{"id":20,"date":"2012-09-14T17:15:50","date_gmt":"2012-09-14T17:15:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.love-compassion.com\/rTalton\/?p=20"},"modified":"2013-10-17T08:56:11","modified_gmt":"2013-10-17T13:26:11","slug":"about-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.love-compassion.com\/rTalton\/?p=20","title":{"rendered":"Robbie T."},"content":{"rendered":"\t<audio id=\"wp_mep_1\"      controls=\"controls\" preload=\"none\"  >\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t<source src=\"http:\/\/www.love-compassion.com\/rTalton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Deitrick-Haddon-Well-Done.mp3\" type=\"audio\/mp3\" \/>\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t<\/audio>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\njQuery(document).ready(function($) {\r\n\t$('#wp_mep_1').mediaelementplayer({\r\n\t\tm:1\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t,features: ['playpause','current','progress','duration','volume','tracks','fullscreen']\r\n\t\t,audioWidth:400,audioHeight:30\r\n\t});\r\n});\r\n<\/script>\r\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Like some I have emerged to this point out\u00a0 of a troubled life. I look back to as far as I can remember &amp; I see how God has sheltered me\u00a0 under his wings of grace &amp; carried me with &#8220;His strong embrace.<\/p>\n<p>I can recall drinking &amp; sharing ant poison with my toddler &amp; infant sisters @ 2 or 3 years old. We were all hospitalized &amp; sent from Hannibal, Mo to the ICU in St. Louis. By his tender mercy &amp; will our lives were spared from so many tragic outcomes. We could have been put up for adoption or death.<\/p>\n<p>I grew up the oldest of 9 children, 7 of those survived &amp; still among us. As my parents lost their 1st infant boy at birth they were very protective &amp; firm. I was raised going to church &amp; knowing God through many members of my family, especially my Great Grandmother. Both my Grandmothers took us with them to church quite often. In the meantime I witnessed &amp; experienced several forms of abuse. From that I was to be a statistic of the same product in all my struggles of violence. The abuse that I witnessed became something I truly despised.<\/p>\n<p>I cannot say that I am flawless. I am an imperfect being but I serve a God who is perfect &amp; His will &amp; purpose always prevails. From observing the suffering consequent to malicious actions of anger &amp; rage I learned to be more controlled &amp; patient even though by nature I have a short temper &amp; I&#8217;m impatient. I managed to graduate from high school &amp; entered the world. This was probably when God held me closer as I began doing worldly things &amp; ended up in a world of trouble time &amp; time again. Every time I\u00a0 failed &amp; I would be forgiven. My intentions were good even though selfish motives &amp; desires caused me to sin. I caught my 1st felony, fell in love &amp; went through 1 of my first heartbreaks, my parents went through a hard time of separation among other struggles happening with them, we were losing our home, I was on the run from the police &amp; on top of it all it would be the 1st time I would try to commit suicide.<\/p>\n<p>Again I know if it wasn&#8217;t for Jesus &amp; the everlasting love he has for me &amp; for you I would not be here. I continued living in Quincy, Il for some more years of my life, even started another serious relationship with a girl. I fell in love and with that it later turned out really bad. After some years of having to look over my shoulder everywhere I went, I moved to Atlanta, Ga. and later was arrested just before Mother&#8217;s Day. As the Lord would have it &#8211; I spent 180 days in jail &amp; was finally set free Nov 7 with no stipulation as to probation or court orders. For the 1st time in years I was really free again so I came back to Atlanta! Since then I&#8217;ve lived through several difficult times, challenging situations &amp; escaped death a few times over. From struggling to survive to being in the cross fire of gunshots, my most recent chapters?<\/p>\n<p>Well after going through a lot of rejection &amp; a couple of bad relationships on the dating scene. I was in the process of healing. It was June 6, 2006. I was struggling bad as if I wanted to just give up. I talked to my Dad (whom is not the biggest on faith, religion &amp; divinity) but he told me to hold on &amp; that God would send me someone. It was no more than 3 weeks later &amp; I met who I find is the most important love to me here on earth. She was my Angel! Always will be to me &amp; maybe one day she will feel the same again as Well. I was looking for hope, for love &amp; I found God when he placed her &amp; her family in my life. We dated for some years &amp; no matter what I was going through she made me better &amp; want be better in every way I could be as a man. It was as if the good Lord not only allowed himself to work through her to attract me to him but he delivered me to &#8220;Him!&#8221;<br \/>\nI proposed to her July 26, 2010 &amp; she accepted but later changed her mind from being unsure of herself. Despite our differences my heart was set on pursuing Jesus &amp; decided to study the Bible, get baptized &amp; become a member of AMCC which I now call home.<\/p>\n<p>From there I lost my grandmother on my Mothers side of my family. The last 2 years have held many adverse challenges &amp; heavy burdens that have been inflicted upon the heart with much pain &amp; despair endured. It can be easy to feel really abandoned &amp; lost at times but I try to stay focused on the fact that God is always there no matter what I go through. I find myself, more times than I would like to, in discomfort. Although when it hurts the most is when I often pray &amp; praise the hardest.<\/p>\n<p>I have learned the greater the suffering the higher the glory of God &#8211; even more the wonderful reward in store for those who hold to the faith. I have not yet come to the end of my journey. My life is a testimony yet being written. I cannot tell you what &#8220;He,&#8221; has planned for me but I know there is a plan. Looking back has been both many smiles &amp; lots of tears over the years. It&#8217;s easy to see all the bad things. Some want to close their eyes &amp; make believe others want to just pretend that everything is perfect &#8211; but I see that for everything that has happened has been for a reason. It is our testimony in weakness &amp; humility that God&#8217;s love reveals to us, each man, woman &amp; child that the secrets of the heart holds. Lord only knows them. Stay prayerful my Brothers &amp; Sisters. Let&#8217;s keep God 1st in our lives that we may see him &amp; may &#8220;He,&#8221; allow us to love one another as we are called to according to his word &amp; faith.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Like some I have emerged to this point out\u00a0 of a troubled life. I look back to as far as I can remember &amp; I see how God has sheltered me\u00a0 under his wings of grace &amp; carried me with &#8220;His strong embrace. I can recall drinking &amp; sharing ant poison with my toddler [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":64,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[200,196,1,198,209,197,223,195,214],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-courage-2","category-faith-2","category-family","category-grace-2","category-heart-2","category-hope-2","category-life-2","category-love-2","category-purpose-2","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.love-compassion.com\/rTalton\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.love-compassion.com\/rTalton\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.love-compassion.com\/rTalton\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.love-compassion.com\/rTalton\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.love-compassion.com\/rTalton\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.love-compassion.com\/rTalton\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":770,"href":"http:\/\/www.love-compassion.com\/rTalton\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions\/770"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.love-compassion.com\/rTalton\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/64"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.love-compassion.com\/rTalton\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.love-compassion.com\/rTalton\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.love-compassion.com\/rTalton\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}