Everyone Needs to Be Heard!

By Eric Stratton

Eric Stratton shows us how his faith in God brought him through the devastating effects of his horrid disease. He hopes his writings will inspire and encourage you to press on, through whatever is holding you back.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Apr 7, 2015
• ISBN: 9781490874623

Eric Stratton

Eric Stratton was born in southern New Jersey and was raised in the church where he serves as Deacon. He was also a very good tennis player growing up. But by the age of sixteen, he was stricken with neurological impairment diagnosed as “friedrich ataxia.” He shows that without his strong faith in God, through Jesus Christ, his road would have traveled in a different direction.

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Copyright © 2015 Eric Stratton.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

WestBow Press

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

ISBN: 978-1-4908-7461-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-7462-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015904724

WestBow Press rev. date: 4/7/2015

I dedicate this book to my loving family

CONTENTS

Preface

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Choices

Encouragement

Know Your Edge

Just Let Go!

It’s a Thin Line Between Love and Hate

Is Jesus Your Reality?

Motives

He Is in Control

Heart

Hush!

Who Do You Hear?

What Do You See?

Who Do You Believe?

No Pain- No Gain

Breaking News

Actions

Who’s House?

What a Word

Transition

The Walking Dead

The Power of a Testimony

Thank You Lord

Simpletons!

Real Talk

Person of Interest

Real Love

Peace

The Moment You Realized It Was God

Goodness

Help Lord

The Value of Indepedence

PREFACE

One day I was home alone and I came to the realization that I now have a wife and kids with no foreseeable source of income. I just lost my job, my kids were approaching their teenage years, and my health was worsening. I was in a wheelchair and my speech was muzzled, I felt hopeless. However, I studied the bible and was aware of the promises He stated for His own. So I prayed to God and boldly asked Him why He allowed me to spiritually grow to this point in my life but not be able to communicate or spread His word to the world as was commended for us all. So the Lord led me to write and as I wrote it would seem as though God was speaking to me. My writings began encouraging and inspiring people to continue in their walk with Christ. It also inspired me to put it in a book for the world to see.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Special thanks to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ with whom all praise and honor belong, I thank my wife for being patient with me. I thank my Pastor for entrusting me to start writing articles for the Church. I want to thank the late Pastor E.G. and my second mother Sister Lillie Ware for teaching me how to rightly divide God’s word and showing me how to be a man of God. To my brothers in Christ Art Fields, Rochine Ferguson, and Mike Maddrey I say thanks for taking me to and from different ministry events. And lastly my parents for helping me in some of my financial struggles.

INTRODUCTION

Have you ever felt like you were losing control? Like the obstacles in your life are suffocating you to the point of implosion. Many of us try various but often temporary ways to fix our circumstances. Imagine trying to score the winning run of the baseball game only to suddenly collapse halfway to home plate or playing a tennis match and losing the sight of the ball. It was not just in sports but in everything that you and I take for granted, such as walking, when I walked it felt like the ground was shaking beneath. Initially I was told that I would be in a wheelchair later on in my life, so the Doctor told me to live my life because the strong effects of the illness would not occur but it did. When the illness struck my life really spiraled downward. I dropped out of college and began heavily smoking marijuana. It was not until I accepted my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ into my life that everything began to change. God opened my eyes.

I wrote this book to depict my lifelong struggle with Friedrich Ataxia, which is an extremely rare neurological disease that gradually takes away your ability to walk, your speech and your coordination. It is brought about when two, also rare, genes are joined together. Not all of my siblings have gotten it though as my brother and sister do not have it. I want to show how my faith in God has helped me to cope with my circumstance and some of the different experiences I have had where God showed up.

CHOICES

Psalms 119:71, It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes. In my early teens I began thinking that I was the man. I thought that because I have street knowledge and book