Two Watches: God Has Equipped Us to Help Each Other

By Gloria Chailante

Pete, my husband of forty-eight years, jokingly asked, "Who are you and what have you done with my wife?" After a good laugh, God jolted me into a journey back through time. A cold chill sent a quick chill down my spine as vivid memories filled my thoughts. Life is good, but that was not always so. God has numerous stories in the Bible that tell us that He is always beside us. In Mathew 8:24-26, Jesus falls asleep in the boat with His disciple's and He is asleep when the storm hit the boat. They were afraid. Jesus reminds us that He is always with us, even when the storms surround us. The storm in this story lasted for eight years.God would not let me rest, I was up many nights as He put memories in my thoughts that I had to put to paper. The experiences of the little girl in Two Watches are real and it is through the gifts shared by others that I can share this story. His love was abundant in the cold dark, lonely years I experienced. I can not take credit for this book. It all came through God and I realize He gave me my journey as a gift. He never left my side and the people He put in my path, the ones who reached out to me had the love of Jesus living in them. I think I finally understand the words of my dad when he said to me, "Gloria, it is not what you are given in life, it is what you do with them that will determine who you are."It is my desire to share my story to give Glory to our living God. My prayer is that it will help you through your storm.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 16, 2021
• ISBN: 9781098061753

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Two Watches

God Has Equipped Us to Help Each Other

Gloria Chailante

Copyright © 2020 by Gloria Chailante

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

Isat on the deck listening to Pete telling our grandchildren for the hundredth time a story that happened when he and his sister, Sylvia, were young children. He had received a BB gun for his eighth birthday. Each time he retold the story, he added elaborations that made the girls giggle…

We were playing near the river when a squirrel rustled through the leaves and ran up my pant leg before it scurried up the old tree trunk and out onto a branch about five feet above six-year-old Sylvia’s head.

Pete feigned a hillbilly accent as he continued the story.

"That darn ol’ thing started laughing at me and stuck out its tongue, daring me. I put the BB gun up to my shoulder and sighted the squirrel through one eye. I steadied my aim, pulled the trigger, and watched the laughter leave its eyes as the BB hit hard, knocking that squirrel right out of the tree.

"It landed in the leaves at Sylvia’s feet, and she started screaming and crying at the same time. She blubbered through her wails, ‘You killed it! How could you?’

"Sylvia bent to pick up the animal and held it to her chest, shocked at how good an aim I had. I watched her gather the lifeless squirrel from the leaves.

"I think she squeezed the life right back into the poor thing because it simultaneously opened its eyes and fanged mouth then chomped those pointed teeth right into Sylvia’s chest. She screamed in pain.

"Just then a speeding shadow knocked me down as our dad ran past me to save my hysterical little sister from that crazed animal. I swear that squirrel laughed at me as it jumped to the ground and bolted, disappearing back up the tree.

"Dad yelled orders for me to get up and follow them as he held on to my sister with one hand while tearing the squirrel off Sylvia. He grabbed my brand-new BB gun and slammed it to the ground.

Terrified by the look in Dad’s eyes, I fought back tears, though mostly because my BB gun now lay in pieces…

Pete’s voice drifted off, and he ended the story by adding that Sylvia wears a scar to this day.

My thoughts soon went to the story Pete often told me of how his biggest fear as a child was how he would ever meet the right girl to marry and what job he could get to support a family.

How differently we grew up. His family lived in the same house all during his childhood. Years later, at his fiftieth high school reunion, he was one of a handful present who attended the same elementary, junior, and high school. I am amazed when I think how our paths were so different, yet we wound up together. I realized once again how blessed I am.

Life is not devised by the flip side of a coin, nor is it decided by the petals of a flower plucked one at a time. It is about God’s grace and God’s amazing supernatural intervention. This is a story of life’s journey and lessons learned.

Some events stand out clearly in our memories; others may not be remembered by us at all.

A few years ago, Pete, my husband of then forty-seven years, and I rode the public bus to an event. An obviously homeless man boarded at one of the stops. He began a conversation with us and mentioned, while looking at his bare wrist, that his watch had broken.

Pete hesitated briefly and was about to give him the watch from his own wrist just under his jacket sleeve, when the man jumped out of his seat and exited the bus.

