Life Changing Choice

I have been thinking recently how one decision I made when I was only seven years old has changed the whole course of my life.  I asked Jesus to be my Savior in a very personal way on November 2, 1952.  Years later my mother told me that there was a definite change in my life from that time on.  As I grew older and began making decisions about education and career path and marriage partner, my commitment to look for and follow God’s guidance was the defining factor in my life.

If I had not accepted Jesus into my heart and life, I quite probably would have chosen a different career.  I would have had no reason to consider the nursing school affiliated with a Christian college.  I probably would have attended a school in New York State as multiple scholarships were available to me if I stayed in New York.  Would I have become a nurse, or would I have pursued some other interest?  I was interested in most everything other than law and politics.  My guidance counselor had told me, given his awareness of my aptitude testing and grades, he could recommend me to any school in the country to study any subject I pleased.  He had also encouraged me to apply for a scholarship available at our high school for someone intending to be a medical doctor.  What would I have done?

In any event, I would have probably already had a bachelor’s degree by 1966, so I would have been out on my own.  I would not have moved to Watertown with my parents between college years in the summer of ’66.  I certainly would not have gone to church with them there, so I would not have met my husband.  If I had met him, nothing would have come of it.  He never dated anyone who did not at least profess to be a Christian.  He certainly would not have married someone in whom that faith was not genuine.

So…our biological children would not exist.  Our adopted children would exist somewhere in the world probably.  The child we adopted as an infant has said that her biological mother might have killed her, but perhaps someone else would have adopted her, and she would be somewhere.  The daughter we adopted at age 11 might or might not have survived.  Her case worker told me that without us, she would have eventually been placed in an institution.  If they had both lived and grown up elsewhere, none of our grandchildren would exist.  Our daughters would not have grown up in Watertown, made the decisions they made, and had the children they have had.  Of our eleven grandchildren, the only one who would be in the world is the one who is actually a step-grandchild, although we think of him as fully ours.  The lives of our son-in-law and daughter-in-law would have played out differently.  In fact, many lives would have been different.

I cannot begin to imagine how many lives have been impacted by a choice I made at the age of 7.  I stand in awe of a God who can speak so directly to the heart and mind of a child.  I don’t know quite how he brought me at such a young age to a deep understanding that I was powerless to change things in my life on my own, but I am grateful.  I really don’t want to imagine where I would be without Him.  I do know that during at least three time periods in my life, I could have easily succumbed to despair.  I clung to Jesus to give meaning to my life.  I have no desire to live outside of His loving guidance.  To whom would I go?

John 6: 66-69  …many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.  “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.  Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.  We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”