When Life Gets Messy, Make It Your Ministry: A Journey of Healing From Past Mistakes, Caregiving, and Walking into God's Favor

When Life Gets Messy, Make It Your Ministry

A Journey of healing from past mistakes, caregiving, and walking into God’s favor

Sherree’ Bowen

Trilogy Christian Publishers

Tustin, CA

Trilogy Christian Publishers

A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Trinity Broadcasting Network

2442 Michelle Drive

Tustin, CA 92780

When Life Gets Messy, Make It Your Ministry

Copyright © 2024 by Sherree’ Bowen  

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are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

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are taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB), Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org.

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are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

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are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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Trilogy Disclaimer: The views and content expressed in this book are those of the author and may not necessarily reflect the views and doctrine of Trilogy Christian Publishing or the Trinity Broadcasting Network.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN: 979-8-89041-527-1

ISBN: 979-8-89041-528-8 (ebook)

Contents

Prayer Changes Things

On the Move for Change

Stop the Madness

On the Road Again

It’s Personal but Real

My Children, My Heart

Wrong Exit—Searching for Happiness

The ER Trauma

God Gave Me You

A Season of Change

Laugh Through the Unexpected

Welcome Home

Raw Emotions of Holding On

Letting Go

About the Author

This Book is in Dedication to:

In Memory of my loving Parents,

Clarence and Linda Byrd.

In fulfillment of my promise to you both! We did it! Thank you for always teaching me the courage to lead and follow God’s plan for my life. For remaining the voices that guide me still, everyday!

To my amazing Husband!

For standing with me in the trenches and knowing how to pull me out with amazing unconditional love. You were a God given blessing to my life! You are the center being of who I am! My encourager, my prayer partner, my love for life, and a Godly leader of our family.

To my precious children, Bryan and Kayla.

You both have brought so much happiness to your Momma just by being who you both are. My first true best friends, the ones who loved me even through life’s mess! You both stood beside me, loved me, and more times than you know, gave me the strength to face another day! My children, you are my why! God absolutely chose you both just for me! He knew I would need the strength, love, and support that comes so effortlessly from you both! All my love!

To my Daughter-in-Law Kaitlyn

and my Son-in-Law Michael

Without my children, I would have never had the blessing that comes with being your mother-in-law, or as I like to think, your extra mom! God absolutely had His hand on who my kids would choose, and I couldn’t have hand- picked more perfect, for our little family, than the two of you! Thank you for your loving hearts, and all you do for our family! You truly make a difference! I love and cherish you both dearly!

To my sweet Grand Girls, Brylyn and Madison.

The day you both came into this world you melted my heart! I hope someday, when your older, you’ll read Nene’s book and learn from my words. One thing I know is, you are both strong, smart, and so very loved! If a day ever comes that you don’t know which way to turn, or you are questioning a decision, remember this:

If you have to question yourselves about it, it’s probably not the right choice. God is not the Author of confusion! I pray this will help guide you both!

Always follow God, stay true to His word and He will guide your life’s journey!

Nene loves you both Bunches!

Finally, thank you to all those that read this story!

I truly pray it will help you find, that even when you fail,

or you make some pretty messy mistakes.

THERE IS HOPE!

In His Service,

Sherree’ Bowen

ROMANS 8:28 (NIV)

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.

Do you ever stop and wonder, how did I get from where I was, to where I am now?

I know I do, and all I can say is, THANK YOU LORD!

God definitely was protecting me every step of the way. I fell and got back up way too many times to count. There were several cases of me trying to discover MY PLAN, THEN GODS PLAN, and as you already can guess, Thats never turns out good!

God definitely has a design especially for you, when you were created.

He has a master plan of what your service for Him, and the ambitions for your life, would look like.

He left it up to us to navigate and to make the right choices for our lives.

In this book, I hope you will take the time after each Chapter to reflect on YOUR WALK WITH GOD!

Ask yourself the questions:

Am I navigating my walk for me and what I feel like I need? Or am I navigating my life the way God intended for me? Am I really messing up my God story?

The good news is…. IT’S NOT TOO LATE!

This may be my story, but as we walk through these pages together, let it resonate with your heart and ask yourself, where AM I with God?

So, here we go, let’s dive into this journey together.

Prayer Changes Things

My parents were married at a young age, after my dad got out of the Airforce. Well, in their day, it was just the thing to do, They dated all through school. So, settling down, and having children with the house that has a picket fence.

That was the plan.

But as y’all know, things in life don’t always go as planned.

They had all the things they were anticipating except for a child. After several years of trying with no success, they were told they would never be able to have children, and if mom ever conceived, she wouldn’t be able to carry a child.

But my sweet little momma was a firecracker, and she never gave up on her conversations with God, as to why she needed a child! So needless to say, I was much prayed for by my sweet parents. Thank you, Lord!

Fast forward 9 years and 4 months, she discovered God was blessing them with a child!

Now, I know most of you know, daddies that only have one child, shall I say, they are very protected, and possibly a little spoiled. (Ya know, spoiled, but never rotten) I was loved without question!

Now with all that being said, my momma was a church going Christian believing Baptist, who was going to be sure her baby daughter was raised in the church with Christian values…While, on the other hand, My daddy, had a country music band and played clubs every weekend.

You know, back in the 60’s honky tonkin was the place to be and he truly lived on the stage, singing, playing the guitar. He actually could play anything that had strings! (Clarence Byrd and the Country Rythmn Kings) we’re doing big things. or as we say in the south, BIG THANGS!

Now, mom loved the Lord and was a devout Christian, she also loved to hit the stage too, and she sang at the radio station, in Knoxville, TN. She was our little own Dolly! But she never for a second, stepped away from what she believed in, or never sang outside of the radio show or church.

I’m gonna stop, and take a minute to brag a little on my parents…Ya know, like we’re supposed to!

I mean after all, there why you’re here, right? They were super good at singing together, and my little dad played the guitar. I could kick myself for never letting him teach me to play!

When my mom and her sisters were growing up, they would meet up at the old Cas Walker show, and they sang on Saturdays with the best we had in our area! My daddy would drag his old guitar and play while the girls all sang a tune or two for the show!

Momma would often tell me of the stories of when they got to the studio, they’d have to stand her up on a milk crate to be able to reach the mic and sing with the others. My granny (Alice Tine Gibbs) as we called her, always took up for her girls and let them adventure into what they were interested in doing. But boy, my granddaddy didn’t like it! He was on the super strict train! BUT it always seemed to work. She’s probably where I learned my work around techniques!

MY GRANNY GIBBS

I was born December 25th. A Christmas adventure, as my dad used to call it, always saying, Sis, you caused me to have to eat crackers and peanut butter for my Christmas dinner!

But he’d laugh, and follow it up with, It was the best Christmas dinner I ever ate, because I got to do it with