Summit Church

God even restores relationships that have been broken for a long time… Thank you Regina for sharing this testimony of hope.

Over the last few weeks God has made so many changes in my life. One of the things he wanted me to do was go to my mother and ask her for forgiveness. I cut her out of my life about seven years ago. God was very clear when he spoke to me about honoring my mother and my father. Wanting to be obedient to him I called and asked her for forgiveness.

She was very receiptive and was so happy that I wanted to have a relationship with her again. I asked if I could come see her; and that turned happiness to joy. God was clear that he wanted me to go see her and that my kids were to be part of it. They need to see what forgiveness looks like. God had put Easter weekend as the time to go. We didn’t have the funds to go on this trip but I knew God would provide. Taking a step of faith I started making reservations and told my mother I would let her know the details in a few days. True to his word, God provided the funds for us to go.

We arrived on Good Friday and we hugged, kissed and cried. I spent the weekend sharing with my mom what God has been doing in my life. During one of the times I was sharing she told me that she had stopped believing in God. I was really surprised because she grew up in church as a child and young adult. Her father was a pastor and I couldn’t imagine her not believing. She told me she stopped because she couldn’t imagine that if there was a God he would allow all the pain and hurt to happen to us in the past. The loss of the relationship with her kids was just too much. I shared with her what I see when I look back on my life and how I always knew Jesus was with me. Through the darkest times of my life he never left my side. I can look back now and see how the experiences I had as a child and teenager has molded into the person I am today. She told me that since I see it that way that she can start to believe in God again.

Before we left to come back home I asked if Bryan and I could pray for her. She said yes, so we prayed and part of my prayer was that God would heal her and give her strength. I want her to see herself the way God sees her. I shared with her that we need to let go of the guilt and pain of the past so it doesn’t hold us back from what God wants to do in our life. God not only restored my relationship with my mother; he also is using that restoration to restore her back to him. My mother emailed me on 4/14 and is interested in listening to the pod cast on the church website. I can’t promise that asking for forgiveness will always look like this, but I do know that by obeying God and having him plan everything out is so much sweeter than anything I could have ever tried to do myself. I hope this message blesses someone and gives them hope of what God can do and wants to do for us. I never asked this for myself out of ignorance; but God knows what was best for me.