More From Marsha Howard

When I was diagnosed with osteoporosis and told to walk four miles a day, I could have never imagined how that would impact my life and relationship with the Lord. The roadway on which I walk has been a precious reminder of God’s goodness and faithfulness through the changing of the seasons in nature and the seasons of my life.

When I first began walking, I found it hard to pray on my walk. I had always had a quiet time inside as I read the Bible, but the more I observed God’s creation as I walked, the easier it was to see God’s care and faithfulness, which filled me with praise. Scriptures that I had learned through the years came alive as I began to pray and talk to God as I walked.  Almost every day, through every high and low point in my life, we have walked and talked.

Whenever I top a particular hill on my walk, I am reminded of Psalm 119:9 and Micah 6:8 and the prayers I prayed for my son as he attended college. It was along this walk that I claimed Psalm 68:5 for my granddaughters when their father left. Every time I enter an old tabernacle three miles from my home, I am reminded of the mornings I knelt and prayed for a child for my son and his wife. Now, I smile as I think of Addy, my seven-year-old granddaughter. My father was laid to rest in the cemetery right outside the tabernacle.

I am now responsible for the care of my 92-year-old mother. My children have families of their own and live in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Just as seasons come and go, so do the seasons of our lives. I have begun to understand better the words of Solomon in Ecclesiastes 3:1, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens” (NIV).

Our children want us to move closer to be near the grandchildren, and I want to. It will be hard to leave my roadway prayer walks and the reminders of God’s faithfulness here, but it’s here that I learned that God is faithful in every place and in every season.

I no longer have osteoporosis, but I have mentioned more than once to my children that if I move, I want to live in a place where I can go walking!