Three Women, One Faithful God

Have you ever stopped to think about the people who quietly changed the direction of your life?

Not the famous people.

Not the people everyone else admires.

The ones who stepped into your life at just the right moment. The ones who probably had no idea that the ordinary things they did would echo through the rest of your life.

I have.

When I think back over my younger years, I can point to three women who, by God's grace, became the difference between who I was becoming and who He was calling me to be. They each entered my life during different seasons, and each gave me something I didn't yet know I would need. And I doubt any of them realized the role they were playing in God's much bigger story.

I often wonder if they ever knew, and what I would give to tell them.

I wonder if they knew that a little girl who desperately needed unconditional love found it in a grandmother everyone simply called Cookie.

I wonder if a Burger King manager named Jessica knew she was giving a struggling teenager purpose long before she had confidence.

I wonder if Mrs. Dudley realized she wasn't simply teaching Health Occupations; she was awakening a curiosity that would sustain me through decades of chronic illness.

God knew exactly what I needed.

And He knew exactly who to send.

Grandma Cookie: She ignited compassion

If you asked me what unconditional love looked like growing up, I wouldn't give you a definition.

I would tell you about my grandmother.

She loved people the way Jesus did, not in grand gestures or dramatic moments, but in the quiet, ordinary faithfulness of everyday life.

She worked hard. She served consistently. And somehow, she always had room for one more person.

She didn't just tell me that serving others mattered.

She invited me to come along.

She took me when she dropped off meals for families who had experienced unimaginable loss. She visited people who were sick and sitting alone. She stopped by the homes of young mothers who were overwhelmed and simply needed someone to help carry the load for an afternoon.

She served faithfully in her small rural church, teaching Awana and introducing children to the love of Jesus. I watched her pour into people week after week without ever expecting recognition.

Without ever sitting me down for a lesson, she showed me that following Jesus meant sacrificing your own comfort, time, resources, and plans so someone else could experience His love.

She showed me that ministry often looks like casseroles, conversations, hospital visits, and showing up when everyone else has gone home.

She lived a life that quietly declared, "Others are more important than me."

She taught me what it meant to love people the way Christ loves us.

Jessica: She ignited servant leadership

By the time I met Jessica, I was 16 years old and I wasn't looking for a mentor.

I was looking for a paycheck.

Burger King wasn't supposed to become one of the places where God would shape my life.

But that's exactly what happened.

Somehow Jessica saw something in me that I couldn't yet see in myself.

At a time when I wasn't particularly hopeful about my future, she began giving me responsibility. She trusted me with things that felt far beyond my experience. Instead of simply managing employees, she showed me how to care for them.

She taught me that leadership wasn't about getting the most work out of people.

Leadership was about seeing the person standing in front of you.

She noticed when someone was struggling. She invested in people instead of simply measuring productivity. She led with both accountability and compassion, and I watched every bit of it.

She taught me empathy by inviting me into the difficult stories and struggles of our fellow employees. She showed me how to recognize the inherent dignity of every person and how a few words of encouragement, genuine care, and consistent support could change the trajectory of a life.

Long before I understood it from Scripture, Jessica was demonstrating that leadership begins by seeing people the way God sees them.

By the time I graduated from high school, she had advocated for me to complete every management course Burger King offered.

She introduced me to business principles that became the foundation of a career I never could have imagined.

But more importantly, she taught me that leadership is stewardship.

People are never interruptions to the work.

They are the work.

Looking back, I realize Jessica wasn't just preparing me for a career.

She was preparing me to view my workplace as a mission field.

Mrs. Dudley: She ignited a love of learning

Mrs. Dudley entered my life at a time when I desperately needed direction.

She saw a teenager who was drifting, looking for value in places that would never satisfy.

Instead of seeing my mistakes, she saw possibility.

She invited me into HOSA, a health occupations student organization, and into a world I didn't even know existed.

For the first time, someone encouraged my writing. She challenged me to compete in extemporaneous writing competitions focused on healthcare topics. When recognition came, she and I traveled to California so I could compete. She took me sightseeing in Los Angeles, we went to Disneyland, and she stood cheering as I walked across the awards stage.

More than thirty years later, I am still humbled by the belief she had in me and the sacrifices she made to help me begin believing in myself.

She also awakened a fascination with the remarkable complexity of the human body. As I studied anatomy and physiology, I became captivated by the intricate design of God's creation. The more I learned, the more I marveled at the wisdom of the One who designed it.

The curiosity she ignited became one of God's unexpected gifts. It equipped me to navigate years of illness without losing sight of the beauty, purpose, and intentional design of His creation.

Mrs. Dudley wasn't simply teaching anatomy or preparing me for a profession.

She was helping me see God's handiwork in a way that would carry me through some of the most challenging years of my life.

Looking Back

I often wonder if these three women had any idea of the impact they made.

They probably thought they were simply loving a granddaughter, managing a restaurant, or teaching a high school class.

But God was doing something far greater.

He was using each of them to care for a young girl who desperately needed exactly what they had to give.

Looking back, I see more than their kindness.

I see God's providence.

Psalm 77:11–13 says, "I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your wonders of old. I will ponder all your work and meditate on your mighty deeds. Your way, O God, is holy."

As I remember their faithfulness, I remember His.

Over the years, God has allowed me to walk alongside others in their own difficult seasons. Each time I share what He has done in my life, I find myself remembering His faithfulness all over again.

He doesn't waste our pain.

He redeems it.

He weaves it into someone else's story of hope while continuing to heal our own hearts along the way.

Which brings me to a question.

Who were your three?

Who saw you before you saw yourself?

Who believed in you when you had little hope?

Who quietly changed the direction of your life?

And perhaps an even more important question...

Whose three will you become?

You may never know the impact of a kind word, a faithful presence, or an ordinary act of love.

But God does.

Perhaps someone is waiting for the person God has chosen to send into their story.

Perhaps that someone is you.