Story Saturday

Well, praise the Lord, and thanks to anyone who prayed for me - my ankle feels a lot better, and I think my head cold is better too. My nose is not "running like a fountain" today. Every now and then I get a tickle in my throat, which is my biggest enemy. Back in the summer of 1998 I had to sing at two important weddings - my sister Mary Ellen's and our daughter Lisa's. Right before Mary Ellen's in June, I got a cold in my voice. I managed to sing, but not as well as I had hoped to. Then a month later, it seemed like the same thing was happening again the week before Lisa's wedding. My voice teacher said, "Start sucking on Hall's Defense Lozenges the minute you feel like you're getting the slightest tickle in your throat. Make sure they're the ones with zinc, echinacea, and vitamin C." I have been following her advice ever since and it usually works, but not every time. Hopefully this time it will.

There's another new baby, this time in the Stauffer family. Dick's brother Steve's son Joe and his wife Kim had a baby boy and named him Avery Joseph. He is their second child. They also have a two-year-old daughter Morgan. There's a cute picture of the two children below. They are following a pattern that is very predominant in the Stauffer family. Almost everyone who has more than one child has had a girl first and a boy second!

My story this week is not funny or scary. I chose this story because of its appropriateness for this Easter weekend.

YOU'LL NEVER BE GOOD ENOUGH

I grew up in a home and church where Jesus Christ was honored and accepting Christ as personal Savior was important. When I was in the fourth grade I made my decision to give my heart to Jesus. Four years later, as I understood more of what commitment meant, I renewed my commitment to Christ. However, through all that, I somehow missed the aspect of His free grace. I still felt that I had to keep earning my salvation.

When I was nineteen my dad was preaching a week of revival meetings, as he often did, and our family was along for the Sunday evening service to provide special music. During his message, which was probably about our eternal destiny, I felt overcome with the dread of hell. I remember sitting there thinking of all my shortcomings and failures, and feeling, "I must make SURE I don't go to hell when I die. I must stop doing this and this and this and make sure I do this and this and this.... Lord, what do have I to do to make SURE I'm ready for heaven?" My thinking process was stopped short when I felt a strong impression from the Lord, almost strong enough to hear. "Jeanie, you will never be good enough for heaven. There isn't anything you can do to be good enough. That's why I died on the cross, so you can have MY righteousness. That's what I gave you when you gave your heart to Me." The realization of that truth came flooding down over me like a waterfall, and it was all I could do to keep from weeping and shouting.

Over the years I have come to realize that that truth is like an onion with many layers. There are times when I feel as though I have only just begun to unpeel it. Truly it is "Amazing Grace."