Testify

“If people don’t know your testimony, then they don’t know you”

My mom said this to me the other day. It hit me hard. I hope my close my friends can say this about me. I hope people I just casually know can they say this about me. My husband is really open about when his life changed and gave it to Jesus. He has no reason not to share it. Our testimony is THE ONE THING that people cannot argue with, philosophize about, or wash out with scientific facts. Why? Because it is OUR story. It is our account of a spiritual moment that happened in our lives that changed us forever. It is a defining moment. I have had several defining moments…one when I was 6 years old and even at that tender age I knew that I was broken, sinful. I accepted Jesus. The second came when my husband was in the throws of his addiction and I laid everything at the foot of the cross. All of my control of the situation, all of my expectations, my whole life. Its funny because when I say “my whole life”, its kind of hard to fathom what that means. Let me put it to you in a story…

Recently, my husband and I moved to a new home. The position of the house and the way that we get direct sunlight is dead on in the mid afternoon. My 6 months old sons room is on that side of the house and I knew that we would need some heavy duty curtains to block the sun. In our old house that we rented, there were the most perfect curtains for his room. The thick sun-blocking kind. But they didn’t belong to us. They belonged with the house. My husband and I don’t make a lot of money so really heavy curtains like that can be incredibly expensive. Trust me. So, I thought that I would write a letter to our landlord and see if he and his wife would be willing to sell me the curtains and I offered a price. I didn’t hear anything for a while and we were moving that weekend. The Friday before the move on Monday we received an email from the landlord turning down the offer. I knew there was a possibility for a “no” since they were trying to sell the house. I was admittedly let down. I didn’t have a plan B yet. That night as I was plotting and figuring it out, I found myself looking at the curtains (and rocking my son to sleep) and PRAYING…Praying for curtains. I couldn’t believe I was praying for curtains but I said “Lord, you know what we need when we need so I am trusting you even on this small little curtain thing.” So when I say my whole life…I mean every small detail of it.

Even the curtains.

So guess what happened? The next day as we were packing we got a call from the Landlords wife. I had never spoken to her before but she had a very sweet voice. She said she was sad to see us go but understood we needed to do what was best for our family. Then she said the most amazing thing. She said, “Leigh, I’ve been thinking about the curtains and decided that I want your family to have them. I don’t need them and  thought I should call you and let you know that they are yours.” Well, I tried not to cry on the phone. My voice was shaky and I told her thank you. I told her that she will never know what a blessing that is to our family. This is how amazing God is. HE CARES ABOUT CURTAINS! More importantly though, he heard my little voice that night and answered that prayer so sweetly.

The impact of that answer to my prayer is not lost on me. It goes beyond me and what I needed because it is God showing up in our lives at every turn. The answer won’t always be yes or what we want but it is exactly what we need when we need it. I have heard people say that God doesn’t answer their prayers. My response is, sometimes no answer is the answer. And we have to be ok with that. Because there is a plan. The plan is to have Faith in all circumstances of life. Even down to the curtains. So today, I am telling this story to testify, to bear witness to, to give an account for what God does in my life and FAITHFULLY continues to work on in me.

If you are a Christian reading this blog then I would encourage you to start telling your story. Share your testimony with the friends and family you love, with your co-workers, with people you just met. You never know what will happen but at least you can say that they heard your testimony.  My mom tells me that the greatest legacy you can leave is a legacy of Faith. It is the only gift we can give that has eternal value.

I am posting a video of 3 people who give their testimony and how they were changed forever. These are their defining moments. We all have them….keep sharing yours.