After my daughter, Michelle, accidentally overdosed on my husband’s blood pressure medication, I rushed her to the nearest hospital myself, bypassing the 911 system. But because the ER personnel didn’t believe that she’d actually taken the pills, they wasted every precious second I bought them. Within an hour, the hospital faced a dire emergency, and they weren’t equipped to handle it, so they phoned the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, who sent…
In August, 1998, two months before Michelle’s 14th birthday, we witnessed God’s intervening power on a situation totally beyond our control. At that time, our daughter had just about reached her peak maturity level, which was approximately seven-years-old. Even then, I’m not sure she was thinking on the maturity level of a child that old. Apparently, Michelle had developed a headache. Looking for some “headache medicine,” she found a bottle…
I loved my time in the United States Air Force, and basic training was an experience I’ll always cherish. Because of poor equilibrium, I didn’t think I could get in, but God opened the door, enabling me to enlist. So I felt certain that He’d also help me get through basic training. In military basic training, regardless of your branch of service, you march in formation everywhere you go. Due…
When I was very small, the doctor told my parents that I would never ride a two-wheel bicycle because of my equilibrium. (But I did.) He said that I would never drive a car. I’ve been driving now for 37 years, and the hardest thing I ever learned to do was drive a car. But God enabled me because only He knew how badly I’d need a driver’s license. I…
The things we say and the attitudes we display can have an incredible influence over other people. My daughter, Jamie, was just learning to drive, And we all know how frustrating it can be to be behind a student driver. Well, Jamie and I were on our way home from church, and Jamie asked me if she could drive. She had her learner’s permit (or temporary driver’s license), but she’d…
God talks to His children throughout the day, but do we listen? Communication is two way. If two people are both talking, and neither is listening, there is no communication between them, and neither knows what the other is saying, because they are both too busy talking to do any listening. Do you talk to God throughout your day? Do you take the time to listen to Him when He…
In 1998, two weeks before Christmas, a faulty clock radio cord caused an electrical fire in the bedroom of our 16-year-old daughter, Jamie. Fortunately, Floyd and I were both home when our smoke detector sounded, and so was our son. But our daughters were both at school. Toby had been living on his own, and Jamie’s dad gave her permission to move into his empty room, so she had been…
As a general rule, I’m a logical thinker and I’m not easily panicked. But I recall a day when I did panic. It was almost thirty years ago in Valdosta, Georgia. Floyd was in the United States Air Force at the time, and we were stationed at Moody Air Force Base. We lived in a mobile home trailer approximately one mile from base. Toby was three years old, and Jamie…
The third oldest of seven children, I was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, at 7:11 a.m., weighed 7 lbs., 11 oz., was the seventh baby born that morning, and was born on the seventh floor of the hospital. My birth date is 7-17-57. My mother told me that there were a lot more sevens related to my birth, but she couldn’t remember them. She also told me that she thought that…
I’m the third oldest of seven children. God watched out for me even before I was His child. My dad was a career Navy man and in the spring of 1966, when I was eight-years-old and the Vietnam War was going on, I got pulled out of school and my family moved to Eva Beach, Hawaii, on the island of Oahu. My dad was preparing to go to Vietnam and…