Jennifer Schreiner: Finding the Right Path

The paths of God's children are marked with grace.

Jennifer Schreiner was five years old when she first decided to follow the path of Jesus and give her heart to Him. 

About 19 years later, however, she found herself on a different path. It was then, she said, while she was hanging with the wrong crowd and no longer living for God, when her mother was praying, asking Him to get her attention.

And He did. 

Through a pregnancy. 

Unable to take care of a child at that point in her life, she placed the baby for adoption. 

At first it was difficult finding the right match. One couple was suggested to her, but she knew them and felt it would be awkward. So, she kept looking. Another was found, but then fell through a couple months later. Then, five different people at different times suggested the first couple, and she began to wonder if it was of God.  It worked out, and that couple ended up adopting the baby.

Today, she recognizes God’s hand in the adoption. “The family I didn’t want to adopt her at first," she said, "has been the best family she could have had."

Although it was a hard time in her life, looking back, she now sees it as God’s grace. “I’m not sure I would have been able to do it if I was not turning to God,” she said.

She pointed out that it was also through the love and non-judging attitudes of her family and church that helped her through the difficult time and lead her back to the path of Jesus.

Today she rejoices not only for the grace of God in her own life, but also in the life of the child who was adopted almost 10 years ago and became a child of God at the age of five.

Jennifer is now married and she and her husband Brad have two daughters. 

When she meets people who are going through similar situations to what she went through, she says she wants them to know that, “no matter what you have done, God wants a relationship with you.” She goes to God daily for strength and when things get tough, knowing that He is in control is a big deal to her, because that means she doesn’t have to fix it.

Her favorite verse in the Bible is Micah 6:8, which says, “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (ESV)

 Click here to learn about God's story of grace for your life.

Whatever paths your life has traveled, God's grace has always followed.

Brittani Bradford: A New Creation

Confused. Grieving. Searching.

That’s how Brittani Bradford, a 22-year-old college student, felt entering her third semester as a photography major at Luzerne County Community College.
 

Sometimes she’d try talking to God, but wondered why He would listen.
 

Then she started hanging out with a friend from class, a religious person who seemed to have a positive attitude and offered decent answers to her questions. To her surprise, this new friend didn’t run away the next time she saw her, and eventually invited her to a Christian concert at the nearby Cross Creek Community Church. 
 

Although she’d heard of Leeland, the band that would be playing, and liked their music, she didn’t want to go, and began looking for an excuse not to.
 

The date of the concert was November 7, the same day that would have been her Aunt Vicki’s 38th birthday, had she not died a few years before. Still trying to deal with her Aunt’s death, Brittani didn’t know where to turn. 
 

“Of anybody in the world, why her?” she wondered. 

Since a church seemed to be a logical place to deal with grief, and since she was unable to come up with a valid excuse not to, she went. She figured it would be filled with lame, bogus-sounding preaching.
 

“And it kind of was,” she said.
 

But then Leeland Mooring, lead singer of the band, said something that caught her attention. He talked about what it means to be a “new creation,” a concept found in the Bible in II Corinthians 5:17. He talked about something she longed for: starting over.
  

It was then she decided she wanted Jesus in her life.
 

“Some people would say you could do that on your own,” she said, “but I truly believe you can’t…without God in your life.” 
 

Today, Brittani is a new creation.
 

Her favorite Bible verse is II Corinthians 5:17, which says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he [or she] is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (English Standard Version)
 

She’s the first to admit that she’s not perfect. She’s still growing. Recognizing Jesus in her life is still new to her, and her life wasn’t automatically fixed and put into order when she came to God.
 

But she knows He’s there. She knows He’s listening. No matter what.
 

And she wants people who are in the same spot she was before all of this to know one thing:

There’s always hope.

Click here to learn about God's story of grace for your life.