SS 1 “My Salvation Story”

Today, I'm excited to begin a new and exciting addition, a new book and online course. In this book, I will be sharing just a few of the fantastic Salvation Stories that I have loved sharing all around the world. I will begin with stories from my own family: siblings, nieces, nephews, and my parents. To get us started, the Lord led me to begin with my own salvation, which I hope will not only inspire you. I hope each will resonate with you and motivate you to share these Salvation Stories as I've done when I witnessed what God will do to draw the lost to Himself. Each story is written to encourage you with God's promise that not just you but "you and your household" oikos "your family," will be saved.

My Salvation Story

by Erin Thiele

As many of you know, I was saved at a young age, just seven years old. It happened while attending a Catholic school, and a nun led me to meet and know Him so He would come to know me. 

It happened while this nun (who, of all things, was raised a Baptist) prepared us for our First Holy Communion. The preparation began with our First Confession (when we each went into the confessional and told the priest our sins). That’s when our nun explained that even though there was a priest there, we should imagine speaking to God Himself and confessing our sins to Him. Then, she gave us time to do a test while kneeling quietly in the dark church. It was there in the pew, on the kneeler, when my life changed. Immediately after confessing, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness," I lifted my head and felt strangely wonderfully different; my eyes began tearing up, but I did not understand why.

Next, our nun passed around “unconsecrated” hosts, which later (during our communion ceremony) we were told would be blessed by the priest and would literally turn into His real body. With the unconsecrated host in our hands, our nun encouraged us to ask the Lord into our hearts, to ask Him to come in and dwell there, giving our lives to Him. Bowing my head again, I did as she said, and at that moment, I changed instantly and radically! It was as if I was born again. "Do not be amazed that I said, ‘You must be born again." (John 3:7).

The change in me was so profound that my parents believed it had to have been the Catholic school. I heard them tell family, friends, and neighbors when they asked, “What’s gotten into Erin? She’s not that rambunctious girl that used to give you so much trouble.”

At the time, a joke was going around that may help you better understand. It went like this: There was a horrid little boy who worried his parents to no end. They had tried everything when someone recommended sending him to a Catholic school. After the first day of school, the boy changed completely. When the parents asked what had happened, wondering if he had been beaten or punished, not comprehending what could have made the drastic change in him, the boy said, “When I walked into my classroom and looked up, and saw that man hanging on the cross, I knew they meant business!” (Referring, to the crucifix, or Catholic cross that shows the Lord hanging on it.)

My parents believed the same thing. That somehow, it was the strict schooling or the nuns or the Irish teacher who'd been in the army (who'd make us march everywhere), and that was what had changed me. In a way, they were right; it was the school, but no one realized a tiny nun introduced me to forgiveness and accepting the Lord into my heart.

As I said, I was never the same from that day on. That year, the Lord became my Best Friend because of how God had orchestrated my life. (The whole story is in our children's book A Wise Woman for His Princess,  "Forever Best Friend.") Like many people in the Bible, my life was separated from just about everyone. My brothers were much older, and because of being a tomboy, my sisters wanted nothing to do with me.

As far as friends, I had no neighborhood friends since I was older; instead, I was their babysitter. I also had no school friends since our family lived an hour away in the valley while attending school in Hollywood, California. So, because it took over an hour to get home on the public bus, I never could stay around after school to interact with the other children. On top of that, talking on the phone to classmates was not possible because, at the time, it was long distance and very expensive.

During a school day, there was little to no interaction. It was just the other day that I was explaining this to one of my granddaughters, describing how strict our school was. There was a 10-minute, then 15, and later 30 minutes of free play, like recess, each day. Even during lunch, we sat at our desks and were forbidden to talk. (The whole story is in our children's book A Wise Woman for His Princess "On the Rock 'Set Apart.'")

Much of my separateness was due to being a tomboy, as mentioned earlier. It meant that I had very few close girlfriends as I was growing up. Afterschool activities, like the nine years of ballet I took and later nine years of synchronized swimming, allowed me to be around other girls, but I was never close friends with anyone (most of the time due to it being in other cities from where we lived). For most of my childhood, I had only one close friend, the Friend who has been with me, talking to and listening to me talking to Him since I was seven.

The other thing I never had was a Bible. During this period in the Catholic church, having a Bible was frowned upon, even a Catholic bible. We were told that only a priest could comprehend the deep mysteries due to priests having a doctorate in theology. So it wasn’t until my husband ran off with another woman and left his Bible behind that I really opened it up and read God's Word for myself. Of course, during my crisis, like many of you, I devoured every Word and in doing so, the How God Can and Will Restore Your Marriage and A Wise Woman: A Wise Woman Builds Her House By a FOOL Who First Built on Sinking Sand were written. If you have ever read either, both are filled almost entirely with God's Word, which I wrote down from sheer memory. I didn’t have anything as wonderful as simply "Googling" it like we have now.

It was soon after I married that I stopped going to the Catholic church and attending mass. If my memory serves me, I believe my husband and I would take turns attending a Catholic and then visiting a local Christian church. Then it became just once a month for the Catholic, until I guess I was weaned off of it. Honestly, I was terrified when I didn't go because I had been taught that not attending mass was a mortal sin. Yet, due to my close personal relationship with the Lord, my Best Friend, and my First Love, I could sense I had done nothing too horrible, or He certainly wouldn’t have stayed so close to me.

