes and yell at the top of his lungs,
“Take that illegitimate kid of yours and get out!”
Mama would take me, and we’d go outside and hide in the chicken coop. Whenever I had one of my nosebleeds, Mama would dump one of the rabbit’s water dishes and hold it under my nose until the bleeding stopped. Then, after Daddy passed out from too much drink, we’d sneak back into the house.
” Go to bed,” Mama would say, “things will be alright in the morning.” But they weren’t.
We never went to church. Yet, somehow, I felt like kids were safe until they reached 13. Then, they were on their own. So, when I turned 13, I found a bus that would pick kids up and take them to Sunday School. Daddy didn’t mind if he was home because it got me, my sister, and my brother out of the house for a while.
One day, at the end of the church service, they gave what they called “An Alter Call.” I didn’t understand what that meant, but I was thirteen by then and thought I was in danger of losing heaven. I talked my sister, Penny, into going forward with me. Three well-dressed men took us together into a little room in the back.
“Get down on your knees.” said the tallest man of the bunch. “Do you know that you’re a sinner?”
Well, yeah, I thought, so what?
The three men started talking at once. They screamed many words at us that I didn’t understand the meaning of.
“Do you want to ask Jesus to forgive your sins
and come into your hearts?”
The man in the black suit shouted louder. “Did you ask Jesus in? Is he in yet?”
In where? I wondered.
They kept screaming until I started crying and said, “Yes.”
My sister cried as she answered the same thing.
The short man in the black suit said we were saved now and could get up. All the men congratulated us and said we could go.
I felt no different except that I was glad to escape all the screaming.
I had left my purse in the church with my brother to guard it. I opened my purse and found out he had been in my little black bag and had taken all my gum. I didn’t ever want anyone to touch my personals. That was something I considered private and all mine. I felt anger taking hold of me. I was furious! That shouldn’t have made me mad. How can I be saved? I wondered.
We all climbed on the bus and headed home. Life continued as before.
Check back for PART 2