Dear 16 Year Old Me

Hi my friends,

I was watching television the other morning and saw a very interesting segment on a morning show. A author wrote a book on people from different walks of life writing letters to their 16 year old selves. I thought what would I say to me back then? well, here is the letter to my 16 year old self.

Dear 16 year old me,

I know you probably had another rough day at school because you are still adjusting to being in High School and you are still not happy with being in Greenville Mississippi and you want to go back home to San Francisco, and your home life is not all that great either with your aunt and uncle being mean to you all the time and your mom getting on your nerves but believe me, things will get better. You thing your Grandparents are telling you things you don't want to know but listen to them, they may not have the education you have and will have in the future, but they really are very wise and hold on to them while you can because you will miss them when the are gone. Don't worry about your aunt, she always has been jealous of you and your uncle will straighten out and become a very wise and awesome man of God. They love you, they just had a hard time showing it at the time. Your mom was going through a hard time herself adjusting to being home and living with her parents. She will still struggle with the things she struggled with then but remember, she loves you very much and you always were her heart just like your Aunt Minnie would tell you. When you get the news that your mom passed away, you will struggle with it but in time, it will get better. Your Dad will still be you best friend and someone you will still go to. He will have a series of strokes but he will get better but, not the same as he was before, Your paternal grandmother will suddenly pass away when you get home from college, no not the colleges you wanted to go to Southern Cal, LSU, or the University of San Francisco but USM. You will miss her very much because you could talk to her about anything. Before she dies, she will give you a life lesson that you will hold on to this very day.  You will go to the Navy briefly, don't feel bad about not completing basic training. You tried but your fear of water over your head from almost drowning at 8 keeps you from completing. You go to college and meet people you are still friends with to this very day, You will  have jobs as a club dj. radio announcer and even do play-by-play for baseball and football!  You even become part owner a baseball team all in Greenville! You will work for WXVT as a Weather Person, Master Control Operator and do other things at the television station. There, you will met and become friends with some amazing people you are still friends with to this day. You will go to different places such as Houston, Chicago, Dallas, New Orleans, Little Rock and Conway Arkansas.  You will get married twice, have 6 beautiful and amazing kids, 5 girls and 1 boy. two girls from your first marriage and three girls and one boy from you second. Your second wife is the one that you are meant to be with and you two have everything in common. She will be and always will be the love of your life. Take care of yourself and keep exercising because when you get older, you will become very ill and disabled but it all takes you back to the amazing path that God puts you on. You will go through some bad things but you will go through some awesome things as well. You finally answer the call that God has been for years trying to get you to to. You will continue your education to get your Masters in Christian Studies. Oh by the way, you don't have cat eyes like Terrence Nash keeps telling you! Ignore him!

Take care,

Raymomd

The Lord Has Helped Me Through This

Hello everybody,

I told you last week about testifying in church last Sunday. After the service, my wife and I got in the car and I realized all of the amazing things and situations that our God has got me through and was with me every step of the way. The first was being sexually abused from the age of 8-11. It wasn't an adult that did those things to me, it was children who were not that much older than me. I could still hate ore resent the two girls who did those things but, I have forgiven them and I have prayed for them so I could finally let it go. I remember when I was child in San Francisco, I almost drowned in a lake in Golden Gate Park. I was going down for the third time when my mother, who never learned how to swim got out in the middle of the lake where I was and pulled me out and back to shore. That was the first time I almost died. Another example of God being with me was ten years ago. I am about to admit something I rarely like to talk about but I feel I have to tell this story because it is an example of God has been good to me. I was very depressed about several things such as my job situation at the time, my first marriage at the time and other things. I was diagnosed with Depression since the age of eight. I got up early that morning to get ready for work, but I decided to kill myself. I went into the bathroom and I heard a voice that said "DO IT!" I opened the medicine cabinet and took a handful of my mother's blood pressure pills. After I did this, I looked into my daughter's bedroom and I saw her laying on her bed asleep and I heard another voice that said "You can't leave her and her sister" I wen into our bedroom and told my first wife what I did. She called 911 and the ambulance took me to the hospital to pump my stomach and to admit me into the hospital. I thought about those things on the way home and I told my wife that "I am meant to be here!" I did not reveal these events that have happened in my life for pity or for someone to feel sorry for me, I revealed these things to let you know how God has been so good to me. God has always had a plan for me, I am just trying to do what he wants me to do. God Bless You for reading this.