Even though I believe I carried a Bible to the Christian church, since everyone else did, for the most part, I just read along with my husband from his Bible—mainly because I couldn’t find most of the verses the preacher would ask us to turn to. I didn’t know there were many “books” of the Bible, so I was always embarrassingly lost and slow.

I was, however, fascinated when, on one Sunday, the Christian preacher had us read Matthew 6:8, which I instantly saw were the beginning words of what Catholics call “The Our Father” and Christians call "The Lord's Prayer."  It wasn’t that verse, but the prior verse, the portion just above, that caught my attention and shook my Catholic faith:

"And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. In this manner, therefore, pray:

"Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name..."

This revelation hit me hard. All my life I had grown up around repeating “The Our Father” for penance after going to confession and while saying the rosary. So I couldn’t understand how the church has missed the portion that came just before it. When the Lord Himself, who was teaching His disciples to pray, said not to repeat a prayer repeatedly "as the heathens do." This is something I contemplated and mulled over for a long time and asked the Lord about again and again. Yet I never got any real epiphany, the moment when I would suddenly understand. It was not until years later that I could sense that my Catholic faith had been cracked at its foundation due to another inconsistency.

The full collapse (when I no longer considered myself a Catholic) occurred when I read something else. While reading different portions of the Bible, I noticed how when the angels spoke to people, they often began with “Do not be afraid,” like when the angel came to speak to Mary about conceiving the Son of God through the Holy Spirit.

So why did this trouble me?

The reason is that a very close friend of mine was a priest, and during one of our theological discussions, he told me that he often had people in his parish coming to him saying they had seen an angel. He had been taught in seminary that the first thing to ask was, “How did you feel?” When they said “Afraid” or “Frightened,” he assured them they had not seen an angel. That it had to be something else entirely because if they really had seen an angel then they would have felt nothing but peace. Yet if seeing angels brought peace, then why would the most common greetings by angels begin with “Do not be afraid”?

It was with these two fallacies, errors, and inconsistencies, along with knowing I was still very close to my Best Friend, even though I’d begun missing mass again and again (especially later when I completely stopped going), that the Lord hadn’t forsaken me. "I will never leave you nor forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5). Nevertheless, since I have never once been rebellious from the moment I got saved at seven, which is how my parents knew something radical had happened to me, I still fought the feeling of guilt. It wasn’t until many years later, not until I was spiritually mature and farther along in my faith, when I understood that guilt and condemnation wasn’t at all from God, but was instead from the enemy to separate us from the love of God.

Thankfully, my journey with the Lord, which began at a very young age and led to marrying someone who wasn’t Catholic, who later left me, was used and worked together for good! It was me who He called to be the pioneer of my very Catholic family.

Once I fully understood that none of my siblings experienced the same salvation as I had when they had their first communion (the nun who introduced me to the Lord was at our school for only two years) and that, more than likely, my own parents might not know Him personally the way I did, it was up to me to do something.

Yet, rather than debate with my siblings (since we are "called to peace") or confront my parents (which would have been "insubordination") with questions like: “Do you know where you’ll go when you die?” as we are told to do while "witnessing" to the “unsaved.” Instead, I turned to the Lord and spoke to my Best Friend, who wanted my family saved even more than I did. That's when I began traveling along my family’s salvation journey, which began, as usual, with a crisis. My older and favorite brother was dying of leukemia, which I am excited to tell you about and why it's the very next chapter.

But, first, before you turn the page, stop for just a moment to speak to the Lord and ask Him if you not only know (about) Him but that He knows you intimately. Remember what is said in Matthew 7:22-23 (if you don't know, be sure to look it up) because based on the truth of what the Lord said Himself, even preachers and people who performed miracles are turned away from entering the gates of heaven.

So, I appeal to you to make sure that you know Him intimately as a close and personal Best Friend. Don't make the enteral mistake of depending on your religion. Don't be afraid of letting go of what you're comfortable with to gain a relationship with the Lord, as I did when I was just seven. It's as simple as telling Him you want what I have (which you'll understand better after reading Chapter 4). I’m certain that had I not known Him personally, ultimately, I would never have been willing to let go of being a Catholic and faithfully attending mass, which would have meant a difference in where my entire family could have spent eternity.

In the coming chapters, I have more than a dozen Salvation Stories from my own family that I am excited to share to help you see how amazingly the Lord works when we trust Him and His Word.

“They replied, ‘Believe on the Lord and you will be saved, and your entire household.’” (Acts 16:31).

It’s nothing we do but what He has done!!

“Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord which He will accomplish for you today..." (Exodus 14:13). Don't challenge and drive away the people you want, more than anyone, to spend eternity with you in heaven. Just keep reading what God did while I "witnessed" His faithfulness to His promise, "You and your household will be saved." 

"You need not fight in this battle; station yourselves, stand and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf . . . Do not fear or be dismayed . . . the Lord is with you" (2 Chronicles 20:17).

Instead of the kind of “witnessing,” which has come to mean confronting others about “where they’re going when they die,” love them with the love that is "patient, kind, never boastful," and above all, "believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things" because this love, His love, is the love that "never fails" (1 Corinthians 13:4-7). Let everyone you know witness His love by how you treat them and others all because of knowing Him and Him knowing you because that’s what others need to witness in your life, not just mine.

Witnessing, God says, is being an epistle or open book read by everyone who looks at our life.

“You are our epistles written in our hearts, known and read of all men.” "You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men” (2 Corinthians 3:2).

* Please be sure to take the time to open and read each of the Bible verses (above), and if you do it online, read the same verse in other versions, which will enhance and enrich your experience and understanding!