Return to My First Love

By Gloria Prichett

Tragedy was no stranger to Liah. She had endured great loss and scandal that started during childhood. Just when she thought she was on top with a great husband and a wonderful job, she was knocked down by life once again. She wasn't one to believe in God, for after all, how could she with all the suffering she had endured? Just as she was about to give up, something happened that changed everything.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Sep 25, 2020
• ISBN: 9781098016883

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Return to My First Love

Gloria D. Prichett

Copyright © 2020 by Gloria D. Prichett

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Acknowledgments

Iwant to thank my family for encouraging me to keep going. You always made me believe in what I do. To my sister, Shirley, thanks for the title. You continue to remind me to remember my first love. To Loretta, Barbara, and Stephanie, you have been there whenever I needed you. Through ups and downs, we made it because of the bond of sisterhood. I am forever grateful for the four of you.

To my son, DeSean, you also keep me encouraged. There are times you say just the right thing when I needed to hear it.

To the rest of my family and many friends, thank you for being my sounding board. You will never know just how much you mean to me.

Introduction

With humble beginnings, Liah had come a long way. She never despised the way she was raised, but she couldn’t forget how hard things were for her. She had overcome the pain of losing her parents, the humiliation at the hand of others in college, and then her grandmother’s passing. Where was God when she needed him?

Years later, everything seemed right with world. She ran a successful nonprofit for orphaned children, often placing them with their grandparents or other relatives. Her husband had a lucrative investment firm. Liah thought nothing could possibly go wrong until that faithful night. She soon had to learn to depend on someone other than herself or her husband to get though the next adversity.

Characters

But I have this one charge to make against you:

that you have left (abandoned) the love that you had at first (you have deserted Me, your first love).

—Revelations 2:4 (AMP)

Chapter 1

Liah Stokley had an amazing life. She had a great husband. She wore fine jewelry and all the latest designer clothes. She volunteered for many worthy causes, wanting to help the less fortunate. Liah lived as though nothing could touch her. She lived a carefree life, not giving one thought of it ever ending.

Sometimes she would catch herself thinking about her childhood. She would remember her gray-haired grandmother and how she took her to church every time the doors were opened. She had told her stories about a man who lived long ago and how he suffered for all humanity to be saved. Liah could always hear the excitement in her Big Momma’s (most grandmothers were known by this name in the rural south) voice when she would tell of the wonderful man who died for people who he didn’t know. Now that she was older, she just couldn’t understand why someone would do such a crazy thing. Even if a man named Jesus existed, it was for then, this is now. She shook herself out of her thoughts, believing that it was all fairy tales.

As Liah prepared for her latest charity ball, she realized that she thought about Jesus more and more. She would make herself busy to try to push the thoughts away. Why did the memories of the tales her Big Momma told start to surface now? She didn’t have time for such nonsense; she had a party to throw. There were last-minute details and loose ends to tie up; no time for daydreaming.

Stay focused, Liah, she told herself. Get it together and finish your tasks.

No matter how hard she tried, the whisper of Jesus’s name stayed on her mind.

She walked past the floor-length mirror and decided to take one last glance at her appearance. As she stared at her reflection, she couldn’t believe how far she had come. She was proud of all her arduous work and wanted to show it to the world. Looking at her hair, she recalled how she had worn baseball caps because her grandmother couldn’t afford to get it professionally done. On special occasions, her grandmother would use a hot pressing comb to straighten it. She remembered how ashamed she was of her hair. It was nappy and unmanageable. It was kinky and drawn up. The girls pulled her hair and snickered at it because it was not like theirs. They all had relaxers that made their hair soft and straight. Now she had bone straight hair down to her shoulders because she had weekly visits to one of the top stylist who kept her hair up-to-date with all the latest styles.

She remembered how she suffered from severe acne. But now her complexion was as smooth as hot chocolate. She had dreamed of her skin being a lighter color. For whatever reason, people with a fair complexion was more acceptable among the black race. Today she embraced the woman she had become, and she absolutely loved being in her skin. She had learned to apply her makeup in just the right way, so she would look natural, not made-up. Everything was impeccably done down to her manicured hands, which were a necessity because she met a lot of people and shook a lot of hands.

Liah, girl, you do look wonderful, she said aloud.

She turned in a slow clockwise direction to make sure everything was all right. She found her thoughts going back to her childhood again. This time, she remembered how her clothes were always clean and fresh, but they were not stylish because she was overweight. Her Big Momma didn’t have the extra money to buy the latest fashions. The kids in the community made jokes about her because she wore hand-me-downs. In the last few years, she had lost 100 pounds and kept it off. She no longer had to hide underneath big baggy clothes.

Although she was smiling, deep inside, there was something missing. Liah couldn’t shake that feeling of emptiness. She had great friends, luxury cars, fine jewelry, and a perfect house. Why was she not at ease? What was the missing link?

Well, she said, this is not the time or place to try to figure it out. As Liah walked away from the mirror, she thought she heard her