Never Forgotten

By:  Beth Price Almeida

As I sit here staring at my computer screen, I realize that I haven’t thought about God’s blessing in my home for a while. Isn’t that how it is for most women? Please tell me I’m not the only one who gets so caught up in running and doing, doctor appointments, grocery stores, chores, and doing for others that I leave my time with God in the dust.

Over the last few days, as I’ve been reading Whispered Grace, I’ve realized something; God won’t shout at us and demand our attention or thump us over the head with the Word. I imagine He sits patiently but sadly as we run, run, run instead of holding out our hand for His and spending time wrapped in His peace that surpasses understanding.

I feel bad when I think of how often I have ignored Him, especially after all He has done to bless me. I was saved at twelve years old and can still remember how amazing I felt. You know the song ‘Walking on Sunshine’? Yep, that was totally my theme song. Then, life began to beat against me like waves in an angry ocean. I lost that walking on sunshine feeling.

Without making this post fourteen million pages long, some stuff happened in my family and I ended up in foster care. The people I stayed with were sweet and loving but I felt locked down and like I was being punished for something that wasn’t my fault. The devil found a foothold.

When I met my first boyfriend I thought I could help him because his family was in shambles as well. He just brought me down further. By the time I was seventeen I was married and pregnant. By the time I was twenty-five, I was divorced, alone and on meth and drinking over a case of beer a day. I was hanging out with dangerous people, some of whom are now in prison for murder, manufacturing drugs and so on.

I tell you all this to say that, while I may have forgotten God, He never forgot me. He reached down into that mess and pulled me out of it. He loved me in spite of the mess I had become. He gave me an amazing husband and beautiful son and a home where I am protected and safe. He still blesses me daily. Every time my son hugs me or tries to help me put the dishes away or fold clothes, it causes me to slow down and just whisper, “Thank You, Jesus, for saving me.” When my husband comes home and tells me he missed me, I whisper, “Thank you for giving me this wonderful man to spend the rest of my life with.”

God has been working, even when I can’t see it, to help me learn to slow down and look for Him because He is always present and standing right beside me.

No matter what is going on in your life at this moment, slow or stop completely and talk to Jesus. I guarantee you will come away more focused and refreshed and a lot less frazzled. If God blessed me, and He has blessed my socks off!, He will bless you the way only He can do. Just watch for it.