I am a daughter, sister, wife, mother, friend, boss, and I am a Mormon.
My name is Serena Stumbaugh Tannehill. I am originally from Arizona and I moved to Florida when I was 15 years old. I was brought up in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
From the outside my childhood was just like every other childhood growing up. My whole family was apart of the church, we went every Sunday, activity was a part of every part of the Church. My FATHER held the priesthood and gave us everything we ever needed. It was not the best but it was still good until it wasn't.
Now don't get me wrong about the Church this blog is not to say the Church is bad but I am actually saying that the Church was and is the most stable thing in my life.
My family was a good family at one point it worked. But I don't remember the exact age I was when we stopped going to church because my father had a drug problem and didn't want anyone to know what was going on in his life. I spent many years thinking it was something that I did and eventually I just stoped thinking about what I was taught and the values that were instilled in my childhood.
I was a lost and wild teenager. I thought because everyone around me was drinking and using drugs so freely that it was okay. That it would be over looked by God because I had done so good before. I got in trouble with the law, I lied to my mother, I never went to school and I didn't care what was going to happen. I used drugs and alcohol with my so called friends and my life was a downward spiral.
But, then I met my husband. His name is Joshua and he has his faults but he is a good man that follows the Lord. He recently become a member of the Church but, before he did he lived a righteous life unlike mine. He showed me how to over come my afflictions and I showed him the Lord.
We were living together when I got pregnant with our daughter and we spoke of how we were going to raise our children together. It was always a fight between the two of us I wanted my children to be raised like I was, in the Church. Joshua was never raised in any church, he was a man of no religion and he wanted his children to be raised that way as well and that saddened me because I did want the Lord in my children's lives.
I prayed everyday that my husband would one day see things my way so to say. And over the beginning part of our marriage we struggled and we had another child, a son.
Shortly after our son was born I was sleeping one Sunday morning and my husband woke me and asked if I would take him to church and that he wanted to learn more because he was done fighting and he wanted to know what I knew and from that day on my life has been blessed in so many ways.
Since I have let the Lord back in my life I know that I am not alone anymore that I can persevere over any obstacle that is placed in my path. I am here for a reason ans my heavenly father has a plan for me and one day I will know what that plan is. Until then I will do as my Lord tells me to and write to you from time to time.
