Welcome to Thankful Thursday. My goal for this blog is a place where people can learn something new. I hope that my blog becomes a place where we can learn from each other. My subscribers are from various ages and genders. Leave your ideas in the comments section. Hopefully, we’ll get some dialogue and learning taking place for each other. Living the Encouraged Life…Lynn

“I can no longer stand the person I am knowing that what I did when I was ten put a man in the penitentiary for life” Sue said to her husband.

As Sue’s planned her child’s ten-year olds birthday party memories from Tacoma kept interrupting her thinking…She thought about the lie she had told to the police when she was ten. She still remembered how much she hated Jerry. She thought about her mother. She thought about all the illegal drugs Jerry had sold to her Mom.

The young once ten year old Sue now lived with her husband and children in Eastern Washington. Her own life had been a series of mistakes that she regretted. Yet now she was the mother two beautiful children. She volunteered regularly at their Elementary school. She had left the tough streets of Tacoma years ago.

One day Jerry said to the chaplain, “I know that I am in here for the rest of my life. I did my jail time for robbery and stealing. I admit I did those crimes. I am guilty. I got the consequences I deserved for those crimes. What I cannot understand is why I am here for something I did not do. I did not rape that girl.”

As he continued reading, he read the stories that all seemed to lead back to God. God was the caring creator who wanted to know him. He was surprised that the creator of the universe wanted to know him. So, he kept reading.

One day, Jerry decided he would choose to believe in Jesus, as the penitentiary Chaplain had talked about to him. He knew in his mind that his life behind bars offered him constant shame, discouragement, fighting and boredom.

…Continuation from last weeks BLOG (read it to get up to speed on this week’s blog)

Jerry started visiting regularly with the penitentiary’s Chaplain. He spent many hours talking to the Chaplain about what it really meant to have a committed relationship with Jesus.