That evening when we returned home, Pete took off his jacket and realized he had inadvertently put on two watches before we left in the morning. He was wearing two watches, something he had never done before. They were easy access, only slightly hidden beneath his sleeve.

God equips us through unique experiences with the ability and opportunity to serve Him and share the gospel. He has given each of us gifts, talents, and opportunities that can be used to serve each other; often they are slightly hidden beneath an outer shell. Unknown to us, God had prepared Pete to help someone in need, and we had dropped the ball. This was an opportunity that could never be repeated.

At that moment, God inspired me—more than that—He instilled in me the need to share my story. Soon a piece of me unraveled as my fingers searched out the appropriate keys, and words began to form. Dad’s voice echoed through my thoughts, which caused my fingers to move faster: It is not what you are given in life; it is what you do with it that will determine who you are and who you will become as a person.

I am writing this story to share the good times and the trials that helped me to grow as well as the blessings from others that kept me from the path that would have led to destruction.

I gained confidence through both abundance and hunger, and through my mistakes, I learned to have empathy for others. Through the kindness of others, I learned that the fruits of the spirit—love, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control¹—take time and experience to develop and ripen within us.

At age sixty-six, I have begun to understand the meaning of Dad’s words. This is not a story of growing old; it is about learning to give in to God’s will so that we grow as we move through the seasons gracefully. It is about using the gifts God has given us to glorify Him and help others discover the gifts given to them along their journey.

God created each one of us in His image.² He created us wonderfully complex,³ each of us different and unique as allowed by our ability to imagine the possibilities, analyze a situation, and reason through our existence.

In 1950, a man by the name of Claude Shannon⁴ calculated the number of play positions possible in the game of chess. (His book influenced the field of computer chess.) Victor Allis, a man using Claude Shannon’s research, calculated that with three moves, there is a possibility of 8,902 games. However, not all the possible moves in his calculation were legal within the rules of the game.

Chess pieces are manipulated by individuals who cannot know the strategic plan calculated by their opponent. Players’ movement of pieces is limited by their knowledge and experience of playing the game. It is the goal of each player to thwart the progress of their opponent until the last move and checkmate is announced, declaring the winner.

In comparison, God guides us through life while the opponent (Satan)⁵ attempts to lead us astray. This forces us to keep a keen focus on our goal to glorify God in our own efforts to reach checkmate (eternal life with God in heaven).

A further example was Moses, a man of the Old Testament chosen by God to lead his people out from slavery and oppression. We can read in the Old Testament how God directed and supernaturally guided the people around him beginning with a pharaoh who had evil designs. God supernaturally guided Moses’s mother who could not allow her son to be killed, so God used the pharaoh’s own daughter to fulfill His plan to save Moses, thus assuring the lineage of Jesus Christ who became the Savior of the World.⁶

Moses was given to his mother for only a short time. He was born with gifts and abilities that even he did not know he possessed. He was raised in an environment that oppressed his people, yet he ended up chosen by God to deliver his people from that oppression. Through Moses, God gave all of us the laws by which to live so that we might achieve perfection.

Forty years of strife and struggle, Moses continued to lead his people. Although his people were free, they made life miserable for Moses with their constant complaints, infighting, and whining. Life for Moses was never easy. When the people desperately needed water, God instructed Moses to speak to a rock to bring forth water; but instead, out of anger and frustration, he hit the rock with his staff. It brought water, but at great cost to Moses, as he was forbidden to enter the promised land because he had disobeyed God. Moses died in the desert without ever entering the land he had fought so hard to find.

God had a plan for Moses, and his story impresses upon us that it is impossible to follow the laws of a perfect God because of our innate nature to sin.

We cannot suddenly cross a border and find that life is golden. The promised land is not in this life. It can only be reached through a personal journey.

In Jesus Christ, we are given freedom. We are free to rest in Him and let Him guide us on our path. He is the only one who can successfully maneuver through the tribulations that we are promised before we reach checkmate—our destination where we will be reunited with the one who created us.

God knit⁷ us together inside our mother’s womb and has set a plan in motion. God knows us well⁸ and has given us free will.⁹ We are not molded as plastic chess pieces. There are many influences upon possible decisions along our path, beginning with our uniqueness. It is virtually impossible to know the outcome or how our decisions might regulate our next move.

Still,