Skip to main content

Minnie Mouse Shirt




Minnie Mouse Shirt

  We pulled up to the white church, steeple standing tall and strong.  The cross was the reason I was here, the reason I was an 11 year old Christian girl.  Warren Woods Nazarene Church was my childhood home, my resting place.  Friendly greetings and “godly sugaring” powdered upon our entrance through the welcoming doors.  I would run up the ramp on the right hand side of the stairs, charging towards a spirit filled message.  I was running towards comfort, to the true meaning of life.  I remember the golden chandeliers hanging from the ceiling.  They were like aurous angels hovering over pews and altar.  There is nothing else that would suffice.  Everything is meaningless without God.  His love for us is everlasting.

  “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” Ecclesiastes 1:2

Warren Woods was marked on our ‘life calendar’ every Sunday and Wednesday.  My dad would rush home from work many Wednesdays to fellowship and be a man after God’s own heart.  My mom would multi-task.  She’d throw a sandwich together for my dad and throw “Let’s get ready!” words through the living room.  I would wrap myself in my church ‘girl scout’ sash.  Caravan was the name of our scout team.  It was navy blue and had little patches sewn on of accomplishments.  I was proud to wear my trophy.  Wednesday evenings were filled with laughing children and loyal friends.  I cherish those molding Wednesdays, those growth evenings.

There was a moment in time in my life that my heart changed forever.  I decided one day when I came of age (11 years old and very quiet) I asked God into my heart.  At that second, He was truly my Father and my friend till the end.  God has forged me into the woman I am today.  God is my life, my sanctuary.  I’ve definitely had tinkering troubles and hardships like everyone does in their life, but my hope is in the Lord.  I keep running the race with endurance like Secretariat running length after length.  I want to run and kick up dust behind me.  I want to leave evil back at the starting gate.  I want to not only finish the race, I want to win by 31 lengths like powerful Secretariat.  My next step to receive victory…baptism.

I was ready to surrender all, heart and soul.  My astute and rooted Pastor called me to the cleansing water, the water we thirst for.  Pastor Mellish, took my hand and lead me to my new life.  He said strongly, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”  I sprang up in my Minnie Mouse shirt letting out a refreshing breath.  Everyone clapped with joy.  The joy of knowing a sheep has been washed white as country snow.  You feel like a snow that has just lit on the ground, soft and glistening in the light.

Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.  Psalm 51:7

I then took a solid stance in front of my family and friends to give a testimony.  I forgot exactly what I said, but I was nervous as a fainting goat!  So, sweet Pastor Mellish had to remind me to thank God.  Yes, I was that scared.  In the end, I knew why I gave my life to the Lord.  I am now a 29 year old woman.  I have tasted bitter trials since my easy pink childhood days.  I have rode down rocky roads on horseback.  I have fought tribulations that involve loss.  Oh, but how sweet Jesus is.  He is my rock, my refuge, and my strength.  He has been my restoring creek.  From that baptizing moment I bloomed like a Dogwood.  Loss of my dad has been my biggest ‘Pikes Peak’ to climb, but with God he has given me rope and anchors.  With Him ALL things are possible.  My Minnie Mouse shirt was sopped up with a creature anew.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 2 Corinthians 5:17

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Memory Day" Memories

“Memory Day” Memories   August 11 th , 2008 will always be etched in my mind.   Why? Do you ask?   That was the day the leading man in my life went home, my dad, Bob J. O’Banion.   He was my encourager, support system, teacher, boulder, and most importantly, a godly leader.   When you needed a hand, both of his calloused hands were there to hug, shake, and give you a pat on the back.   When you needed Christian advice, his wisdom traveled from his can line to yours.   With the can pressed against your ear, you’d hear, “God is the way, the truth, and the light.”   He was a true definition of a man, a sovereign man.   Integrity made him a humble guide through the Blueridge Mountains, the dry desert, and beyond.   Love lined his face with deep canyon wrinkles.   He sought and dug ditches to provide.   The rooftop was his “day home”.   Sun-tanned skin branded him a “sweat by the brow” toiler.   Family sto...
2 comments
Read more

Seasonal Change

The loss of my dad still hurts, especially when seasons change.  . For those who have lost a loved one, the aching still seems to pulsate through the cracks left upon our hearts.  . Seasonal change can breeze in bronzes of bereavement. It can fall with ambers of aches and molasses colored missing.  . For me, this is true about Autumn. The leaves change once again, and my dad’s memory wafts o’er red-roofed wishing wells. The shallow water collects pennies of “wish you were here” under Birch trees.  . Seasons and holidays blow in memories that patina the past.  . Those who have lost a parent, we think upon childhood memoirs. Instances where we held our mom or dad’s hands, while strolling under amber stained glass etched with maple leaves.  . I think upon harvest memories where the jack-o-lanterns flow, and the crockpot chili steams in bowls.  . My dad walks behind my brother and I as we prance towards candy. In seasonal memory “trick-or-treats” bounce of...
2 comments
Read more

Eradication of Women

Eradication of the Woman . The biological woman is being eradicated second by second with secularistic folly. .  The woman is being black-washed with worldly paint that is stained with sinful strips of stupidity.  . The life of a woman is being subdued by subterranean slyness. In the tunnels of dark thoughts, biology is being hidden in the crevices of craftiness. God’s nature and order are being covered by demonic dirt.  . - Nature: God has given us fierce feminine genes that only the true woman can bare. A man cannot possess these genes with a fickle change of temporary thought.  - Order: Womanly empowerment does not embody a man. As the character, Eowyn, boldly hailed as she slayed evil in Tolkien’s, Lord of the Rings, “I am no man!” . No ladies, we are women…women of God! We are poised with difference and uniquely special. We are biologically beautiful, and men cannot “think” themselves into our territory of traits.  . In today’s lifeless and uncharted societ...
Post a Comment
Read more