Prayer steadies family's life of tribulation

Intermountain Catholic

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?A Family's Journey Through Prayer: True Stories of the Power of God,? by M. Diane Cressman

SALT LAKE CITY — M. Diane Cressman and her husband, John, had a houseful of children and little, sometimes no money. They lived in a small house on Topsail Island, N.C., and much of their time was spent finding something to eat. John was jobless. No matter where he applied, he was either turned down or the job didn’t last.

Cressman, author of "A Family’s Journey Through Prayer: True Stories of the Power of God," calls those three-and-a-half years their "years of tribulation," Her book is a written account of how prayer worked in their lives.

Eventually the parents of six children and the grandparents of 14, Diane and John Cressman always seemed to be in need and in trouble. The volume is intended to be the first in a series about their 42-year marriage. Diane came from a family of 17, so there is little wonder why their family kept growing and growing.

The story is one of trials and growth; of one child who fell into a pile of burning ash and another who nearly died after inhaling the deadly chemicals used by their father as he learned to paint cars. One chapter tells of the family’s heartbreak when one child needed a pair of shoes, and the only pair Diane could find was in a second-hand store for 26 cents. Diane and her brood only had 25 cents, and their car needed gas. After prayer, Diane returned to the store with the intention of talking the storekeeper down a penny. Instead she found that a stranger had purchased the shoes for them and also left $3 for gas.

The book tells the story of the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of this family’s marriage. "Why," they and their children would ask. "Why is this happening to me? Why are Johnny’s hands scarred by fire? And why do we have only potatoes to eat? "In some ways, the family suffers the outcome of people making wrong choices," Cressman writes, "and God’s correction in our lives."

Cressman uses powerful quotes to help explain her family’s troubles, from modern leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. to the prophet Job to the psalms.

"The stories I share with you," Cressman writes, "are my walk with God through the pain and suffering of a wife, mother, a sister, a friend, but most of all a Christian." When her son David suffers a debilitating shoulder injury, then is suddenly cured of the swelling and pain, Cressman insists his cure had nothing to do with what they did for David. Rather, "God’s son, Jesus Christ, is in our corner," she writes.

Cressman admits that her faith wavers as accident after accident happens to their children, but she later learns that "all things happen for the good of those who love God."

"A Family’s Journey Through Prayer: True Stories of the Powerful God" has large print, so is easier than some for those of us whose reading glasses are getting thicker and thicker. The book could use some proof reading and grammatical and punctuation corrections, but these can be overlooked for the sake of the stories.

"A family’s Journey Through Prayer: True Stories of the Power of God," by M. Diane Cressman, copyright 2010 by M. Diane Cressman, MD Publishing, Danielsville, Pa., 92 pages, $14.95.