I was fortunate to have my maternal grandmother as a member of my household. At the age of three she began taking me to Sunday School and Church. She read her Bible daily, prayed daily and read me stories of Jesus. It was at Sunday School at the age of 6 that I asked Jesus to come into my heart and be my guide. I remember the room, the surrounding and my interactions with my teacher as if it were yesterday.
Unfortunately, it was not easy for me to live for Jesus. I grew up in a poor area and my parents were happiest when I was at church, our neighborhood center or with friends. But, fortunately I had parents and they loved me and wanted me to succeed. I could pretty much do as I pleased as long as I was home at a reasonable time and didn’t get into trouble. So, I learned to push the limits stopping only when I thought I might get into trouble or my parents might find out what I was really doing.
You might say that I lived two lives: one for Jesus and one with my friends. I was one of those kids that if he had committed a terrible crime or been killed there would have been a lot of parents of friends, teachers, church leaders and my own family that would have gone on TV and explained what a good boy I was. The last week of sixth grade the principal called me a gang leader and said that I would go to prison. I changed but I still wasn’t living for Jesus.
In the summer of my sophomore years at a Methodist youth camp I rededicated my life to serving Jesus and asked Him to be Lord of my life. I didn’t wake up the next morning to have all my problems just disappear. No, I still had problems but I felt different and as I begin to let God lead I discovered that my decisions were smarter and better.
God guided me to a career that I would have never considered, pharmacy. It was a miracle that I was easily accepted into UMKC which offered all kinds of part time pharmacy jobs in the area. Working 20 hours a week and taking one of the hardest programs was stressful but I passed every course and graduated on time and with no debt. The draft board was after me and after many hours of prayer God directed me to an Air Force Reserve Unit. It was the only one I had applied to and when I reported to the unit the commander had no idea who I even was. (a miracle)
Letting God direct my path kept me out of trouble and lead me to a wonderful girl, Sharon. We were married and have four children and eleven grandchildren. The blessing is that my entire family is trusting in Jesus. God lead me to buy my own pharmacy at the age of 25 for a fraction of the cost of most pharmacies and I ran that pharmacy for 30 years and sold it for a large profit.
God has given me so many blessings and I shudder to think what my life would have been like if I had not made the decision to make Jesus Lord of my life.