My story is a story of miraculous plans. My whole life I have been a planner. I have a schedule for everything I do, a running list in my head at all times, and if I’m not 10 minutes early for something, I’m late.
Maybe that makes me crazy, but my God is a God of plans. We all know the scripture, Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Isn’t it comforting to know God has a plan for each one of us? Growing up I did not know God, or know His word, but I realize now, that from the moment I was conceived, God spoke that scripture over my life.
I was born November 30th 1992 and I was a “save the marriage” baby. We all know how well those situations end, and by the time I was one my parents had split. My older brother and I went to live with my mom, but soon after she became a crack addict. After custody battles, my father finally was able to take my brother and I to live with him and I would not see my biological mom again until I was 16.
When I was three, my father brought home the woman who would soon become “mom” to me. My dad married my step-mom when I was in third grade and my life became a nightmare. My step-mom hated me; therefore I was physically and mentally abused by both of my parents. This continued up until I was a freshman in high school. Thankfully, once I reached high school my step-mom and I became friends. We never really formed the mother-daughter relationship, even though she raised me, but I call her mom and I was pleased with just being friends.
Now we can fast forward to my senior year of high school. Someone from my gym class had invited me to their church. Their father was the pastor of a Pentecostal church and I figured, why shouldn’t I try it out? I went, people had their hands in the air when they were singing, and I heard people speaking in different languages. It was weird, but it was something to do on Sundays. The following Saturday after my first Sunday at church, my father left his family at home and attempted suicide. I had no idea what to do with myself. By Saturday night we had found out he was okay, but the reality was, Daddy wasn’t coming home to us. I knew then that my step-mom was going to divorce my dad.
The day after my father’s suicide attempt, I went to church. I needed anything to take my mind off what was happening. That was when I first prayed to God. I begged the best I knew how for God to make this all be okay. Little did I know sitting in that pew, God knew this was going to happen. It was not an accident that God told that kid from gym to invite me to church. This was God’s plan to get me to come to Him.
I spent the rest of my senior year of high school attending church and youth group and growing in God. However, when I graduated high school I did not go straight to college. I was living with my step-mom and two younger brothers, we were poor, and my step-mom needed me emotionally and financially. Everything was going fine until the November after I graduated high school. My step-mom had a new boyfriend and with him moving in, I was no longer a welcomed tenant. So okay God, what’s Your plan now?
God is a God of plans. My best friend at church, Becky, and her mother were sitting in a Wendy’s a year before my mother kicked me out when Becky’s mother revealed to her that she felt God was telling her to take in a young girl, about 18, who needs to get off her feet. Little did they know, God spoke to her about me. God’s plan was for me to move in with this family.
I had been living with this family for about a year, and all the sudden things became rocky. I had been dealing with a lot of issues, and long story short, I started to fool around with some friends and experimented with alcohol, marijuana and cigarettes. The family I was living with was a Christian household. If they found out that I was doing these things, I’d be kicked out. After a month and a half of fooling around with these things Becky had found out what I had been doing and it broke her heart.
But thankfully for me, God is not only a God of plans, but also a God of protection. Both my biological parents smoke, my birth mom experimented with marijuana before she became a crack head, my father was an alcoholic, and when my older brother was 12 he first tried alcohol and he’s now 23 and still drinking like a fish. Since the day Becky found out, I haven’t touched those things and not once have I even had the desire. God has a plan for my life. Plans to prosper me, not to harm. He was not about to let me end up like my parents.
So after Becky found out, she was so hurt by what I did and I started to say, okay God, was this not Your plan for me? Did we act on emotion moving me in here?
But then the following Christmas Eve came. I was still living with this family, and my biological mom had come to pick me up to go to my grandma’s house. When she had came to pick me up, Becky’s dad was outside and he came and said hello to my biological mother. I thought nothing of it and I went off to grandmas.
Now, here comes the moment that changed my life forever and made me look back on everything and realize my God is a God of plans. When I got back from my grandma’s that night, Becky’s dad called me into the living room. He then revealed to me that he knew my birth mom. He told me how years ago, when I would have been around the age of 2, my biological mother would get high at the motel down the road from them and she would walk up and down the street. He would see her, call his wife, and they would pick her up and take her to a safe place. Up until he had seen my mom pick me up on Christmas Eve he had no idea she was my mother. My mother to this day has no idea who he is because she was too high to remember.
When I found this out, I truly realized that my God is a God of plans. It was no coincidence that my mother walked up that street when she was doing drugs. It’s no coincidence that I was invited to that church. It was no coincidence that Becky’s mother got a word from God. This was God’s plan for my life. From the moment I was conceived, God had better things for myself than I could ever fathom. He has set me apart.
Our God is a God of plans.