Not me. I’m gonna go to college and get the best education I can get, find the best job I can find, make as much money as I can make and have as much fun as I can have.” How sad, I thought when I heard my daughter’s words. You see, we lived in a small country town and it was a tradition for all graduating seniors to write a one or two sentence statement on their goals for the future. These goals would then be published in our small hometown newspaper. The words from my daughter’s mouth was the goal of a friend of hers. My daughter Rockie’s goal was very different. Her goal read, “I want to live my life for Christ. I’ll go wherever He wants me to go and do whatever He wants me to do.”
On that particular day Rockie and a friend were asked to help work on the school yearbook during lunch. With two additional friends helping, they read through these recently published goals trying to decide if they wanted to add them to the school yearbook. When one of the other two girls, Sally (not her real name), read my daughter’s goal she burst into laughter. It wasn’t a mean laughter because Sally was one of the sweetest young ladies you would ever want to meet.
Four years earlier when we moved to this small country town, Sally had been the first person to introduce herself to Rockie and welcome her to the school. That same day, when lunch time arrived, Sally and her friends sat at the lunch table with Rockie so she wouldn’t eat alone. So when Sally laughed at Rockie’s goal it wasn’t in spite, it was with real concern. After reading her goal, Sally pleaded, “Oh Rockie, don’t do that. You’ll be throwing your life away.” To which Rockie replied, “I don’t agree with that. I think the only life that really counts is the one lived for Christ.”
Sally begged, “Please, Rockie, take it from a preacher’s daughter. I’ve been there. You’ll be throwing your life away.” When Rockie shook her head in disagreement, Sally finished with, “Well, not me. I’m gonna go to college and get the best education I can get, find the best job I can find, make as much money as I can make and have as much fun as I can have.”
Two years later Rockie was married to a young minister and both were attending Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Missouri. One evening she received a phone call from a high school friend. “Have you heard about Sally?” the friend asked. “No,” Rockie replied. “She was hit by a drunk driver and killed.” Rockie dropped to her knees weeping.
During the next thirty years Rockie ministered as a pastor’s wife. She taught children’s church (25 years), high school Bible at Mt. Juliet Christian Academy (7 years), an adult Bible class and an adult teacher training class. She has recently written a book about life in the ministry in an effort to minister to pastor’s and their wives, and in hopes of helping church members have a better understanding of what life in the ministry is really like. She currently is writing a youth fiction series which includes the gospel message, is working on two different adult series, as well as a book about deacons who really deek.
Thirty-seven years have come and gone since that day so long ago when her friend begged her to not throw her life away, and during those years she and her husband have led hundreds to Christ. In terms of eternity that’s not “throwing your life away,” it’s centering on the only thing in life that really matters.
Rockie’s life in the ministry book (It’s Hard to Drain the Swamp When Yer up to Yer Ears in Alligators!) as well as her youth fiction series (The Heavenly Host Series) and her creation material (Creation Versus Evolution: A Biblical and Scientific Study) can be purchased through http://www.amazon.com by placing her name (Rockie Fordham) in the search bar. You can also follow her writing blogs on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Its-Hard-to-Drain-the-Swamp-When-Yer-up-to-Yer-Ears-in-Alligators/205002686321810?ref=hl
By Guest Author: Wilma Daffern
Rockie Sue Books 