​Self-sufficiency is determined to stay in control—a precarious place to be. It’s like standing on one foot and expecting to reach my destination by hopping. We often fail to trust God or ask to be led by His Holy Spirit—and all-wise God knows all the ends and outs of a situation. 

I can look back and see the many times I’ve fallen flat on my face before I finally got it that it is not within man to direct his own steps.

Pride causes me to behave like a two-year-old who shouts, “I do it myself.” And when I do, God steps back and lets me give it a shot until all the threads of my life are tangled and tied in a hard knot.
 
Our loving heavenly Father steps away and possibly folds His arms, shakes His head, and says, “Have it your way.” He stands nearby and watches us fail again and again.

There have been many times when I didn’t know what to do and moaned “I don’t know what else to try. All I can do is pray.” Prayer becomes my last resort, rather than my first option.

In spite of my stubborn will, the Lord continues to faithfully keep His promise to never leave me or forsake me.

Even when the Lord helps me succeed, there is such a temptation to take credit for accomplishing everything myself.
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Lord, help me depend on your incredible wisdom before making any decision.                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
 
 

​​IT’S NOT TOO LATE
Regardless of wherever you are, your age, or your health conditions, God has a plan for each of His children. Nothing one does is insignificant to our heavenly Father. A friend who is bedfast and can hardly move, she spends her time on the phone encouraging and counseling others. She is also an incredible prayer warrior—lying flat on her back.

The night my husband, Carey, died, I was fifty-five years old. In previous years, I’d followed him around and helped him with his work. Now, I was forced to face life alone. As soon as the doctor said, “He’s gone,” I cried, “Lord, Jesus, receive his spirit.” Then, I turned and stomped my foot and growled, “Satan, you don’t win. You may have closed one door, but God will open others.” This became a self-fulfilling prophesy. God began to teach me how to be the person He planned for me to be. After about two years of readjusting, I became the spiritual advisor in a psychiatric hospital.
 
From there, the Lord moved me to the country to manage a Christian retreat center for 15 years.
When I decided to step away at age 75, I went to China four times to teach in an underground Bible school.
 
Next, the Lord nudged me to write a book on a unique way to deal with aging. “Hidden Treasures for Golden Years” won the Selah award for the best book on Christian Living 2011. It has been used in a home group for seniors.
 
The second book, “Splashes of Living Water” looks at how we can be a living example in developing good interpersonal relationships. It is currently being used in a Ladies Bible Class.
 
The third, “Marvels and Mysteries,” explains miraculous ways God, as the architect, designed the world, mankind and animals to function in incredible ways.
 
The fourth book is a devotional for seniors called, “Over the Hill, Onto the Mountaintop.” It is filled with humor and dozens of human interest stories about believers who have learned the secret of how to live an abundant life.
 
The last book, just published, “Out of Darkness, Into His Marvelous light,” use a new approach of using the five God-given senses, similar to rungs on a ladder, to climb out of discouragement and depression. It has just been chosen as a study for a church home group in in a nearby city.
 
Your calling may not seem great, but God has a divine purpose for your life. It is to give you hope and a plan so others will see Christ in you as your hope of glory.