Diana's Testimony

My life has always been a good one. I was raised with the security of family love by my parents and my brothers. I never knew anything but being loved. We never went to church, but we were brought up with the morals, values and principles that ran deep into the core of our family foundation.

When I graduated from college, I began working at the Sports Therapy Center as a physical therapist. It was there that I met Dr. Vic Stephens. He was a kind and gentle man, twenty-two years my senior. I could tell that he had been hurt by his past, and the more we saw of each other, the more I grew to love him. It was the happiest day of my life when he asked me to marry him -- only surpassed by the day of our marriage.

Our life became a busy whirl of hospital committees and social functions. From outside appearances, we were a couple to be envied. But people didn't know us at home. There was much sadness on Vic's part because of old hurts from his past. In partricular, the estranged relationship with his oldest son, Jamie, who I had never met.

When Vic finally reached the point of total brokeness and surrendered his life to the Lord, he was instantly a much happier person. Every area of his life took on a much brighter realm. But he told me on several occasions that his walk would be much easier if I were a Christian, too. I just wasn't ready for that in my life yet. I could see how it had made a difference for Vic, but I didn't think there was anything wrong with me that needed fixing! I was a good person -- friendly, outgoing, always prepared to help anyone, and lived by the morals with which I had been brought up. I couldn't see that the Lord had much more to offer me.

When the Holy Spirit finally spoke to my heart, I knew instantly what I needed to do. Give myself -- my whole life, all that I am -- to Him. Not because Vic had done so and desired that I join him. A relationshp with Jesus is so intensely personal that you can't do it simply to follow the lead of someone else, even if that someone happens to be your husband. No, I had to do it on my own, in my own timing, and out of my own needs.

But Vic was right all along. It IS much easier as a team. Today, when little things arise, we go together before the Lord and together we pray it through. There is nothing that the Lord can't handle, and we have learned that lesson in the most beautiful ways.

The way the Lord has dealt with our family has truly been a miracle. Vic now has a beautiful relationship with both his sons, AND a closeness with his own Heavely Father that he never knew before. And though I'm too young to be a "mother" to them, Jamie and Michael are my friends now, and they respect my position as their father's wife. Things that once seemed so important to us -- social status, the prestige of the life of a M.D. -- NONE of that is important to us now. There is too much work to do for the Kingdom of God to worry about the brief time we are caught up in this life. All that matters to us now are the eternal things which will remain long after we are gone.

Along the way, we've learned that there are no "perfect people" and that we all make mistakes in our decisions, our choices and our actions. Vic's was a family torn apart by everything Satan could throw in their way. Today, we rest in knowing that throughout eternity, we will be a family together in Heaven, forever in the presence of our Risen Lord, Savior and King!