This woman, that is all grown up now, sighs
heavily when she gets to this part of her story. If you were to look at the remnants of her
past through any other lens, some elements appear to be normal growing pains of
any human being. Anyone, looking at the fringes,
can see that hers wasn’t a silver spoon kind of life; it wasn’t a worst case
scenario either.
~Everyone born
suffers long~
Satan’s full agenda would peak to a
boisterous crescendo, revealing what he really intended when he had set this
entire array of conditions in place, against one person, against her. Coming to a full circle (illumination), when
she had turned the ripe age of twenty-two and had met her first legitimate
boyfriend.
Determined and self-sufficient. Living on her own in her first apartment,
financed by her first job, enabled by her first car. There were many first-time crossroads and
decisions to be made along the way. And
it would be the first time that she had decided to engage in a sexual
relationship with this young man that she had met. She meets him some years after she has left
the ‘nest.’
Everything in her life went steadily
initially. She was getting along,
regardless to the fact that there were no adult mentors accounted for who could
have offered counsel or given good advice about some of these major ‘firsts’ beginning
to take place. What’s more, she had not
learned any relevant life skills for all of eighteen years or so, under the
guardianship of her great-grandmother, outside of cooking and cleaning house. And the church that she had attended since
she was eight years old proved to be too evasive in most of their views, or
perhaps they were too invasive. Either
way, those Moses on the Mountain, Moses Parts
the Red Sea sermonettes did
not help to prepare her for the real world.
Although, her choices were not reckless,
they did hasten the upcoming troubles that were to implode later. She was a most naïve, gullible, misinformed
young lady, and on her own.
~As ignorant as can be~
Exhibit A. She was most thoughtless as it regards this first
real relationship. She knew nothing
about men or relationships. Her first
date with him was a disaster in her opinion.
She thought he would not be calling on her for a second date, but he
did. On top of that, her religious,
antiquated, Victorian views influenced indulgent thinking, supposing that he
might be the one. He simply had to be
the one, since he was the first. A heart
led by blind religion determined this.
Ironically, she had not heard from the
still, small voice, which had been her childhood comrade, for quite some
time. For some years. Now that she was no longer a member of the
church (shunned it) and had shelved her Bible (rejected it), she did not expect
to hear. She was on a quest during this
time of her life to kindle a normal, traditional relationship. She wanted tall, dark, and handsome. She wanted three boys and three girls like The Brady Bunch. She wanted the white picket fence. Sadly, this genie in a bottle approach of
wishing would gain little.
~Now, back to the voice~
It was a most inopportune time. She had made the decision to say yes to the
request that her boyfriend had been making for the last three months. This was certainly not a lot of time to get
to know him. Somehow, she felt
obligated. She was afraid that he would
not want to be with her anymore, especially after he made that point
clear. This was that world where she was
extremely inadequate while under the veil of the church and her childhood
upbringing.
~Welcome to Rome!~
On
this night, the scene is set. The starry
skies are aligned. The boyfriend is
there; she’s there. The lights are dim
in the bedroom. Ambiance, right? Right.
It was more like a scene from Cooley
High. But here goes. He sits on the bed with a come-hither look in
his eye. And ring!!! It’s the phone. She rarely received phone calls, and never at
night. She surmised that maybe there was
a family crisis (they thrived on those).
She could hardly believe it! It is an
elder from her church, the one not attended for about two years. It was explained how they had recently gotten
hold of her contact information and how they had only called to see how she was
doing. They all chatted back and forth;
first chatting with the minister and then back with his wife. A thorough, genteel, composite on the status
of every known acquaintance one could think of was reported on. The
conversation lingered until reaching an awkward pause. As Expected, it ends with the Elder reciting
a lengthy, protocol prayer. Of course,
this interruption does not work to distract the cards that had been dealt on
that fateful night. So, after she is off
the phone, the couple proceeds. He is
progressive with his affections, while she is enthralled to say the least,
quite impressed. And in an instant, she
hears in a clear voice:
