How Did One Thing Needful Happen?
I was raised in a loving Christian home where I was priviledged to have constant interaction with parents commited to continually immersing me in the Word of God. As a homeschooled student, my siblings and I rejoiced to memorize large portions of the Bible, read the Bible together and privately every day, and be a part of a loving Christian community where we were patiently taught what those many verses we spent so much time on, really meant. Our parents did a great job helping us apply the Scriptures to our every day lives, and we flourished in our knowledge of God.
It is not a wonder, then, that I prayed with my mother to receive Christ
as my personal Savior and Lord at a very young age. God had been working
by His Holy Spirit in my heart and I was ready to receive forgiveness
of sins and a new heart and life in Him.
However, several years later, when I was about seven, the truth about
my own personal sin and the hopelessness I had in it without Christ, became
very real to me and I understood for the first time what salvation really
was. The Lord has been kind and gentle in leading me forward with Him
ever since then.
As I grew and flourished in my home, and as I met a world that didn't have the joy of knowing God, my heart began to respond to the calling of the Lord and I commited to spend my life helping others know Him. My first plan as an eight year old was to be a missionary doctor in Africa, where my husband and I would live on our compound with one hundred goats, one hundred children, and fifty beagle dogs! Thank the Lord, my vision was to mature with time!
When I was about thirteen years old, I listened to some messages at homeschool
conferences and at church, and found that, when I looked into my heart,
I saw a mediocre Christian who didn't really have joy, desire, or passion
for God. I discovered that the cares of this world had distracted my heart
and I wasn't fully commited to Christ. I saw in the speakers' lives a
real love for God, and I was convicted. I knew that I was guilty of having
a form of godliness, a deep knowledge of God, but a visable void
in a close personal relationship with Him. I didn't even realize that
I knew a lot about a God I didn't know.
How could this happen to a girl who had the great priviledge of being
instructed in the Word of God daily, who faithfully was involved in church,
and who even had a strict habit of personal prayer and Bible reading?
As I began to feel more and more the painful hunger of a person who wanted
to know God better, I realized it wasn’t just a desire. I had to
find closeness to God, or I would have no reason to live!
As I embarked on a study of God’s great attributes, I wept for the
longing that I had to love God better.
And, as our Heavenly Father always will, He was delighted to show me more
and more how I could get that which I longed for.
This book is a result of that. I started writing it when I was fourteen,
and now that I am in my twenties and have the encouragement of my kind
and God-loving husband, I am preparing to publish it so that you too can
find a life filled with the greatest joy available to mankind—that
of loving God best.