Miss Goody-Two-Shoes

I was raised in a Pastor’s home, learning from a young age all the stories from the Bible as well as hundreds of Sunday School songs and hymns. I loved to sing and serve . . . I was a religious pleaser. As I grew older and upon entering my teen years, a real unrest seemed to take over my heart and thinking. I began to despise being a Preacher’s daughter. I felt it placed too many restrictions on my life and I just wasn’t sure I held to the same convictions and beliefs as my Pastor father.

Real rebellion and resentment began to grow in me. On the surface, everyone saw me as compliant and supportive, but away from church or church people, I was anything but compliant. I was dead set on having friends in the world and being accepted by them. There is only one way for that to happen and that is to become like them; do what they do, talk like they talk, go where they go and on and on it goes.

Between the ages of 14-16, I found myself living in warfare against God. The world was tugging at me, but each time I heard the Bible preached , I was convicted in my heart about the double standard I was living. I was a perfect example of Matthew 6:24, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

In a nutshell, I was miserable! The few short, fleeting moments of acceptance that I experienced from my worldly friends, did nothing to dispel my unrest. The satisfaction I gained from being like them… was short lived at best! I was learning very quickly that I was going to have to make a choice! I really thought in my heart that I could be a “half-way” Christian – enough to get by on Sundays and still be my own person, making my own choices, in my own way, the rest of the time. Little did I realize that just my desire to “be my own person” was rebellion against God’s authority over my life.

Unknown to me, during these months of wrestling with God, there were people who were concerned for me. People who saw my struggle and people who were praying for me. My “goody-two-shoes”, “straddle the fence” image was not being very successful. That is how it is, around real Christianity. Real Christians have what the Bible calls, a “spirit of discernment”.
Hebrew 5:14 “But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”

Not only were the people I was trying to please figuring me out, but the Bible itself was revealing me to be a phony. Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”


I now had come to the place where I had to deny that the Bible was even worth taking seriously so I could resist its authority over me, or I was going to have to submit myself to it and do what it says.

My struggle continued because I was not yet at that place of repentance…the place of willingness to turn from sin and my self will. Every day I gained less satisfaction from my “friends” and their carnal ways. You see . . . even up to this time, my friends in the world couldn’t get me to smoke or drink or do the things that always accompany that kind of lifestyle. I really was a “Miss Goody-two-shoes” in their eyes. What kept me from doing the things they were encouraging me to do? Even though I had done them hundreds of times in the secret places of my heart, I had not done them physically, yet. It was the teachings of the Truth and a fear of God that was instilled in my heart as a daughter growing up in a solid Christian home, that held me back from ruining my life and purity. How I thank God for that upbringing!

Finally on April 22, 1968, at the age of 16 ½ I was done running. As a matter of fact, I was tired of running and fed up with the sin that actually gave me no satisfaction at all! My tormented spirit was worn out. I was now willing to do what the Bible said in Acts 3:19, “Repent ye therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out . . .” That’s what I wanted and needed. I wanted to be a changed person, a converted person – forever! After what the Lord Jesus Christ did for me, how could I not accept His great sacrifice by faith, and turn from my sin? Was my sin really worth rejecting Him? After all, it was for my sin that he went to the cross to begin with.

I knelt down that day in our church nursery, with my dad kneeling next to me and poured my heart out to the God I had been fighting against for so long! I asked Him to forgive me, to cleanse me from my sin and to do a miracle that only He could do, in my heart. I wanted Him to change everything in me that was not pleasing to Him. I did what Romans 10:9,10,13 says, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

I was now a changed girl! Repentance is a turning away from sin and the path you were going. That is exactly what happened to me because that is exactly what I WANTED to have happen! The things I used to hate – I now began to love. Now I hungered for the Bible and to be around spiritually minded people. I couldn’t get enough of it.

Romans 10:11 says, “For the scripture saith whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed.” I was no longer ashamed of being a preacher’s daughter. I was no longer ashamed of saying I was a Bible believer. I have never been the same person since that day. My life has been an evidence of the truth of II Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

My friend, Christ can do the same for you. You just have to WANT Him to, and LET Him do it. All our good works will not earn us a place in Heaven. Being religious will not save you from sin. Only through repentance – that deep sorrow over your sin, and placing your complete faith in God and His Word, the Bible, will get anyone get to Heaven. The Bible says in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast.”

Over forty years have passed since that life changing day! Dear friend . . . I want you to know the peace and joy that I have come to know. The Bible is not just a book of literature. It is the Word of God, preserved for us so we can know forgiveness of sin and the true way to Heaven.

Luke 13:3 “I tell you nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”

II Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”