Complimentary Story
May 2024My husband and I met almost 30 years ago. I was 18 and had just offered up a generic prayer out of frustration to a Deity called God. The prayer was so impersonal it started by me introducing myself by first and last name.
It couldn’t have been more than 60 seconds in length as I asked Him to bring me along a nice man, from my area that I could trust. He not only honored me in that prayer but brought along a preacher’s son — none the less!
My husband taught me of the saving Grace of Jesus Christ, encouraged me in a personal relationship with my Lord and Savior, led me in the sinner’s prayer and baptized me.
We determined, after we wed, to raise a family traditionally according to God’s design. I began to study that design and a few short years later our first of 3 was born. Our adventure had brought hubby and I to the great state of Alaska and he feverishly worked hard to establish our young family traditionally, so I could be at home to raise our family and homeschool our kids. This was not easy back then and hasn’t gotten any easier now-a-days with cost of living requiring at least two incomes!
Just as he was getting us established and shortly after moving into our first home, he realized that to “keep up”‘ would require almost all of his time. He had less and less time to spend with our children, two of which are boys. He had the wisdom and foresight from the Lord to consider how much more beneficial it could be to be able to afford our children more of himself rather than more stuff. What if Dad could be around more to invest in the boys and teach them to be men?
This would be the inverse of what we are taught in America with emphasis on working to climb the ladder and retiring once the kids are grown. It certainly wasn’t the easy way out for us; it took walking away from retirement type job opportunities.
My husband is a mighty man of Valor (Judges 6:12.) Valor, in the Webster’s dictionary is defined as “strength of mind or spirit that enables a person to encounter danger with firmness; personal bravery.” He has been our strong and faithful leader through all of the God adventuers that our family has been called to do — including hurricane relief reconstruction, planting and pastoring a church, serving in our community on top of spontaneous random acts of kindness. He has been able to not only provide well for us, but include each of our kids and teach them not only a trade but more importantly, Godly virtues. He has been our rock and strength through some of the most trying of circumstances.
He continually endures inflammatory bowel distress and dire dietary inconveniences but somehow keeps on keeping on to be there for the rest of us. He has remained unwavering in his conviction and dedication to life on God’s terms.
This month he turns 50 years old and while he is starting to feel “old” his investment in the younger generation is paying off as they are coming up in the ranks. We will be grandparents for the first time this year as well!
Thank you to Rob Pue for making this space available. We overcome by the Blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony; not loving our lives so much as to shrink from death (Revelation 12:11).
We appreciate the opportunity to read other testimonies in a world that otherwise dismisses or chooses to bury them. God has been good to me and so have you, Jim Hall. I love you!
Abby Hall, Anderson, Alaska
