TheWritePath

     Only this time it was different. For one thing, I had changed churches and was beginning to grow in the Lord, and a few members my church family had shared with me that the Lord had impressed upon their heart to pray for me, and they had asked if I was alright, so I took a step of faith and once again asked for prayer. Within a few weeks, I pulled out of the depression and began to stabilize! I'm not saying ie was easy or that it will never happen again, but through it, I learned a valuable lesson: nothing can separate me from the love of God, and when we are too weak to stand alone, that's when He calls upon those of like faith to help support us. You see child of God, up until this point, I was standing in the way. I had allowed my pride to keep me from asking for prayer because I felt I had been rejected and misunderstood, so I determined within myself to stand alone in this battle.     Remember in the book of Exodus when Moses sent Joshua into battle wi...

    I have thought of that day many times and wondered and wondered how I could have been so afraid of a pile of a constructed medal. The only power it had over me to generate fear had been created in two ways---first by the man pilling the switch, and second was within my own mind. As much as I hated to admit it, as I stood in line, I fed those fears by allowing my imagination to cause me to lose all sense of reasoning Consumed by my own fears and pride, I had allowed myself to be drawn in by what I believed to be its power. Even harder to admit was the fact that I did not want to appear afraid in front of my grandchildren, so I put up this false front of strength---not to conquer my fear, but to give in to my pride. I thought of the times in my Christian walk when I had done this very thing because I did not want to appear as showing a lack of faith in the eyes of my brothers and sisters in the Lord. I would suffer through times of great trial without seeking their support i...

    As I sat there, a grandchild on each side, I offered them my empty words of encouragement, checked to see that all were securely buckled in, and told them to hold on tight. As we began to move, their arms stretched to the heavens, as mine grabbed the bar in front of me until my knuckles turned white! That first climb seemed endless. Up and up we went, then suddenly, we were plummeting downward at such a rapid speed it seemed to tale my breath away. Before I  had a chance to catch my breath, we were making a hard turn, banking to the inside then a quick jerk to the right, ending in a spiral. There wasn't time to regain my composure until I found myself totally in the dark as we entered a long tunnel. Just when my eyes started to adjust to the darkness, we were forced back into the shocking sunlight. The ride began to settle down, or so I thought. The next thing I knew we entered a series of rolls. Up and down, around and around, again and again, until we began another ...

    IT WAS NEARING THE END of the summer. The weather was much cooler, so I decided to take my grandchildren to a nearby amusement park for the day. It was our last big bash before the park would be closing for the year, and I enjoyed the day just being a grandma---in other words, spoiling them beyond measure and then taking them home to Mom and Dad to deal with! They had to try all the usual foods: cotton candy, snow cones, chocolate bananas on a stick, caramel apples, hotdogs, and sodas. Then there were the rides, everything from the pony ride to the roller coaster. All in all it was a good day for everyone.     I am what you might call a people watcher and one place, in particular, caught my attention. I saved this for last, not so much for the kids' sake but for my own---the roller coaster. This beast of twisted metal loomed before me like a giant monster ready to devour any joy I had received from the day. But not wanting to show my fear to my grandchildren, we ...