As we travel on our spiritual journey, it’s always encouraging to hear from others how God has worked in their lives. Periodically we’ll share testimonies from our NAOBC Women on how God worked in their life. Today’s testimony is from Mindy Whitley.
Mindy and her husband, Ryan, have been at NAOBC since 2021. They have four children with a fifth coming in July 2024. Mindy and Ryan attend IC5 and you can find out more about her here.
Early on in our marriage, as a young Army wife, it became clear that my expectations were not being met. Alone in a new state, far from friends and family, I threw myself into my work as a brand new schoolteacher, and just stayed busy. Life got more and more difficult.
While I limped along and my husband returned from a 14-month deployment to Iraq, we moved four times, he left active duty to serve in the Army Reserves, started seminary, and then the stress of life took over. By November 2012, we were newly separated and I was trying to take care of our baby and toddler on my own in another new city. My parents got divorced that year. I loved the Lord, but my expectations for how life with Jesus would go for me were crushed.
Desperate for relief, I begged God to change my circumstances, and to change my husband. He kept bringing me back to a verse I had written on a mirror in our living room on a whim months prior. Psalm 29:10 says, “The LORD sits enthroned over the flood; the LORD sits enthroned as King forever.” I would scowl at that scripture, angry and hurt at a God who seemed so distant…but never erased it from the mirror. The truth of God’s word pierced my soul and spirit, and discerned the thoughts and intentions of my heart (Heb. 4:12). King Jesus, enthroned over the flood of my life, revealed to me, by the power of His word, that while I was certainly a sufferer who had been sinned against, I was also a very selfish sinner in need of forgiveness and healing. Overwhelmed and extremely lonely, I began to pray for an older woman who wasn’t intimidated by my problems or by my bad attitude, who was willing to just walk with me when others found it too difficult.
Cue a then 58-year-old jolly woman named Kathy. She shared her testimony at a small conference at our church, and after procrastinating for three weeks, I finally reached out. We became fast, albeit unlikely friends. Our first prayer meeting (there were hundreds to follow) was at a fast food restaurant. Heaven opened up in that McDonald’s parking lot as God answered my feeble prayers for an older woman who would fill the role of the older woman of Titus 2, to teach me how to love my husband and children. There were ups and downs, life never let up, and I never did get my expectations met, but I slowly learned how to faithfully follow Jesus as I learned to love my husband and children.
Nine years later, she lay comatose in the hospital, dying of pancreatic cancer, on her way to glory. I sang old hymns and Getty songs, and thanked Jesus for forgiving me, for healing me, for answering me, for teaching me how to love my humble, gentle husband of 18 years, and my then four (soon-to-be five) children. I thanked Him for being my friend when I was friendless, for allowing me to serve Him in my current church (NAOBC4life!) where I can bless and encourage, where I can walk with others as He walked with me, and for being King over the flood, the LORD, enthroned as King forever.