I dedicate this book to my three children, who are immeasurable gifts from God to me. The fact that they all have chosen to follow Christ is a dream come true, but their choice to co-labor with me in the advancing of Gods kingdom in the earth is... well... my heaven on earth!
Joshua... you are and always have been my Champion! On July 28, 1987, I discovered a depth of Gods love I had never known as you were being born. God spoke to me and said, Do you see what you are feeling? Out loud, in the delivery room, I said, Yes! He said, That is just what I feel about you every day. Son, my life has never been the same since that day. Every day YOU remind me how much God loves me.
Keela... you are my Daisy and my sunshine wrapped in one. I named you nine years before you were born. One night when your mother and I were having devotions in our sophomore year of college, I said, We are going to have a daughter and I want to name her Keela... half Keith and half Sheila. You are just that baby, the BEST of your mother and me, in one gift to us and the world, from God!
Whitney... you are my Giggles! From the day you were born, you have brought the fragrance of Gods joy to our family. I will never forget when you were six and we were driving along in the car. All of the sudden you said, Daddy! I know what worship is! I said, What is it? You said, To be in AWE of God! You bring me daily AWE and I am so glad the rest of the world now sees God on display through your life as a Worship Leader for Him. I so love YOU!
Your Divine Fingerprint is dedicated to my children, not just because they are my children. But they indeed are the living epistles of every page of this book and I am honored to say, transformational examples that the truth in this book can change your life for the better!
Contents
Its not our moments that define us, but our choices that distinguish us.
Defining moments. We all have them. Whats important is not the actual moment, really. Its how we react or respond to the moment that really matters. By our own choice or not, a defining moment is an occurrence, a situation, a catastrophe, or a breakthrough opportunity.
Defining moments are a paradox for most people. This is because they happen all the time, and yet most of the time, we are unaware that a defining moment has happened.
Can you remember a time in your own life that was a defining moment? The kind of momentgood or bad, positive or negative, healthy or unhealthywhen you allowed something about that moment to play a significant role in your life that at least to some degree has defined your existence?
When is a moment a defining moment? I believe moments are defined every time we make a decision.
The decisions you make today will not just affect your tomorrow but will determine your future.
Every day we have defining moments based on action, whether an action we have taken or an action someone else has taken in regard to us. Our decision to define the moment is what gives power to the moment. So in the end, we are the ones who determine which are the defining moments in our lives.
You may have had events in your life, your own defining moments, which challenge your very existence. No matter how old or young you are, chances are you have already faced life-challenging and life-altering situations. These moments and situations have the potential to be more than defining moments; they can be miracle moments that will shape your destiny, if you so choose. You may have:
Experienced a catastrophic failure, personally or in your business, such as bankruptcy, a major theft, or business disruption due to fire. Maybe you were terminated.
Experienced a huge success in your past that, when you think about it, was the best time in your life.
Had a serious illness or accident, personally or in your immediate family. You survived the illness or accident but have physical limitations.
Met someone who from the moment you met him, your life was forever changed for the goodor bad.
Been badly hurt by someone whom you deeply loveor worse, you may have allowed someone who didnt love you to hurt you.
Or you may remember a time when you made a decision that changed everything.
Today can be a new defining moment, because today you can choose to allow your past to be just what it is: past! Your past can be something you choose to help define what you want, what you dont want, how you want to be, how you dont want to be, and maybe most importantly, who you want to be and how you want to spend the rest of the best life you have now!
My Defining Moment
Friday the 13th, May of 1960.
My family lived in a suburban neighborhood of Dallas, Texas. My mother was going to a choir banquet that night, so my grandmotherMamaw, as she was affectionately calledcame to our house to babysit my brother and me.
My mom put me in a playpen next to her bed, changed her clothes, and left to enjoy the banquet. Mamaw checked on me then returned to the kitchen to clean the dishes from supper. After about a half an hour had passed, my brother came into the kitchen and said to my grandmother, Mamaw! Mamaw! Keiths all blue! Not knowing what my brother could possibly be talking about, Mamaw went to the bedroom where my mother had left me sleeping.
As she walked into the room, she noticed something enveloped around my bodyit was a plastic laundry bag. The kind of flimsy plastic bag used by dry cleaning companies. It had contained the dress my mother wore to the banquet. Mom had changed into her dress and left the bag on the edge of the bed.
The wind from an open window had blown the bag from the bed onto me as I slept in my playpen. Mamaw could see that I had turned blue from lack of oxygen. She immediately picked me up and removed the plastic bag. Blood was flowing from my nose, ears, and mouth. I wasnt breathing.
As she held me close, Mamaw called the emergency number. She then rushed outside to wait for help to arrive. She prayed. She hoped against hope. She cried. She believed. After an excruciatingly long wait, she heard the siren, but it wasnt an ambulance she sawinstead, a fire truck. The ambulance had gotten a flat tire en route. Firemen were dispatched and arrived on the scene only to find my unconscious, lifeless body. My father, who was a Dallas policeman, received word and rushed to the scene as well. When he arrived, he saw men working furiously trying to revive me. Fireman E. R. Coffman asked for permission to use a new procedure called mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
After several failed attempts to revive me, I was pronounced dead at the scene. It was at this moment that Mamaw prayed one last desperate prayer, God, You are the One who gave him life and You can resurrect him! At that moment, to everyones astonishment, a breath of air shot out of my mouth, and my eyes popped open! I was alive! The only thing everyone knew that day was that they were all witnesses to a miracle. I was immediately transported to the hospital instead of the morgue.
There, doctors and nurses were concerned that I might have suffered severe brain damage after going without oxygen for more than a half hour. But in the hours that followed, I showed no signs of brain damagealthough from time to time, I have used that experience as an excuse for any faulty brain function on my part.
Later that year, on November 24, 1960, The Dallas Morning News ran a cover story of the miracle. There was a picture of our entire family on the front page with the caption, A Thanksgiving Blessing. Fireman E. R. Coffman would receive a commendation from President John F. Kennedy for the role he played in my unique miracle.
