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| Johnny Hicks 1959 |
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| Ginny Perry 1960 |
In December of 1961 when other kids were looking forward to Christmas break, I checked out of school and told my principal I would not be returning. As a teacher myself now, I understand how educators feel when kids make poor choices, choices that will affect their education and future. The expectation for these children is very low. Who would have given much hope to a fifteen year old girl and an eighteen year old boy having a successful marriage, one that would last fifty years?
In April of 1958 my husband who lived in Louisiana turned 15. His Dad was very ill most of that year and in October he died. My husband stayed with an older sister and her family much of 1958 and 1959.
About a week before my twelfth birthday in May of 1958 a judge ruled that my two sisters, my little brother and I would taken to an orphanage when school was out. Instead, my mother took us and ran away to California. This was one of the darkest times of my life. I needed my Daddy, but I did not know where he was and he did not know where I was. We returned to Texas in August of that year. My parents were divorced on December 26, 1958.
In 1959 a week after his sixteenth birthday, my husband’s Mother died. The older three children tried to keep the younger five together but that was next to impossible. Eventually, they all came to Waxahachie, Texas to the older brother’s home. It was here that his sister-in-law Bonnie began to show him Christ.
In 1960 my husband turned 17 and I turned 14. He continued to bounce back and forth between Georgia and Texas. Then, my brother started dating his sister. I met my husband for the first time.
In January of 1961 I was in a terrible car wreck. It damaged my sight and I was not able to finish the school year. My husband who had turned eighteen came back to Texas and dropped out of school. In May, about the time I turned fifteen, he showed up where I was working. We started dating. December 29, 1961 we married.
My husband and I were kids who knew what a home was but did not have one anymore. I saw strength (like my Daddy’s) in him. He saw in me someone he could count on. Even though it seemed far-fetched to the majority of people God saw an orphan boy from the piney woods of Louisiana and a little girl from a broken home in Central Texas that He could use to further His Kingdom and bring honor to the Father.
And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city in Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man named Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. (Luke 1:26 & 27)
The timing for many events of our life is out of our control, but nothing is out of the control of our Heavenly Father. Mary and certainly Joseph were not expecting a visit from the angel Gabriel in the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy; however, God had the people, the circumstances, the time and the place percisely planned. Scripture says in Malachi 3:1 that a messenger would come and prepare the way for the Messiah. John the Baptist was born six month before Jesus. Isaiah 7:14 tells us that the mother of the Messiah will be a virgin; Chapter 9: 6 & 7 tell about the Messiah ruling on the throne of David forever. We read in Matthew 2:23 about Jesus coming from Nazareth to fulfill prophecy. Indeed, God always knows what He is doing!!
The first time my Daddy came to visit me after my marriage I was so excited for him to meet my new sister-in–law, Bonnie. As soon as he met her tears came to his eyes, and he said that God had answered his prayer. Christmas of 1960 in a time of great despair over his children my daddy cried unto the Lord and waited in his presence until an answer came. God promised if he (my dad) would minister to the children and young people he came in contact with, then God himself would send someone to minister to his children. Bonnie, my husband’s sister-in-law, and my sister and very best friend, has had more godly influence on both our lives than any other person we know. What a faithful God we have!
Don’t you love to see the way God weaves lives together and orchestras the events for His glory and for our well being!
Many Blessings,
Virginia
The thing I love about reading my mother's story is to see how it connects and flows into my own. What about you? What particular people and places has God woven in your life? What circumstances has he used to color your story? How can you look back and see the perfection of His timing? One of the great things about looking back is that it often makes it easier to look forward!
Ronda
1 comment:
Wow! Somehow I missed this one and just now read it. All I can say is Wow! All the little pieces that the Lord wove together and how He made something beautiful out of heartaches they both had gone through in their childhoods...Along the Way, they've touched and blessed many who were trying to see God's plan and the bigger picture. One of them was me!!
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