Lori Ann's God Story
With my deepest gratitude and honor, I share with you my story of how Jesus Christ became my personal Savior and how HE changed my life completely.
My name is Lori Ann, and I live on the outskirts of Charlotte, North Carolina, with my beloved husband of four years, who loves the Lord. We are both retired and certified BGEA Rapid Response Team Crisis Ministry volunteers. Our blended family consists of three beautiful daughters of faith who are now 37, 29, and 21 years of age, with two amazing sons-in-law and four precious little grandchildren from ages 1 to 5.
As a small child, I grew up in a Christ-centered home. I witnessed my mother reading her Bible every morning and night like clockwork. She walked tenderly in loving fear of the LORD. My father had a gentle spirit with great faith. Together they lived the Word in our home first, then Church, and our community.
I remember looking up to Heaven at the age of 8 and praying, "Jesus, when I grow up, I would like to marry a preacher or someone like a preacher, and together, tell others about you."
I began serving in our Church nursery at the age of 10, and at 13, I began serving in the adult Church choir. As a young teen, I began serving on the Church Board of Directors as the youth representative.
But I had yet to develop a strong relationship with Jesus and did not read nor study God's Word "on my own."
When I was 16 years old, I started dating. I began making continual poor choices. My priorities had shifted to boys and promiscuity. I stopped serving in Church. I also stopped attending Sunday School and Church Service regularly. I remember walking up the high school steps and speaking to GOD, saying, "GOD, I am tired of being Miss Goodie Two Shoes. You go your way, and I'll go mine!" Oh, how little did I know what I had just done.
I married my high school sweetheart at the age of 18. Soon after, I realized what kind of husband I had married. He wasn't saved, and behind closed doors, he was addicted to porn. He was a con artist. He would gaslight and make threats. He was extremely controlling, angry, and abusive, with no conscience or remorse for sin. At this time, I began attending and serving in Church again.
After five years of ups and downs in our marriage, we had our first daughter. Eight years later, I became pregnant with our second daughter. Before I knew I was pregnant with our second child, I discovered my husband had been having multiple affairs for a long time. Now that I had learned about the affairs, he openly continued having affairs and felt free to inform me (while I was pregnant) that he was filing for a divorce when our daughter turned ten months old.
I was at my very lowest at about eight months pregnant and prayed and prayed and asked GOD to forgive me for turning away from HIM when I was a teenager. I rededicated my life to JESUS and surrendered my life COMPLETELY. I prayed that GOD would purify my heart and wash me as white as snow. I began to see spiritually through the eyes of Jesus and worshipped and adored Him like a little child. I met Jesus at the foot of the cross when the altar call was made at the end of the service. On the way to the cross, I was crying profusely, murmuring with my lips to Almighty God repeatedly, saying, "I was blind, but now I see." I had been BORN AGAIN and closer to GOD than I had ever been before in my entire life.
The sin that used to be comfortable in my life had become very uncomfortable.
When our baby girl turned ten months old, my husband kicked our two daughters and me out of his life. Four months later, he was shot three times. One of those bullets went into his chest and through several of his organs. He survived and eventually started attending Church for a short while but quickly fell back into his old ways.
My mother passed away when she was still young from incurable cancer. However, my father was still alive when I became a single mother. I asked him to come to live the rest of his days with the girls and me, and I would be his caregiver. He lived for nearly six more years and was GOD'S divine influence on my children growing up. During this time, my secular career changed to a ministry career in Christian Counseling and later in Palliative End of Life Care. My youngest daughter asked JESUS into her heart and was baptized around eight years old. My girls and I served in Church, our community, and our home, and they have grown up with a tender, loving fear of the LORD.
I have learned that You will always find GOD'S Peace and Refuge when you dwell in the presence of the Lord. Therefore, keep an intimate relationship with Jesus. I have lived to see many promises of GOD come to fruition in my lifetime.
He has given me a personal mission statement that I cling to: "LIFE is a journey of HEALING through sharing GOD'S unconditional love." When you live for Jesus, His rich goodness will come to you from every angle. GOD BLESS YOU ABUNDANTLY throughout this Journey of Faith.
Blessings,
Lori Ann