I Corinthians 10:13

When I was 25 I was not walking with God. Although I was raised in a Christian family, my parents divorced at my age 13 and they both proceeded to take a "vacation" away from God -- I assume to gain a secular life "testimony" to share in the future after they later returned to the committed Christian life.

Their dutiful children followed in their foot-steps. Life at times was HELL because that's where we were heading, although at the time, we didn't know it.

My brother, however, became a committed Christian and married Penny, a lovely Christian girl. I knew he was religious but "so was I." After all, I had accepted Jesus as my Savior at age 6. I had never quit believing, I just wasn't walking the Christian walk... nor did I have any belief system for that matter. As I recall, I was pretty down on myself at the time. But ... I digress.

Back to my age 25 ... I was between marriages and pregnant outside of marriage on top of that. My family wasn't particularly pleased about the coming birth but they seemed to welcome me home whenever I visited.

I remember visiting my brother during my pregnancy. Prior to retiring for the night, I picked my brother's Bible up off the coffee table. It looked different than my old Bible and read, "New American Standard" version on it.

After questioning my brother at length about this new Bible translation, my brother and his wife went to bed.

Alone, I began browsing though this "new" Bible by myself. I couldn't believe how easy it was to read and understand!  I'd grown up on the King James and the Revised Standard Bible versions, so this Bible version was very easy to comprehend for me. It was also the first time as an adult that I had even bothered to read the Bible and I wasn't quite sure why I was comprehending what I read so well.

After about one half hour of browsing through the bible, I found the verse, 1 Corinthians 10:13.

"No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it."

Through that verse, I immediately felt that God was revealing Himself to me.

I committed my life back to Him right there in the livingroom!  Afterwards, I remembered lessons from Sunday School as a child that we were to memorize Scripture. So I memorized that verse and it has been dear to my heart since then and I claim it OFTEN!!!!

A few weeks after I recommitted my life to Christ, I gave birth. I named my newborn daughter "Christen Dawn," a new beginning in Christ. She's an adult now and has a family of her own now. Her husband, Alex, is an ordained minister in the Houston, Texas area. He performed the double marriage ceremony for my twin daughters in 2002. Please do him the honor of visiting the Reasons for Faith ministry he started.

Please email me!  I would love to hear from other committed Christians, sharing their favorite personal verse ... and why it means so much to them!