86 ~ She Surrended To God Part 1

By Kay Heitsch

I'm going to start sharing "She Surrended To God," the second letter I was asked to write Dr. Peale. I'll share it in parts since it's long.

After the first letter, In Loving Memory of Todd" was published, Dr. Peale's staff called me quite often. They always wanted to know what was going on.

When Ric, the editor of Plus, called and asked me to write another letter, I told him that if it was the Lord's will, it would be, but I was swamped. I reminded him that I was not a professional writer.

We now had foster children who had moved in. They came in with scabies and pink eye. All were highly contagious. I washed sheets, towels, and clothes, and put cream on and eye drops in the kids ' eyes every day. I was also spraying RID on the furniture and van seats, on top of cleaning and cooking. Plus, we were planning to drive to Michigan and tend to Todd's grave on the weekend.

Ric was insistent and asked me to send my letter to Dr. Peale on Thursday.

I set up a typewriter in the bedroom on a card table, and when I had a spare second, I would come in and type a few lines of things I could remember that had gone on since "In Loving Memory of Todd" had been published.

It certainly must have been God's will because I did write my second letter to Dr. Peale and sent it off to the Peale Center on Thursday at Ric's request.

I will be writing this letter as I wrote it. When this letter was published, they changed it to the third person because of giving me the Norman V. Peale Award. I had never heard of it before I received it.

Three people receive the award each year. The year I received it, Angel Wallenda and General Colin Powell did, too.

She Surrendered To God By Kay Heitsch

Dear Dr. Peale,

It has been more than a year since the letter I wrote to you was published in Plus, titled "In Loving Memory of Todd."

What a year it has been! As a result of the article, I have received many phone calls and letters from people all over the United States. To say these calls and letters have been uplifting to my life would be an understatement.

One such letter came after the July/August 1990 Plus article was reprinted in our hometown newspaper in Dover, Ohio. As you know, the article told how I discovered your writing, how I shared them with my teenage son, Todd: how I drew upon them for strength and comfort, when Todd was killed in a car accident; and how I had begun using them to reach out and minister to Todd's friends.

The letter came from a young woman who had been a high school classmate of Todd's. She wrote that when she heard that Todd had been in a car accident, she prayed that "the Lord would do what was right for His kingdom. She felt the right thing would be that Todd would live.

Later, when the young woman learned that Todd had died, she was devastated. She could not understand why God had allowed Todd to die. Because of this, she almost lost faith in God.

Then, in the newspaper, she read the headline, Dover Mother Finds Triumph Through Tragedy." As she read the article, Todd's young friend realized that the Lord had answered her prayer.

Her letter made me do a great deal of thinking. How often have I allowed my faith to be shaken when I did not see the immediate answers to my prayers? I have learned to trust God more, remembering that He will do what is best for His kingdom.