by Julie Reynolds

Created on: July 10, 2010

This is the story of a woman who starved herself spiritually, because she stopped gathering her own manna.

I wont give her a name, I will just call her Woman.

Woman was pretty strong in her faith.  She read the Bible every day, and prayed throughout every day.  She became pretty good at gathering her portion of manna for each day.  She was even known to start humming a Christian tune or two when she was working.  One day, Woman met someone I will call Man.  She fell in love with him, as he did with her.

 
A year later they found themselves walking down the isle to get married.  Up until this point  she was very good at gathering her own manna every day.  She never missed a day.  When Woman and Man got married, she decided to let Man gather her manna for her.  The only problem was, Man didn't know that she was doing this.  He gathered enough for himself, and she decided that they could split what he gathered.  Things were ok for a while, but they were soon to change.

Woman got pregnant with Son 1.  She was happy until Son 1 was born and found out that Man wasn't going to gather any manna for them anymore.  So Woman wondered what to do.  Woman decided to do nothing.  She thought, "well, if man isn't going to gather manna anymore then I guess I will just make due with what I have, and stretch it to last me for a while."  This worked for a while.

Woman got pregnant with Son 2.  Now there were 4 mouths to feed, and the manna was running out.  She found out that Son 2 had some developmental problems that she couldn't fix, which just made things worse.  What was she going to do.  Woman started to take what little she had and give it to her children.  She soon became very depressed.  Now she had nothing, and there was nothing left to give to her children.  Woman lost all hope of regaining what she once had.  Woman was desperate.

One day Woman met Friend.  Now Friend was a Christian woman who knew what Woman's problem was and exactly how to fix it.  Friend told Woman to go out and start gathering her own manna.  That is how it's done.  Woman is now on her way back out of spiritual starvation, and she would warn anyone who asks.  Never stop gathering your own manna.  God didn't intend for you to get your spiritual food through someone else's labor.  

Woman in this story is me.  I depended upon my husband for my spiritual growth.  When he stopped growing spiritually, and I saw that he was becoming starved, I didn't know what to do.  I became spiritually starved myself.  Friend in this story would by my good friend, Susie.  Thank you, Susie, for letting God speak through you so that I could see the importance of gathering my own manna, so to speak.  I would equate manna to spending time with God in prayer, Bible Study, and praise.  I am now on my way back from 16 years of spiritual starvation, and I am truely thankful.  God is truely Good!

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