Praying for my baby

I was a young woman expecting my first child when at twelve weeks gestation I began bleeding. The consultant offered to evacuate my uterus, saying the foetus would most likely be brain damaged. My mother's instincts knew I would love my baby even if baby was handicapped and I immediately said "No,I'm not going to murder my child!".

The rest of the pregnancy progressed uneventful, but the concern that my baby may be brain damaged stayed with me. I hoped and prayed baby would be OK, but also knew I would love baby regardless. Nearing labour, I had a deep 'knowing' informing me baby would be a brown eyed, fair haired boy and he was to be called 'Tony". I was amazed, wondering if God had named this child. I felt confirmation would be if the words came to be true.

The time for birth arrived and labour progressed in text-book sequence. Sure enough, my beautiful blond haired son arrived. After he was born I watched him laying in the Labour room with eyes wide open and looking around at the lights. I knew immediately he was not only OK, but was bright and showing intelligent curious interest in his surroundings. God had blessed this wee son!

Tony individually experienced God speaking to him around 10 years old when reading his bible in bed one evening. He has grown into his own personal relationship of knowing and walking with God. When Tony was around fifteen years old, he showed signs of a possibly malignant enlarged lymph node and was to have a biopsy. Sitting prayerfully before God one day, He dropped into my spirit the words "none of these diseases I will put upon him" and I knew Tony would be all right. Sure enough he was and the biopsy was cancelled. God is faithful when our eyes are on Him.
Over thirty years later, I can look back and see how God's hand has been on my son"s life, as he has matured into an astute man of God, husband and father.

First experience of answered prayer

As the only daughter in a male dominated family, I experienced the typical discrimination of that time (1950s), and expectations put upon me were duties as mother's chief baby-sitter, cooking, cleaning, ironing and other such-like household duties. I desperately wanted a female playmate and friend. In my childhood reasoning, I didn't quite think it through, deciding the answer was to have a sister. Mother had four sons trying for another girl and had decided to stop there as the family was large enough for difficult times. (I hadn't thought through the age differences in starting with a baby!)

Being the practical person I was, I decided to secretly pray for a sister, knowing mother's views. I knew she had wanted another girl, so didn't think she would mind once it happened. I prayed to Jesus every night for a year, and at the end of the year my prayers were answered with a baby sister. When I told mother I had been praying, she was quick to instruct me I had better stop as she didn't want anymore babies! I knew God had answered my prayers and mother's reaction confirmed to me that she knew it also. My faith continued to grow.

Wanting to know Jesus

Faith development as I understand it is a natural part of human development. We all instinctively have faith from birth i.e. a newborn will cry with the expectation to be fed and needs being tended to. A toddler will jump trustingly into it's parent's or significant other's waiting arms. A child naturally trusts in the 'goodness' of adults to look after him or her. We drive over a bridge with faith in it's construction to keep us safe. There are numerous daily examples of faith in action in everything we do.  I believe we are all born with a measure of faith. Faith can be trampled on and quenched by negative life experiences, but also can grow and blossom in the right climate.

Mother had dutifully sent us children along to Sunday School, but it was traditional, dry and boring, mostly learning about morality and a history lesson, from the Bible stories. We were taught to fear God.  One day I was invited by a friend to a Girls Brigade outreach meeting by a primary school friend. I was excited because this sounded different and I had many unanswered questions about God and Jesus. At the event, I heard for the first time that Jesus was alive! He had risen from the grave. I had heard it before, but that seemed a historical thing. It was exciting to find out He loved me and I could talk to Him in prayer. That made it personal. I has two shillings to spend and bought a 'precious' two inch picture, representing Jesus, which I kept secret.

When I got home, I looked at the picture and spoke to Jesus. I had heard I was meant to love Him, but being the practical problem solving child that I was, I knew I couldn't love Him as He was a stranger to me. Talking to a picture wouldn't suffice! So I told Him, "Jesus I know I'm supposed to love you, but how can I love you if I don't know you?" I continued to talk to Him, sensing that one day He would let me know Him, because He was alive and could hear me!

A childhood awakening

As a young child I became aware of evil in the world from a very young age, through observation of the way people could be nasty and cruel to others. Parallel to this I observed in my own life that I always seemed to be protected from the bad things that happened. Something always intervened before it was too late.

One day I went swimming with neighbourhood kids, in a hole in the local Whanganui River. The river was very swift and turbulent. The challenge was to dive in facing upstream and swim as fast as we could to get across the hole and land down stream on a shallow ridge of shingle. This time when I did it, I ended up being pushed up under a ledge! I felt panic, then a calm peaceful voice; gentle but firm, instruct me to just relax and the water would take me out. I obeyed and saw the beautiful rays of sunlight dancing off the stones on the bottom of the river. Eventually I drifted to the surface near the edge and I struggled out. I knew I had been saved, as the older children told me they had been looking for me for ages and were convinced I had drowned.

I instinctively knew that voice was the voice of someone greater than life watching over me, God my protector!