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Cheryl Waddingham
Core Leader
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With life comes change.
With change comes fear, insecurity, sorrow, stress. So what do you do? Hibernate? Take no risks for fear of failing? Change
will happen in your life. It is not a
matter of “if,” but “when.” Let me share
a little about the changes that have taken place in my life.
In 1988, my husband, an administrator for a community college
in Iowa, lost his job unexpectedly. It
was a time when jobs were hard to find, especially in the dead of winter in this
small rural community. It became frustrating but, after months of applications
and interviews, he got a job! Little did we know it would take us all the way
to NC!
The move was a difficult one for my family. Not only did we have to sell our dream house,
we had to get rid of things we wanted. I was losing a job that I dearly loved.
We had an exchange student living with us who had to return to Spain following
his graduation and a former exchange student wanting to return to the area for one
more visit before we left the community she called “home”. We also had to find a place for our daughter
to live while she waited to leave for college that fall. Our son was about to
become a freshman in high school. Making the move even more difficult was
knowing that my father-in-law only had months to live. Through many tears, much prayer and lots of adjustments, we
made the move, and life was good again,
thanks to our faith and assurance that God would see us through.
In 2015, my faith was tested more than it ever had been. A son’s divorce, the loss of my husband of 50
years, the loss of two very close friends (one on the day of my husband’s
funeral), the loss of a niece to suicide, and one of the hardest to understand
was the betrayal of a very close friend that I had trusted for many years. My heart was broken and, on many days, I
found myself sitting and starring into space, allowing time to pass by on its
own. I began reading self-help books and
journaling daily, pouring out all my thoughts and hurts, and anger onto its
blank pages. Most of all, I prayed A LOT,
waiting for the “new norm” in my life to take place. I began asking God to show
me the direction I needed to go, to help me make wise choices and to use me to
glorify His name. As I searched through
scripture, I was reminded in Romans 5:3 that we are to rejoice in our
sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces
character, and character produces hope.
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| Romans 5:3 |
It was at this time that I received a call about being a
facilitator for CBS. Even though I felt God telling me to say “yes,” I wondered
if it was still too soon to take on such a heavy responsibility. I questioned
God’s motives. Why, then, was God
telling me to say yes? Why was He moving me in a direction that not only made
me accountable to CBS but also to the fifteen women He entrusted in my care?
I did accept the call.
I must confess, as a new Core Leader this year, I found myself
overwhelmed with all there is to know. God
began to open my eyes and I quickly learned that CBS was actually uplifting me in
a spiritual renewal of myself! It is
through facilitating others that God has truly worked through me allowing time
to heal in ways that I didn’t even know I needed healing. Studying I and II Corinthians has been a
wakeup call. God has shown me through
scripture and our sharing together the things that I needed to hear
and learn
and to do. And in doing so,
I have been able to shepherd my sheep through my life’s experiences because I
have been where many women in CBS are right now. I truly can relate to their pain and
suffering as they share their stories with me. Their love and trust in me has been
such a blessing.
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| Women Studying the Bible Together |
When we stay focused on Christ, nothing else really matters
because he will meet our every need as 2 Samuel 22:7 reminds us - “I called to
the Lord in my distress. I called to my
God. From His temple, He heard my voice.”
I am sharing these life experiences with you today as a
testimony that no matter how difficult life becomes, God will be there to see
you through, if you just put your trust and faith in Him. I look forward to
seeing what He has in store for me in the days ahead – a journey of changes to
be embraced. I thank God for the lessons
learned through these “opportunities of faith,” knowing that he is in total
control. I don’t always understand why
God calls me to do the things he does but I am reminded in Proverbs 3:5-6,
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”
