Newsletter

February 2011 Newsletter

A True Love Story by Juanita Lott

It wasn't a happy scene. I had married Jim in 1967 and had set my sights on getting the "brass ring" that life had to offer. I thought we shared the same goals and so we began life together. There were many ups and downs but nothing we couldn't handle.

Two little boys joined our family. Jim sold insurance to get the money we needed and also went to flight school to become a pilot and we settled into a pretty routine life in Casselberry, Florida.

But then one day the unexpected happened and it changed everything. God Himself invaded Jim's life. The Bible says that when we come to Christ we become a "new creation" and that "old things pass away and new things come". And with Jim that was definitely true. The only trouble was that I liked the old Jim and loathed the new one. He became a zealot and I hated passionately his new religion.

He use to read novels but now he only read the Bible....ALL THE TIME. And more often then not he would quote Scripture to me and tell me how I was not living up to God's standard. I grew more and more angry to the point that I began to have thoughts that scared me. At times I even thought about how I could get rid of him...permanently. I was filled with hatred and misery.

But God loved us both. Jim's new found love needed to be tempered with grace and mercy, and my heart needed a transplant. And so in August 1972 I left Jim and went home to my mother. I had had enough. But a few days after I arrived my mother said something to me that began to open my heart. She simply said, "Now you go home and do what your husband says."

I cannot explain what happened but her words mixed with the Scripture Jim had shared permeated my heart and I went up to my bedroom and got down on my knees before God and with many tears surrendered to Him. The next day I flew back home to Jim.

As I began to disembark the plane, I looked down and there was Jim waiting for me. I can't explain what happened next, only that I had a powerful sense of love pour over me for this man. The light of God's love had transformed this cold, hard heart. And when it did, it shattered the anger and misery and replaced it with hope and healing.

We are now in our sixties and have the privilege of serving our Savior together. And yes, the love that God put in my heart in August 1972 has simply gown more and more with each passing day.