ELANOR
"I was born in 1935 back when children were seen and not heard, bread was sliced with a knife and toilets or privies were outside, up the garden path . It was a time when my parents, like so many others, worried about the war. One way they kept us children occupied was by sending the four of us to the pictures on Saturday afternoons. But even there, the war seemed to slip into our childhood playfulness. Perhaps it was the stark contrast to the peaceful life I knew at home with Mum and Dad that affected me. The war newsreels before the films showed scenes that gave me terrible nightmares. Many nights I would snuggle into my older sister's bed where her presence gave me comfort and reassurance.
"My Mother was a devout Christian and everything in our family centered around Jesus. I grew up knowing Him from an early age, listening to Bible stories, and being taught to pray every night on my knees beside my bed with hands folded. My upbringing was sheltered, and when asked what I wanted to do in life, my reply was 'I wanted to be a lady'. I had one or two dates with men I met at the Caledonian Society dances, and two days after I turned 21, I was married and still rather naive in many ways. He wasn't the six-foot man with dark wavy hair I imagined I would marry, but he was the man God placed in my life, and he did have long eyelashes. Whilst on our honeymoon I conceived the first of our 4 sons, beginning a new and very different chapter in my life. I always dreamed of having 2 daughters and after giving birth to 4 sons, thought God must have got the message wrong.
"I felt I could never quite measure up, and I struggled to find who I was and what I wanted from my life. Then almost overnight, I was thrust into a world of noisy mealtimes, muddy shoes and endless mischief that comes with raising boys. My sister gifted me with a book 'Nine O'clock in the Morning' the story of an Anglican pastor who gave his heart to Jesus, then discovered there was so much more to knowing Him. I wanted this depth and intimacy with the Lord. Reading that book marked a new era in my life as a born-again Christian. My husband one day was looking for something to read at work, and by chance took the book off the shelf and he too became filled with the Holy Spirit and on fire for Jesus. Our lives were (passionate) 'hot on' for God and we took home groups, Bible studies and went to faith training courses.
"Years later my husband was diagnosed with cancer. After many months of decline, he was on his death bed. One day I received a phone call from a dear friend who urged me to go into our bedroom, kneel on the floor beside my bedridden husband and speak out all the prophetic words given to us both over the years. 'Claim each one', my friend said. Shortly after, God spoke to my husband and told him to get out of bed and walk into his healing. In obedience and with a strength that could only have come from God, he forced himself to get up. As he walked down the passageway, he said he could feel the sickness falling off him. When he entered the lounge, I exclaimed "what are you doing out of bed?" He said to me, 'I'm healed'! Hallelujah, a miracle from God.
"We had a good many years together. He was a good husband, and I loved him dearly. It was only towards the end, when he knew his time was running out, he felt the need to unburden himself and tell me the truth; the whole truth. He wanted to come clean. Over the years I believed we had a pretty good marriage, but 20+ years after God healed him from the cancer and following a series of heart attacks, he told me he had been unfaithful to me during our marriage. I always thought it must have been my fault, and for a long time I carried the burden of guilt wondering what I had done to cause him to step away from us in that way. It has taken me years to work through it. I forgave him when he told me, but forgetting was much harder. Yet through all the pain, there was one constant, God.
"In the years that followed I have held tightly to the one love that never failed me, God's love. Through the ups and downs of raising four boys, through the many storms of life and through moments that might have broken me, His faithfulness became my rock. Looking back now I can see it was the love of God that carried me through when my own strength failed me. His promises have proven true over a lifetime, and I stand today as a testimony of His goodness. Seasons have changed, people have come and gone, but one thing has never wavered. God has been faithful to me all the days of my life".
Lamentations 3:22-23 "Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning: great is your faithfulness".