What God Has Done for Me: Anxiety, Panic Attacks, Depression, and Worry Are Gone
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Much of my life has been unhappy. I had the worst of tempers. I could not and did not want to forgive. I wanted revenge or to get even with people. I used to hope that something bad would happen to those I felt had done me wrong. I was stressed out most of the time. I had reached a time in my life when I had to have help. I had read the Bible and felt that was the place to turn. After much studying and reading the Bible and prayer, I received peace of mind, joy, and happiness. All of the problems I had were now gone. The main reason I wrote this book is to let people know what God has done for me. I am hoping and praying it will help others too. Words cannot express the joy and peace of mind I have through knowing my Savior, Jesus Christ. And it is getting better all the time.
Calvin Wilson
Born into poverty in the Southern Appalachian Mountains, Calvin Wilson was tossed from home to home during his early adolescence. Finally settling in with his mother and six other siblings, he had to work hard at an early age just to help his family put food on the table. A rowdy teenager who dropped out of school at the age of fourteen, he was dealt many obstacles and hardships in life. Having overcome a difficult childhood, he is a successful nursery owner. He has been a member of the Gideons International Organization for thirty-two years. Married for over fifty years, he is the father of two daughters and the proud grandfather of two grandsons. He enjoys Southern gospel music, bear hunting, fishing, and is a joyful member of a Missionary Baptist church.
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What God Has Done for Me - Calvin Wilson
Copyright © 2013 Calvin Wilson.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
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Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
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ISBN: 978-1-4497-8403-4 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-4497-8404-1 (e)
ISBN: 978-1-4497-8405-8 (hc)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2013902074
WestBow Press rev. date: 05/22/2013
Contents
Introduction
Faith
Forgiveness
Getting Away from God
Help from God
Helping Others
The Devil
Encouragement
The Will of God
The Love of God
Trust
God
Salvation
Praise
Thank God
Peace
Growing in the Lord
Wisdom
Works
Fishing Stories
Dog Story
Snow Story
Anxiety
Conclusion
Dedicated to my daughters, Kim and Denise, and grandsons, Logan and Lawson
A special thank you to my daughter, Kim for her countless hours of editing, revising, and correspondences through e-mail to Westbow Press.
And to June Elkins, I thank her, for her ability to decipher my handwriting in order to type the original manuscript for this book. Her relentless efforts put my words into print.
Introduction
Sharing How God Helped Me
Many years have passed since I first thought to write about what God has done for me. I had made a list of Bible verses that had had an impact on my life and had molded me, and I wanted to share them with others to let them know how they could use them to grow in faith and grace. I thought about publishing the Bible verses I had collected in my local newspaper, but never did; I just made thousands of copies and gave them to people. I can’t describe the joy and peace of mind I have found from these verses. I would tell those I gave them to that I couldn’t make them work for them in their lives, and I can’t make them work for you, but I know they work according to my faith in the Word and God, which is the same (St. John 1:1).
My Childhood
When I was about eight, my mother and father separated and divided the children, and I went with my father, who took me to the community of his people. I didn’t know where he was, however; he just left me on my own. I stayed with many families, as I wanted to, but nobody had any authority over me. When I wanted to move on, I would just walk off, and no one tried to stop me. After days or weeks on my own, I might go back to stay with the same people or even others. I grew up thinking that no one wanted to know my name, that I wasn’t worth enough for anyone to want to know my name. I had no sense of self-worth, and because of that, I would not bother learning people’s names. Some people say they can’t remember names, but I had an excuse for not remembering. I lived a life of inferiority for many years. I walked to see my mother and my siblings occasionally, but when I wanted to leave, I would just walk off, telling no one where I was going, and wander back to one of the many families I stayed with.
Loving—I Did Not Understand My Mother’s Love
At some point in my adolescence, I went to live with my mother and my brothers and sisters. My mother was one of the most caring mothers one could wish for, but I was too confused and immature to know it then.
Mom Would Not Eat Until Her Kids Had
My mom would raise big hogs so she could sell the hams to a nearby inn, keeping the shoulder meat for us. I remember many cold winter mornings when she took her long butcher knife to cut some good, lean meat for us but did not eat until her five children had finished. That memory breaks my heart to this day. We were too young to understand how much she loved us and how much she wanted the best for us.
Mother Didn’t Have Much—But She Loved Us
My mother did not have much to give us. She was able to get on welfare, but that was just $58 a month. She did washing and ironing for some people when they needed help. One of my brothers and I would do farm work from daylight to dark for $2 a day and give Mom $1.75, and sometimes the other 25¢ as well.
As years passed, she built a two-room house that was only fourteen by twenty-eight feet, a house for seven people. At only 392 square feet, it was smaller than most people’s living rooms today. I don’t remember where we all slept. The house had no plumbing, no water, no electricity, no insulation, and no phone. We were not aware just how bad things were.
I Was Out of Control
When I finally went to live permanently with my mother, I was out of control. She tried the best she knew how, but I got to hanging out with two other guys my age, and there wasn’t much we wouldn’t do. We drank, stole, and burglarized homes and businesses. We would make up tales if we were caught to stay out of trouble. One time we drove from North Carolina to Florida by stealing our way there and back.
After God began to change me, I talked with one of the guys I had gone to Florida with but could not get him to change. He eventually spent seven years in prison.
I don’t suggest in any way that we should try to use the Bible or God to get something we want, because that’s selfish. We must have reverence, love, and respect for God and others.
Faith
God’s Grace—Our Faith
I had no idea how I would write things down when I started this, but I feel I have to stick to a subject. I’m not a writer, so I didn’t know how this would turn out. Having dropped out of school in the ninth grade, I never wrote a book report or any type of paper while in school in the Appalachian Mountains in the late ’40s and ’50s. This book, however, is not about me but about what God has done for me by my faith in His Word, so here goes.
Faith—the Bible says by grace through faith we are saved. God’s grace and our faith work together. Hebrews 11 is called the faith chapter.
Verse 1 tells us, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for.
In verse 5, Enoch was translated he should not see death. Verse 6 tells us, But without faith it’s impossible to please him.