Throughout my childhood, I saw MaDear and Dad praying but didn’t see with my young natural eyes the results of their prayers. What I didn’t understand at the time was that God was with us all along. We went through many hardships, but we never went through anything that He couldn’t handle. Until now, my parents prayed for me. I was now old enough to pray and make choices for myself.
I was twelve years old, believed in God and Jesus, and made a decision to be baptized. Since moving to “The Bottom” my family and I attended church regularly for about five years. Church and religious topics did not escape discussion in our family. Historian Lil Bro was happy to lead the discussions. He liked to give us the history regarding topics we discussed. He told us that the black church was a safe haven for black men and women to be themselves after the civil war. Religion provided spiritual comfort; therefore most black people had faith in God and went to church.
Read more in my memoir. It’s available for purchase in the book section of this blog.
Over the years, I wrote two letters to Aunt Nora. She was living in New York City. MaDear let me read the letters she wrote her, so I was curious and wrote my own letter. She always wrote about her faith. The first letter was when I was eight years old. According to her letter back to me, apparently I asked her how she was and if she went to church every Sunday. She answered my questions and responded that she attended church every Sunday and at least twice weekly. She sent me some Bible pamphlets to read and coloring books. The summer prior to my decision to accept Jesus into my life, I wrote another letter to Aunt Nora. In this letter, she wrote that there is a difference between the righteous and the unrighteous. She encouraged me to follow the righteous path. Aunt Nora was living over a thousand miles from us, in the largest city in the United States, was not living in poverty or in the racist South, so she had to believe in God for other reasons. I think my letters to her was to see if she was consistent in her faith. She didn’t need God to get her out of the South or poverty, so she must believe in Him. From the first letter I read to the present letter, over ten years later, her faith never wavered, she always praised God and Jesus. She was a giving person. Her letters were always filled with love and kindness. If a lady whom I’d never met could be this kind, I believed and wanted this faith she had.
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I had a long journey ahead in my Christian walk. I made many mistakes along the way, but I knew I could depend on God to turn me around and place my feet back on solid ground. When we follow Jesus, the past is erased and we look forward to the future.
“The prospect of the righteous is joy, but the hopes of the wicked come to nothing.”(Proverbs 10:28 NIV).