MY STORY
About Leslie Jackson
Do I have it all figured out? Nope, but I finally feel like I am now at least on the right track going full throttle for Jesus. But, it has been a process getting to know Him.
It started out as a small child of 9 with a stained, wrinkled red bible my mom gave me. Inside its worn cover are penciled words like “Love”, “Jesus”, and “Psalm 23:4” with fancy decorations in a childlike handwriting. There, just inside the cover, mom penned a prayer for me that I have taken comfort in and repeated hundreds of times. I think back to those childhood days of just beginning to grasp the love of Jesus. If only it had continued to bloom along those lines, instead I got myself into many ditches.
Along the bustling river full of boats in Stillwater, Minnesota in 2001 I met a tall, muscular handsome man, now my husband (not my 1st). We met for the first time at a mutual friend’s birthday party. He was an alcoholic. We dated, broke up, he got sober, we dated, and then got married 3 years later. Of course, there is a lot more to this story. What I like to say about our journey together is, we help each other stop swerving on the road and now make our paths straight by love and supporting each other.
Miracles do happen. One frigid winter night in our home in Wisconsin in my early 50's I thought I was having a heart attack because of massive hemorrhaging. From across the room a heavenly bright ball of light came towards me, enveloped me and I was instantly healed. Two weeks later, another brilliant ball of light healed me of severe flu like symptoms. Not sure how to fully communicate what happened, I didn’t say anything about it in public for a few years.
In 2018 I saw on Facebook an audition call for a theatre show called, “Hard for the Money: Stories of Women, Work & Satisfaction.” I felt like it was calling out to me to submit my life’s story. I did submit my story and was selected to be a part of the production. So much more to this story...
Next I felt God calling me to share my life's story in an even bigger way. Releasing shame, pain, regret and guilt was what I worked through during the process of penning my books. This became another mile marker on my journey. After healing inside with the help of God I successfully published the two books.
Another huge life changing event was in February of 2021 when my pastor prayed over me to speak in tongues. I didn’t immediately speak in tongues, I had to go home, pray and earnestly ask God for the gift of speaking in tongues. I started to move my mouth and try speaking in tongues and then it happened, the words started to flow out of me like rivers of water. Halleluiah, I now love speaking in tongues because it truly is a lifeline to God when I speak and pour out my soul to Him. It fills me up with confidence and assurance that God has heard my cries of desperation and also of worship.
I was baptized as an infant in a Catholic Church and do not have any memory of it. Since water baptism is the act of cleansing me from sins and my declaration of repentance I felt the need to be baptized again. August 2021 I was baptized in the St. Croix River in Hudson, WI. I felt renewed knowing my sins were washed away never to be seen again because of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Down into the water burying my old nature and up out of the water, free from my sins as a new creation in my savior Jesus Christ.
Through the years I have had fun racing cars on the dirt track and successfully reaching the checkered flag first. Motorcycling and even skydiving a few times. Fun, but not totally fulfilling in the true sense of the word. I was always searching, but not fully understanding what I was searching for. I read in the bible we are made in God's image (Genesis 1:26) and now I realize there is a place in my heart that only a right relationship with God can fill to overflowing.
I use to race to the checkered flag, but now I have victory through Jesus.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
-Leslie Jackson