MY TESTIMONY:
As the only child of
teacher parents, you must hold to a certain standard of intelligence and
behavior. None of which I did. My relationship with my mother was never a
good one. While I am most appreciative
to having been a part of this world, it was a difficult journey due to my
believing that I probably didn’t do anything well, or fast enough. My parent tape included “I see I have to
finish your chores since you can’t do them well. You know you probably will never amount to
anything in life until you finally decide to do them how I teach them.” Then I had a 6th grade math
teacher tell me, I had
better find a man in my life and get married,
since I won’t be able to do anything of major proportions in life.” And, so, that is exactly what I set out to
do, find someone to take care of me. I
left home at 14 and 16 for good. Married
a serviceman and spent the next ten years letting men make all the decisions for
me. In one way or another. It did finally occur to me in my twenties
that I should give
up the pursuit of the occult, and go back to high
school, graduated with good grades, then divorced, and met John Souder at WANE
TV.
We married and after some
major counseling in life, decided that a relationship to Christ would be
important for me to pursue. And, He led
me to the Fort Wayne Bible College where I graduated with a Christian
Counseling and Theology degree. And, in
addition to that, I went to the University of St. Francis, where I got my
bachelors in Industrial Psychology/Psychology. Then I received a Masters in
Counseling/Psychology. Which led to
being licensed by the State of Indiana in Marriage and Family Counseling/ and
Licensed in Clinical Social Work.
The whole Pollyanna thing
was born. To help people shed their
cocoon of addictions, or emotional pain.
Those stuck places we get into and can’t seem to let go of. As a Christian Counselor with options to
utilize the clinical aspects of Psychology, I began a practice in 1982. I taught at IU one semester, and
Summit/Taylor University, and did speaking, wrote two books, worked part time
for other small agencies in counseling and human relations. I also love working with leadership or
facilitating in small groups. Another
passion is mentoring and coaching. Coaching in interviews with pageant women, or
for new positions in the work world. I truly
enjoyed the part of executive director for the Miss America Local Pageant
theater. In that genre I also did
judging on the local level and working with young women who wanted to make the
world different. That is the one thing I
love sharing with women, or anyone who will listen actually.
Call it compensating for
how I was taught in the beginning, or anything you like. I so enjoy being a part of empowering people
in the name
of Jesus Christ to let go of their stuck place. When my husband passed away in 2018, I
wondered what God would do with me then.
Being a widow, I have seen it has brought about a whole new me. The
journey was the toughest thing I have ever experienced. I always wondered about the whole widow
thing. It looked very difficult to
me. And, it was, and still is. It has been the birth of this blog and desire
to reach out to people with learning how to Dance at the Crossroads.
Crossroads – Those places
in the middle of the road, with signs pointing everywhere. Which way should I go, will I make a bad
decision, why is this happening? What does God want? What Lord what? When Lord when? Where Lord Where? Joyce Meyer wrote that in one of her
devotionals. I will never forget that.
I hope you learn from my
journey. Sometimes God has to be the
only one that writes on your page, and other times he uses all these wonderful
authors who want to save you some time, and also, they want you to know “You
are not the only one experiencing this!”
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