My Life as a Nut-shell

I have searched high and low and behold, no previously written testimony. That means I have to start all over again....hmmmm


My childhood was a decent, go to church on Sunday, US of A upbringing but becoming a teen in the late 1960's was quiet a challenge for my creative artistic personality.

As a teen, I knew something important was missing from my life but I was not sure what that was. I was born a seeker and I looked everywhere for the "meaning of life".

Trying to find the truth, I took all the information available to me and made up a set of rules to live by. I tried living by my own rules for over ten years and found that I was only seeking more and more. I was becoming more and more dissatisfied with the answers I was manufacturing.

During that seeking, I finally condescended to go to university and eventually ended up in Art school. My creativity was unleashed and that felt really good. It was a part of me that had not been previously satisfied. I lived the unfettered life of a typical art student. My body and mind felt satisfied but something was still missing. In fact the more free I thought myself, the more I realized something was missing. My favorite subject to paint and draw was an empty turtle shell.

I searched myself hard and realized that there was something more than satisfying my body and mind. I discovered that part of me called spirit and wondered if that is where I was incomplete.

One day a fellow art student, Elizabeth Senter, invited me to her church's Christmas pageant. I though, hum, Christian Christmas, not my cup of tea, I knew churches were full of hypocrites but at least it would be an investigation into something somewhat spiritual.

I sat detached watching the pageant unfold. It was about the life of Christ, complete with volunteer pseudo-nailed to the cross. As an art student, I saw cliche written all over the performance. It was definitely predictable. I knew the story. It was not my theatrical "cup of tea".

However, what I could not predict was that the Holy Spirit was present in that church. I was not sure what was going on in my heart, but I knew that something here at this church was the something that was missing from my life.

Soon after my visit, I asked Jesus to be the Lord of my life.

My life is now changed. I am still a seeker, by my heart is at peace. I have the freedom to be who I am and not search for what I think I should be. I know even in the low times I am not alone. The presence of God is in my life. The peace he has given me is beyond words.

Although I immediately felt the presence of the Holy Spirit. I was not magically transformed, it took time and work. It took time and study to understand how to let God work in my life.

I began by going to a Unitarian Church that was intellectually satisfying and somewhat spoke to my spirit. Six months later I met a man (now my husband) who suggested I try the church across the street from the Unitarian one.

It was a fundamental Bible believing church. I was shocked. The people there were intelligent, believed the Bible AND the Holy Spirit was obviously present in their church. I was hooked. It was here that I asked Jesus to be the shepherd of my life.

For the last almost 20 years, I have studied the Word of God. I love to seek, I love to question, I love to learn, I love to grow. Each step that I take to follow God is more rewarding than the last.