Pam's Christian Testimony
"Delight thyself in the Lord." Psalm 37:4
I was born in Tennessee and moved to North Carolina where my father was in school at North Carolina State University until I was 5 years old. My mom stayed home with us. We had no car. She collected rent in our trailer park and kept children to make money. She loves my daddy as much as I have ever seen anyone love their husband. My daddy went to school, milked cows to pay for his graduate assistant-ship, worked two more jobs, was a double major and he had straight A's. He earned his doctorate degree in chemistry. My dad taught chemistry and bio chemistry at Middle Tennessee State University for his entire career. My parents and my brother and sister and I lived in Murfreesboro, TN while I was ages 5 to 21. I attended public school and then received a degree in childhood education from MTSU where I met and married my husband Mark in college. We've been married 37 years. He is lead line check pilot for Delta Air Lines on the B767-400.
My parents have been married for more than 60 years and are still living in Tennessee now that daddy is retired. They live on the farm that has been in our family for 200 years. My grandboys absolutely love running around on the farm. I often say I was raised in Disney World. I had a wonderful childhood and my family has such a great heritage of marriages.
I have prayed a million times to receive the Lord. Although I know salvation is a one time thing, I'm not sure when it actually took. I have always loved the things of the Lord. I loved church as a little girl, went to youth camps, taught high schoolers at my church when I was in college, married Mark our senior year of college. We moved to Nashville until Mark was hired in 1978 with Delta. We lived with his maternal grandparents for several months before they left for a mission trip to Scotland and we continued to live in their house until we got our first Delta assignment in Miami (Mark flew the DC 8 then). Mark's grandparents, who are now both deceased, were married for more than 60 years, and they were very loving and adorable with each other.
So you see that at that point, all my dreams had come true. I was living an exciting life married to a wonderful smart successful man, going to church on Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. But somewhere in the midst of this great big trap of fulfillment I was longing for something. I guess I need a new hair cut, check. I guess I need a baby, okay check. Whoops, I guess I need to get skinny again, check. Whoops, I guess I need to be a better wife, check, better house keeper, check. Keep up with laundry, check. Better neighbor, check. And on we go. That great big void was the call to absolute surrender to the LORD. The abandonment of self and self fulfillment.
I'm not sure of the time frame. I battled with it for a while. I struggled with abandonment of: if my husband's not happy then I must be doing something wrong. If someone had trouble then it must be my fault. I had to lay all that down and turn my total being over to the Only One who truly satisfies. How awful for me to have made my husband the one who needed to make me happy. It's not his job! I began laying all that at the Lord's feet and realized I needed to cease being or thinking I was in control. Stop trying, fretting, working toward, striving, pushing, and just surrender. What a peace filled life. For a while.
Until I realized I had picked it all back up again and need to surrender every day. I am longing to stop trying to control or depend on circumstances.
I am longing to be truly His.
My parents have been married for more than 60 years and are still living in Tennessee now that daddy is retired. They live on the farm that has been in our family for 200 years. My grandboys absolutely love running around on the farm. I often say I was raised in Disney World. I had a wonderful childhood and my family has such a great heritage of marriages.
I have prayed a million times to receive the Lord. Although I know salvation is a one time thing, I'm not sure when it actually took. I have always loved the things of the Lord. I loved church as a little girl, went to youth camps, taught high schoolers at my church when I was in college, married Mark our senior year of college. We moved to Nashville until Mark was hired in 1978 with Delta. We lived with his maternal grandparents for several months before they left for a mission trip to Scotland and we continued to live in their house until we got our first Delta assignment in Miami (Mark flew the DC 8 then). Mark's grandparents, who are now both deceased, were married for more than 60 years, and they were very loving and adorable with each other.
So you see that at that point, all my dreams had come true. I was living an exciting life married to a wonderful smart successful man, going to church on Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. But somewhere in the midst of this great big trap of fulfillment I was longing for something. I guess I need a new hair cut, check. I guess I need a baby, okay check. Whoops, I guess I need to get skinny again, check. Whoops, I guess I need to be a better wife, check, better house keeper, check. Keep up with laundry, check. Better neighbor, check. And on we go. That great big void was the call to absolute surrender to the LORD. The abandonment of self and self fulfillment.
I'm not sure of the time frame. I battled with it for a while. I struggled with abandonment of: if my husband's not happy then I must be doing something wrong. If someone had trouble then it must be my fault. I had to lay all that down and turn my total being over to the Only One who truly satisfies. How awful for me to have made my husband the one who needed to make me happy. It's not his job! I began laying all that at the Lord's feet and realized I needed to cease being or thinking I was in control. Stop trying, fretting, working toward, striving, pushing, and just surrender. What a peace filled life. For a while.
Until I realized I had picked it all back up again and need to surrender every day. I am longing to stop trying to control or depend on circumstances.
I am longing to be truly His.