Heartbeat Magazine Interview

My friend Connie Moss, at Heartbeat Magazine, was inspired to interview we folks who write for Heartbeat, so I thought I'd post it here:


Where were you born? Detroit, Michigan, car capital

Tell me a little bit about growing up? Life in the suburbs: Dad was (and 50 years later, still is!) an engineer, and mom was an aspiring home chef. She taught me and my little sister the basics, and we fed our younger brother all our experiments. I wished upon a star, at age 10, that I might be famous one day. Needed specifics, so I pondered becoming a famous singer. That seemed like a long shot, so I settled on becoming famous as a cookbook author. Yes, at age 10 I had such aspirations.

Married? Married husband Tom in 1976, when I was 17 going on 30.

Children? Miles is 26, with two sweet kids and one sweet wife; Ty's 21 and an aspiring helicopter pilot.

Animals? Just the fish in the big pond out back now... the cats have passed on. There are several that think they're adopted, but we haven't told them otherwise yet.

Describe your salvation experience? At age 38, I really needed to pray about a "blast from my past", an old flame who was coming awkwardly back into our life. I didn't want to leave it to chance, praying to a pie-in-the-sky God whom I didn't really know, so I asked for God's Holy Spirit to come into my life. He revealed Himself to me through the gift of tongues; my intellectual mind could no longer dispute this external power that came from somewhere other than myself. I gave up on the old philosophies of "Me as god, creating My universe", and bowed down to the all-powerful, all-sustaining, omnipotent God of the universe.

Hobbies, sports, entertainment? I love music. Wrote songs and recorded with husband Tom and our sons several years back (yes, Partridge Family style)... Now I'm happy just to be on worship team, learning new songs, finding new ways to praise the Lord. I also love gardening and have created a little Garden of Eatin' in our back 40. Organic gardening, medicinal herbs, flower arranging are a few other hobbies. Sports: Love walking/hiking... Entertainment: Life is pretty entertaining!

Favorite scripture of the Bible? "Perfect love casts out all fear." How many people live in fear of what might happen, as if God is out to punish us? What a revelation to realize that God loves us so much that He isn't out to punish, but to offer us grace and mercy. I thank Him for that daily!

Future plans or desires of your heart? To be more involved in community events, sharing the joy God's put in our hearts, sharing any talent I have. When I realized there were people out there who would jump in and do it, even if they didn't know how, I realized: The least I could do is offer my services when I actually did know how. I've gained some confidence in the catering realm, and hope to share in that area. Creating a platform for the cookbook in the process would be a nice afterthought : )

Anything else you want to add about yourself? It's wonderful to see the body of Christ working together. I'm excited about the future, and know God has great plans for us all!