Women's Focus Ministries: Wednesday Writing...3/4/20..."YOUR STORY MATTERS! Tell it!"

Good morning,

Last Sunday our message at church was very impactful. We had a visiting pastor who preached on the importance of telling people your personal story. He pointed out that our stories will impact others when you share what has enlightened and influenced you and brought you to the place where you are at this time. People will listen and perhaps to another person telling her own story. It is an account that is personal and cannot create contradiction.

It is my hope that people will volunteer to share their stories. Some topics could be (but not limited to) some of the following.

The story of how you came to the Lord
Something special that you experienced and the thoughts that you had that changed a perception
Something about how you met your husband and what role you think God had in the entire happening
Cute Godly comments that your children have made

You do not have to worry about your writing as you perceive it. My job is to be an editor. I will not change your words...just perhaps a tweak for understanding or punctuation. I hope I will hear from you about your interest to tell your story so others can be blessed. I can be reached at corinnemustafa@gmail.com

I will go first.

God bless,

Corinne
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today's Writing

"YOUR STORY MATTERS! Tell it!"

Written by

Corinne Mustafa

We moved from the east coast to Livermore, CA in 1977 with our three year old son. My husband was going to start a job at the Livermore Lab. There was a co-worker who had traditionally taken new hires under his wing, and he did the same with us. After a couple of times of spending time with Dick and Ruth we went to the beach with them. Part of the conversation went like this...

"You know our three daughters are attending a youth group at a church that is not the church we attend. They asked to go and we allowed them to go as this church was a church that held the same beliefs as we do. We think that going to youth group is one of the best things teens can do with all the challenges of life that they have to face in life."

Twenty years and two additional children later our daughter, Aleisha, started high school. She was the only one of our children who was going to attend a public high school. I was hopeful that it would work out. My reason was that I did not want her to go twenty miles away to school...kind of a double standard from my boys' trek to a parochial high school so far away. She did wonderful at the school, and all my worries were put to rest.

The first person she met was a girl named Sarah. They became good friends, and Sarah started sharing about her youth group and invited Aleisha to come with her. When she asked me to go I was not sure what was the right decision. However the youth group at our church was not very impressive. As I puzzled over what to do I suddenly remembered the long ago conversation with Dick and Ruth. So we decided to let her go with Sarah.

Aleisha loved it, and then she wanted to start attending service as well. That was an entirely different story. I allowed her to go, but she would be required to go to our church as well. She agreed without any hesitation. I became worried about her seeming love of this new church. I felt that it was my mandate from God to raise her to adulthood following what I had followed since I was a child. I decided to go to a service myself to find out if it was teaching something outside of what I had believed all my life. I went two more times. I could not find any heresy in what they preached. Nothing.

By the time I went the third Sunday I had noticed that I had been thinking about and praying to God more than I had in years. So I started to attend two services with Aleisha...the one at "our" church and the new one. One day the sermon at our church was so lame and meaningless; that was when I decided to start making the new church my church as well. I found that there were only two things that were explained differently. One was grace which in God's Word, the Bible, is defined as a free gift of God. People are not able to earn it because of the human condition...it was freely given.

The other difference was built around the guarantee of going to heaven. By the blood of Jesus (Who was sent by the Father) we are found by God to have His righteousness. This does not mean we are scot free. We need to confess to God and show repentance. It is between me and God. We ask for help to avoid the sin, but it does not mean that we must be able to avoid it. There is forgiveness, and it is said that once we accept Jesus as the Son of God we will have guaranteed salvation.

I have grown so much in understanding and ability to do the right thing since I started attending this church. I believe that God planted the seed in me to come down this road when we were on the beach with Dick and Ruth in 1977. I had thought that I had it all, but God has brought me to a new place and raised my knowledge in ways that I could not have even dreamed of.