I began my Christian journey in May of 1996. I was raised in church all of my life, knew the bible well and all of the “do's” and “don'ts” of a Christian. At the age of 21 I had been married for almost three years and had a beautiful baby girl, but I knew that something wasn’t right in my life. During my pregnancy the year before, we had a ladies bible study in my church that I was a part of. It was during the course of that study that the Lord began dealing with me and I began to realize that I wasn’t a Christian. However, I managed to convince myself that I was ok, after all I had been raised in church and made several “professions of faith” over the years so surely one of them had to be the “real thing”, even though deep down I knew better. 

A year later, in May of 1996, I was at a revival service in my church. I was sitting with my parents and my husband and was hoping that God would change my spouse, but instead, God got a hold of me. By the time the sermon was over, I was shaking in the pew and my heart was beating a mile a minute and I just knew that everyone could hear it thumping in my chest. I knew what I had to do, I couldn’t stand it anymore. When the preacher asked for those who needed to be saved to step out and come down that aisle I thought I was going to pass out. What would everyone think? After all, I had been a member of this church for 21 years. 

But the conviction was almost overwhelming. I leaned over to my mother and grabbed her hand and said, “Will you go with me?” As we stepped out and walked down that aisle, I will never forget the indescribable feeling I had. I had such a sense of fear and relief at the same time. When I got down at the altar I looked around me and realized I wasn’t alone. There were many, many other people there, including long-time members of my church, who were accepting Jesus as their savior for the first time too. As the preacher explained to us that becoming a Christian meant turning our lives over to God and asking him to come into our hearts and forgive us of our sins and be the Lord of our lives, he then asked us to bow our heads and silently repeat in our hearts the prayer he was about to pray. 

The moment I prayed that prayer I instantly knew that I had been changed, because all of the fear I once had over the past year suddenly disappeared and I had peace for the first time. One of my greatest fears before I got saved was that at night after I went to bed, I was afraid to go to sleep because I knew that if the Lord came during the night, I would be left behind. However, that first night after I got saved I realized when I went to bed that night, that my fear had disappeared. I knew that if the Lord came back that night, he wouldn’t leave without me. I wrote this book with the desire to share with other women my faith that I have learned over the years as I desire to continue to find and explore God’s purpose for my life. It is my prayer that this book will open a desire in your heart to find your favor in the eyes of the Lord and that you will strive to become the woman that God designed you to be. 

Much love and many blessings,

Denise