Marcy Pittman

Hello, my name is Marcy Pittman. My husband, Randy, and I have been members of Crosspoint for about 2 ½ years. We are a blended family and together we have 3 daughters. One of my passions is music and I have been a music teacher for about 20 years. I will be teaching music full-time again starting next school year. This is my first blog and I feel honored to share part of my story with you.

While watching the news stories about the recent tornados in Oklahoma, I started thinking about foundations and how people rebuild their lives after a tragedy. Many times when people face a devastating loss or tragedy they ask, “Why would God allow this to happen?”

Almost eleven years ago, I asked this same question to the God I had served since I was 12 years old. In 2002 I became a mom for the first time and a few months later I became a widow. At this time in my life, I was a single parent without a job. I had chosen to step away from teaching full time to stay at home with my daughter. I had many hard decisions to make. I was also grieving and learning how to take care of a baby. I asked the question “Why?” almost every day. “Why me?” I would ask God. “I have been serving you faithfully for many years?” My husband and I had been serving together for many years. Then God reminded me of a prayer/thought that I had had a few years before this tragedy. I remember thinking about what it would be like to live as if you couldn’t breath without Christ, to live as if He was my oxygen. It was more thought than prayer but I spent a few weeks thinking about what that would look like and feel like to have such a mindset. Being a widow and single parent was the journey God took me on to show me this very mindset. Throughout this journey, I could see how God was all over it. The financial decisions that were made that allowed me to purchase a house and car in cash. The part-time job that just fell in my lap. The wonderful support of my family, friends and church family. The wonderful woman of God who would step in and be my “mom” after my mom passed away suddenly. God had orchestrated all of this before I even knew that I needed it.

During this journey, I often asked God why and why he chose me. But one thing that I never questioned was that God was real and that He loved me with an everlasting love. This is the foundation that was built by my parents when I was young. I was raised in a family that didn’t just do church. Jesus permeated our lives. Every struggle, we prayed for guidance. Every blessing, we prayed thanksgiving, every decision we prayed for wisdom. My parents served in their church, they took us to church, and they had church in their home. Every morning I saw my dad with his Bible and bowl of cereal. My parents reached out and cared for neighbors and their church family.

This is the foundation that my parents help instill in me: God is the center of my life and loves me with an everlasting love. Without this foundation, I would have fallen to pieces. I would not be healthy mentally or spiritually. God has been challenging me lately with this: What kind of foundation am I building in my daughter and stepdaughters lives? Do they see that Christ is the center of my life? Do they see that I rely on Him daily? Do they see that He is my oxygen?

Four years ago, I married a wonderful man and added two other girls to my life. Now as a blended family, we face new challenges and a new journey of leaning on Him through good and bad.