Testament: God Plans and Shows Us the Way

By Carrie’s Mom, Carolyn Hardin (1942-2013)
(published in the Long Beach Press Telegram, 1995)

It has always amazed me how God prepares the heart for his word, his love, and then our Salvation. God, in his wisdom, used my second-grade school teacher to invite me to church. I went to church with her, and at 7 I accepted Jesus into my heart. I followed through for a while as a child, but I did drift away during junior high and high school.

After marriage at 18 and two children later, I knew I needed more in my life, for them as well as me. I started searching. I was invited to church and I went. God used many people there to start me down the road to know him better and I was baptized.

At 30, I had another child after my doctor said it would be very difficult to get pregnant again. I already had an 11 and a 9 year-old and I had had a miscarriage after 2½ months of pregnancy. So I told the Lord this child is really yours. When she began school, I felt the Lord was leading me to put her in a Christian school. Because of this, I developed more Christian relationships and began to grow more spiritually as well.

Now that child, my youngest [Carrie], is 23. She has graduated from Biola University and is planning on being a missionary.

In our limited understanding it can be hard to see the big picture. Looking back, I now see more clearly the hand of the Lord.

In the book of Jeremiah it says that God has plans for us, plans to prosper us and not to harm us. The Lord is everywhere and always knows what is best for us.