Category: widow

Posted in hope, salvation, Uncategorized

Life is Hard but there IS Hope

Posted on by Spring

I wrote this a couple of years ago and recently came across it again. I have seen so much suffering lately. It was a really good reminder for me and maybe you need it too 🙂

Life is hard.

At just the young age of 6 my grandmother who was dying of colon cancer moved into our house and into my room on a hospital bed while she was on hospice. Every day I watched her get worse and worse and the reality of life and death became very real for me.

After many moves throughout elementary school, and another new “restart” as I began 7th grade I was flown home from youth camp in Florida for my Dad’s emergency triple by pass surgery. Things didn’t go well and for the next year, my life was not the same as he recovered.

Then I traveled on mission trips around the world with team members I did not know. I found myself on an old rickety bus, driving on dirt roads weaving around tall mountains in the middle of no where in the Andes mountains on the border between Bolivia and Argentina. No one could help me. Things were totally out of my control. It was dangerous.

One of my best childhood friends was killed in a car accident the day before her 17th birthday. I was at the hospital doing clinicals and met the driver that hit her.

I married Charles who had a terminal diagnosis. Over the course of 5 years due to circumstances completely out of our control, everything that helped us live and survive life slowly was taken away. Everything that he had worked for in the world of business was lost, his health began to fail until he ultimately died suddenly of something that no one ever expected or could have been prepared for.

Life as a widow with two one-year old twins in the middle of losing everything, multiple moves and restarting your life and having to move states, was hard.

Life is hard.

Though I know my story of hardship is not unique to me and others have suffered so much more – the point is – we ALL have stories of hardship, just different circumstances.

Our entire world is groaning with hardship right now.

But after growing up in a home surrounded by my parents who lived each and every day for Jesus Christ – I knew early on that this “Jesus” they knew was someone I wanted to know too. So when a special speaker came to our church and shared a story of his own life of unbelievable hardship and his attempt at figuring out life through everything that the world had to offer to find peace – but he could never find it – it was only Jesus. I knew, there was no reason to pursue that peace from anything else other than Jesus, myself.

In that moment, I asked Jesus to come into my life. I knew I had been disobedient to God and because of that, without God’s forgiveness I was separated from Him. I wanted to be with Him. I wanted Him to guide my life and give me purpose just as I had seen Him do for my parents.

One day when I was a nursing professor – I asked my students what hope was and what did they hope in. One of my students quickly chimed in that her hope was in the fact that “there was always hope for a better tomorrow.”

I am thankful that my hope is not just that I hope tomorrow is a better tomorrow than today. I am thankful that I have hope. And the Hope is with me, walking beside me and guiding my way. My hope is found in nothing less that Jesus Christ. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. I know that this life is not all that life is about. That there is life beyond this here and now. There is life beyond all the suffering and hardship of life. I know that He uses our suffering for His purposes and our good. I know there is purpose in the pain. I know that I have a Savior who loves me and wants what is best for me. I know there is hope of heaven without any doubt.

Life is hard. It’s really hard. But with Jesus – He makes it all possible.

Do you know Him? Maybe you know of Him. Maybe you know about Him. But do you know Him? Is He your Savior? His sacrifice and resurrection that we reflect upon and celebrate this weekend was all for you. He took your place so that you wouldn’t have to be separated from God. But you have to know Him. Jesus forever changed my life and He can change yours as well. There is no other possible way I could have made it through this life without Him.

#JesusChangedMyLife

“When we rejoice in our sufferings, we have hope in spite of pain.”

– Ruth Chou Simons

Quote• Posted on by Spring
Posted in hope

Welcome to Brokenness Restored

Posted on by Spring

Thank you for visiting. I’m assuming you are new here, because well, the website is new 🙂 It’s Byron and I’s hope that as we share our story that you can be encouraged in your faith and walk with Christ. Come along for the journey in the days, weeks and months ahead. Life isn’t easy. It’s full of challenges and trials and suffering. We are tempted and torn. But if we encourage one another in the faith, we are often so much stronger. Read our story and share your story and may we all remember that no matter what comes our way, it’s ultimately God’s story that He will use for His glory!

Posted in adoption, blended family, hope, salvation, widow

A Little More of Spring’s Story

Posted on by Spring

Hi! Thank you for visiting Brokenness Restored. My name is Spring and if you don’t know me. I thought I would share a little more about me. But I would really rather this not be a one sided conversation, so please send me an email and let me know about you too 🙂

I was born in Spring, TX, the daughter of a Baptist minister. I was always in church which led to many questions and conversations about Jesus and all that I learned about Him. But most of all, my parents lived out their faith in front of me each and every day and I wanted to have the same relationship. When an evangelist, Ondie Brum, came to our church, he shared how he had tried all the world had to offer and nothing satisfied him until he found Jesus. That night I felt an overwhelming desire to say “yes” to Jesus, that I too, wanted to follow Him. Several years later I felt called into missions and ministry and I pursued short term missions around the world through high school and college going to places like Bolivia, Peru, South Africa, and Thailand. I knew from an early age that I wanted to be a nurse and care for those that were sick. I left home to go to college, graduated (only by God’s grace) with my degree in nursing and immediately headed to Fort Worth to go to seminary. In seminary, I studied women’s ministry because I knew no matter where God was leading me to serve Him, it would be to serve women. I left seminary and had an amazing opportunity to serve as a women’s ministry leader at Denman Ave Baptist Church in Lufkin, TX. I also taught nursing in the RN program at Angelina College and served on the women’s ministry team of the Southern Baptist of Texas Convention. I was still single and believed at that point that I would probably never get married. But I was on eHarmony to just let everyone know I had tried it all and done it all and it just wasn’t going to happen. But instead I met an incredibly amazing, Godly man name Charles Reed in January of 2011 and we married later that year in October.

Charles lived in West Tennessee though, so I packed everything I owned and moved to a small town of 2,000 (outside the city limit) and we started our lives together. Charles was the most Godly, wise man. He ran his family’s trucking company and served as a Bible teacher at his church. He had an incredible outlook on life and never wanted to waste his time. He had Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy so life was anything but normal. But it was our normal. It was full of challenges and hardship but God became so near to me in a way I never knew possible. I struggled with fear and uncertainty of the future. I learned that even though all of those fears would one day come to pass, being afraid during those early days of marriage didn’t change the future, it was only robbing me of the present.

Our life was full of caregivers and daily routines that took hours out of our day only leaving about 4 hours of productive time to use, but during our marriage we started a businness and a speaking ministry, had exchange students and worked at the current company. We also faced infertility and ultimately adopted twins after the birth mom asked us to take them and after much prayer we knew it was God’s plan.

Even though Charles was chronically ill, he passed away unexpectedly the day before the twin’s first birthday of something totally unexpected. But through the complete and utter darkness of those moments, God was always near, He was always good and He carried me through something that I really did not believe, truly did not believe, I would physically or emotionally survive.

After Charles’ death, I walked through closing businesses down, personal bankruptcy, losing nearly everything, moving multiple times including states, and getting back into nursing. But God was faithful every step of the way. And just shortly after the three years I felt led to pursue of healing, God brought Byron (and his two kids) into my life. He was the list I never could have written. I didn’t know what I needed but God did. I didn’t know how to even have dreams or expectations but God guided me. And here we are, 6 months after we have been married. Living another totally crazy, busy but full amazing life. Full of its own different challenges but depending on God in the very same way for our every need. Join me in the journey and share your journey as well.

Many Blessings ~ Spring