How God Proved Himself to Me – PART 6 January 8, 2025
Although we missed Rodney’s sweet spirit and helpful ways, God healed our hearts just as He said in Psalm 34:18 “The Lord is close to 
the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”
We cried together and enjoyed many laughs as we shared memories of our baby brother. Gentle Rodney loved his older brother, Ronnie, and submitted to anything he asked him to do. Our two brothers had planned to open a garage and go into business together as mechanics. They were both great at fixing cars and loved working together.
But, there were times when they didn’t get along. Rodney would follow Ronnie around and do anything he asked of him, most times, but when he didn’t, he paid the price. Just for fun, Ronnie would have Rodney sit in a chair and hook him up to a bunch of wires he had rigged up to use as a Lie Detector Test. He would ask Rodney a 
question. If he gave him the wrong answer, Ronnie would shout, “No, wrong answer,” and then he’d shock him.
Another time, Rodney did something that his brother didn’t like. Ronnie forced him into the shower, filled his mouth with Alka Seltzer tablets, held his mouth shut so he couldn’t spit them out, then turned on the shower and held him there. Rodney gagged & spit before his brother finally let him go.
Rodney used to babysit our kids, and they all had such fun with their uncle Rodney. He never just sat and watched television by himself, but he connected and played games with our kids. He even 
surprised me and cleaned the house. Now he left behind a little girl who was two years old. She would never grow up to know her gentle and loving daddy. Her mother moved away from our family so she also wouldn’t get to know our side of the family. She left with our prayers.
Our family went through life with the usual ups and downs. We weren’t perfect and we made lots of mistakes. But God never left us.
God blessed us with being able to see all of our children get saved at a young age.
I had prayed for over eighteen years that my niece, Flossie, would get saved. She lived over 500 miles away from us but we kept in contact through letters and a few visits. I told her she needed to be saved, but she wasn’t 
interested. One day I received the sad news that she had gotten cancer. I only prayed stronger. I knew God always answered our prayers. Sometimes He answered “Yes,” sometimes, “No” and sometimes, “Not now.” One day I received a call that Flossie had passed away, and as far as I knew she had never been saved. Flossie’s passing broke my heart. Why didn’t God answer my 18-year prayers? Then, about 3 weeks after she passed away, I received a call from her Aunt, who lived by her. “Flossie wanted me to call you and be sure to tell you that 3 weeks before she passed away, she got saved.”
I started bawling and dropped to my knees, 
thanking the Lord for answered prayer.
We send the kids to camp every summer. One year, while they were there, a tornado ripped through the camp. We found out about the bad storm through a letter that Pam sent.
“Hi Mom, don’t worry but a tornado ripped through the camp yesterday. A boy had to go to the hospital by ambulance, and trees blew down. But we’re OK. The counselor screamed at everyone to take cover inside. I was on the steps and so scared that I couldn’t move. I felt someone pick me up and set me on higher ground. I think it was an angel.”
Then, something happened that I had dreaded all my life, Mom came down with an awful disease. She was in the hospital when the doctor took my sister and me out in the hall and gave us her diagnoses and crushed our world.
“The disease she has will take her life,” he said.
In shock, we asked, “How long does she have?”
“There is no way of knowing,” he said, “it could be a month, it could be a year, or she might not even make it out of this hospital.”
“Will she be in any pain?”
“Well”, the doctor said, “That’s one good thing about the type of liver disease she has, it doesn’t cause any pain.”
Her only symptom had been that her coloring turned yellow.
We dried our eyes, made up a story, and went back into Mom’s room.
Later, that night, when we left, I prayed and asked God for five specific things.
One – I prayed and asked God to give us just one more Christmas with Mom.
Two – All her life Mom’s greatest fear had been the fear of dying, so I prayed and asked the Lord to help her so she wouldn’t be afraid.
Three – I asked God to help her when it happened so she wouldn’t be in any pain.
Four – That God would not take her in the middle of the night.
Five – That she would not be alone, and that the person to be with her at the time would be the one who was meant to be there.
That all began in December of 1995.
Mom had her ups and downs. Then came the day when the doctor advised us that she needed to be in Hospice. We sadly agreed. She was there for several months, then she surprisingly got better and they took her out.
God gave us one more Christmas and almost a second Christmas with her.
Then, one day just before she drifted off into a coma, I asked her if she was afraid, “No, she said, “I’m not afraid.”
God called her home in the afternoon, not during the midnight hours.
Just as the doctor had said, Mom was never in any pain. She also had her mind about her, even until the end.
I remember that day. My sister Penny, who never even had a toothache, suddenly came down with 
excruciating pain in her mouth. She was forced to make an emergency trip to the dentist.
The hospice nurse said the time was near. I stood by the bed on Mom’s one side and my sister, Mom’s baby, stood on the other. Suddenly, my nose started bleeding quite badly. I hugged my baby sister as we cried. I didn’t want to leave but I couldn’t get the bleeding to stop. I got blood all over her sweater. “I have to go upstairs and take care of this,” I said, “but I’ll be back.”
God called Mom home while I was upstairs. It was in the afternoon, not during the midnight hours. Mom went to be with the Lord in December 
of 1996. The only one by her side was my sister, Rena.
We helped each other get through the grief as best we could. My sisters and promised each other that, no matter where we lived, we would all get together for Christmas. We’ve tried to keep our promise through the years.
Our children all graduated and moved away to begin lives on their own. God blessed us with seven grandchildren, six boys and one girl.
Then one day in 1999 we received a surprise call from Rodney’s daughter, Rachel. She had left an abusive man and asked if she could come & stay with Penny for a while. We all enjoyed reconnecting with her for a few weeks. During the time that she was with us, I asked her to go to church. She said, “Yes,” and ended up getting saved and baptized before she left to go home. What a joy she brought into our lives as we welcomed her into the family of God.
She lived down south where it never snowed. She enjoyed our snow so much that she boarded the plane with a bag full of snow in her pocket. I’m sure it didn’t last long, but I got a picture of her as she held up her precious bag of snow.
We said our goodbyes, shared hugs, prayed for her safe travels, and wondered what would be next for our family.
Coming soon: Part 7