Goals, Hard Work and God's Help

"A man's mind plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps (Proverbs 16:9)."

Keith and Marjorie Nelson

In April I received Maria’s call asking if I had ever had an experience in which God had shaped the outcome. My answer was “yes, many such experiences” as I look back over my 90 years of living. As I reflect over the past, I realize how much I missed because my trust and faith were not as strong as they should have been to find the peace in my life that would have quieted some of my fears and anxiety. That, I am still working on. This reflection started a few years back when the question arose in my mind, “is God’s Kingdom on earth right now?” With each passing day I am more convinced the answer is “yes”; it is really here and now.

Returning to Maria’s request and my attempt to answer her question, I chose Proverbs 16:9 to illustrate how it ties to an actual event in my life which altered all my plans. After many years of fulfilling my teenage dreams, which God guided and directed, our retirement has been the best years of our lives. I will explain:

My teenage dreams and goals were to own forty acres, a house, a car and $10,000 in the bank by the age of 45. Of course, at 17, some of my friends had a car and that was what I most wanted, or so I thought. I did have a job working for a utility company making $130 per month, but you couldn’t borrow money until you were 21 unless you had someone co-sign your note. I asked my dad if he would co-sign and he laughed and said, “not on your life.” So much for a car.

But wait, was God saying “no” to me? I believe so, because about a year later I was with my friends going dove hunting, and I saw a sign in someone’s yard indicating lots for sale, owner financed. These lots were located about three blocks from a junior college, a branch of Louisiana State University. I asked my friend to stop, and I inquired of the man how much for the lots and he replied that they were $500 each. He agreed to finance them for me, so I bought two of the lots and gave him $200 down from money I had saved.

Fast forward a couple years to when I was 20 years old, and I had asked Marjorie to marry me. By then I was making $150 per month. We were married on January 21st and three months later, I was drafted and off to basic training. I spent seventeen months overseas in Japan during the Korean War. Marge was working. I lived on $10 per month and sent the rest home.

In staccato fashion I will tick off the events of the next few years. We had our first son and with Marjorie working while staying at her mother’s home, we paid off the lots in Lake Charles, LA. We then were able to build a home on those lots upon my discharge. I went to work every day for $180 per month and bought a used Plymouth automobile. After going to college three hours per night, four nights per week, while working full-time I got my B.S. degree.

Again, fast forward to the early 1960’s when I was promoted and transferred to De Ridder, LA as a District Office Manager. I began to read the for sale real estate ads looking for forty acres. One day, I found an ad for eighty acres for $100 per acre. I made contact and the owner agreed to sell the land for $80 per acre. We were able to save some money through the company’s stock purchase plan and their matching funds. Now we had eighty acres, a car, and the home in Lake Charles that we rented out and paid for with the rent. I was only 37 years old. All this time God was guiding and providing, yet I wasn’t smart enough to realize what was happening.

As time rolled on, we built a home in De Ridder, acquired another forty acres and we began to make our plans for retirement on the first eighty acres. But wait, God wasn’t through guiding our footsteps. A friend we made in De Ridder had a cabin in the San Juan mountains of Colorado. For two or three years they insisted I give them a time for us to come visit their place in Colorado. I reluctantly did. The next day after we arrived, they took us for a ride in the high country at 11,000 to 12,000 feet altitude. The wildflowers were in their full glory. I dubbed it God’s flower garden. Man could never duplicate such beauty. The next day we bought a lot in the Aspen forest and thus began the realization of what it all meant.

Proverbs 16:9, “a man’s mind plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.” Never in my life did I dream what God had in store for us. A cabin at 9,000 feet on God’s mountain in Colorado. The next 34 summers were spent communing with God, and the things that He revealed to us were amazing. It was here that we met two Mormon families who were the nicest people we have ever met. Maria, may God bless you and guide your footsteps. Thanks for being you.

Submitted by Keith Nelson from De Ridder, Louisiana

May 2021

Maria’s Comments: Mark and I were able to live next to Keith and Marjorie Nelson for about 8 summers as we had adjoining properties in the San Juan Mountains in Colorado, north of Mancos. The Nelsons sold their cabin property about three years ago as the maintenance of two households was getting to be too much for this elderly couple. Keith and I would talk a lot about self-reliance principles. Keith didn’t mention this in his story, but for many years, he was an adjunct professor at a junior college teaching personal financial management principles to young people. By the time we met them, Keith and Marjorie were debt-free and had been for many years. Keith lived the self-reliance principles that he taught. Even though he was debt-free with significant savings in the bank and investments that paid well, Keith maintained a monthly budget. He also tithed to his local congregation of the Methodist church. Keith (and Marjorie) worked hard all their lives, and I was amazed that this man in his 80’s was still swinging a pickax or splitting wood by hand. When we got together often to visit, we talked religion and God and His many blessings. God governs the intersections of our lives. Mark and I have been blessed with our association with this God-loving couple. We still keep in touch.