This is my story

Isn't it odd how God works on you for years without you even knowing it? He puts thoughts and ideas, likes and dislikes in you. Gives you songs to sing and stories to tell.

As a child I rarely heard my mum sing. My dad and I were always singing, but Mum always said she couldn't sing. I really don't know if she could or not! Still, she always made it clear what her favourite songs and hymns were. Anything by Cliff Richard and some Bay City Rollers number, which had me amused. Apparently it was a cover version of someone else's song from her youth. Then the hymns. We used to go to a friends house straight from chapel on a Sunday evening to sing around the piano and eat scones and drink tea. The hymn she always chose to sing was Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. She so rarely spoke about her faith, my dad was at the front with that one, but through this hymn she taught me so much. I grew to love the hymn too, even though I wasn't yet a Christian myself.

When I was 16, mum died. It was unexpected; she had a heart attack during an asthma attack. There was no wondering what to sing at her funeral, it had to be Blessed assurance. She KNEW where she was going, and we knew she was with her Saviour.

Shortly after that my dad remarried. He loved my mum but didn't want to be on his own. I didn't get on with my step mother too well, finding it hard to live with another woman, and moved out the following Christmas. I needed to get about now, no longer having dads taxi to run me around. I started work at Emsley and Collins (the other side of town from me), and had to be there at 5.30 am. It was either walk or get a motorbike. I'm sure those of you who know me will know which option I would take! Each morning I set off to work on my bright red motorbike, clad in my auntie's home-made waterproofs, singing at the top of my voice. I reckoned that if I sang loud enough God would protect me from the woes that would surely come from riding such a powerful machine (it was only 80cc's!). Every hymn I knew came out on those dark mornings, but without fail the best would be Blessed Assurance.

I eventually met Graham who was a customer at Emsley's, and we married in 1987. By this time I was a Christian, and we married at Golcar Providence Methodist church. Betty our minister was quite
surprised at my choice of hymns (Graham didn't get a look in I'm afraid). Give me oil in my lamp, because of my Guiding experiences, and Blessed Assurance. Everyone said no-one would know it. I guess they were right! Listening to the wedding video now it sounded so much like a funeral hymn!

Earlier this year the Celebration Band from Halifax gave us a fantastic praise evening, and said that the best hymn they had ever heard 'jazzed up' was Blessed Assurance. That week, the hymn was mentioned to me about 5 times. I think God was trying to tell me something, I KNEW He was, but what? Well, maybe He wanted me to listen to Him a bit more. All my life He had given me this hymn as a help, a reassurance from Him, yet I hadn't realised it. This booklet and the other 4 in this series are all based on it - God had that up His sleeve right from me being a child. How good it is to find out how true Jeremiah 29 v 11 is. How good it is to be able to say 'This is my story, this is my song!'

Ruth Coates