Meet the Design Team - Kim Schofield

Hi! Welcome to the SALT blog and another installment of our "Meet the Design Team" series! :-) I've been blessed to have been with the SALT team since the beginning and pray that the bios we've been sharing, as well as our artwork and challenges, have been a blessing to you too!

As the title suggests, my name is Kim...I am first and foremost a stay-at-home-mom to two little boys (5 & 3) and have been married to my soul mate and best friend (we got "hitched" five months after we met) for almost 11 years. Our family resides in beautiful New England. I have also been tremendously blessed to be on a few design teams and am a writer for Scrapbook News & Review, in addition to running a small event management business from my home. (It's true...I don't sleep much...LOL!)

I was raised in a non-religious home; where my parents took me to church when I was very young but later avoided all mention of anything religious or Godly, divorced, and each moved on to new spouses. As a teenager my Mother was diagnosed with cancer and during the time she was receiving treatment, I spent a summer with my Aunt and Uncle, who were Christians. Over that summer they took me to church and presented me with the gospel. Within a few weeks I prayed what I would call the sinner's prayer and at that moment felt that I was indeed saved or born again.

After my Mother passed away, I began a downward spiral into a very worldly and sinful lifestyle. (Just a side note here: I do not blame any of my circumstances for how I lived, as some have tried to do in order to make me feel better, it was my rebellious choice.) I was able to soothe my guilty conscious, that would pop up from time to time, by telling myself, "once saved, always saved." This idea that we can live however we want, with no regard for how God commands us to live, is so prevalent today. However, the Bible clearly teaches that if you love Christ, you will keep His commandments (John 14:15) and that God's grace does not give us a license to sin (Romans 6).

Many years later, I moved in with my Grandmother, started attending church again and for a time maintained a moderately Godly lifestyle. However, I was in a church that rarely focused on the problem of sin or holy living. Like the Pharisees in the New Testament, they were more consumed with cleaning up the "outside of the cup and dish" (Matthew 23:25) but cared little for what was on the inside. Jesus taught that if even if you appear lily white on the outside but fail to obey or serve Christ that your "inside is full of hypocrisy and lawlessness." (Matthew 23:28)

Once in New England I gave up church attendance and wasn't even sure that I was a Christian...Looking back, it's quite possible that I was not. Thankfully, once married (my hubby had been working for Christians and had recently himself become a believer...imagine that!) we started attending church regularly at our now home church. The first few weeks there our Pastor did a number of messages on I John 1:8-9, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." I believe for the first time in my life, I was not only hearing true, Biblical teaching but I was really broken over my sin. Not just a fear of going to hell, which I believe prompted me to pray that prayer so many years before, but a fear of facing a holy God, and answering for the way I lived. An absolute dreadful pit in my stomach would not go away until I prayed again, this time with a sincere confession of my sins and an earnest desire to serve Christ, no matter the cost.

I'm happy to report, praise God, that it's been a joyful 11 years! Not that there aren't struggles with remaining sin and the trials of every day life but there has ceased to be a struggle in my mind about the genuineness of my salvation. I trust that Christ has kept His promise to forgive my sins (through my ongoing confession of those sins) and that through ordinary means - it seems usually my children LOL! -, He is slowly cleansing me from unrighteousness (understanding that we will never attain any sort of sinlessness this side of heaven). I am truly grateful that we serve a long suffering God who is full of love, compassion, and grace. He has faithfully protected and guided me through many uncertain times in my life, and I praise Him for how He has chosen to work out my salvation. Romans 8:28 is one of my favorite verses, one we covered here just a few weeks ago, "For I know that all things work together for good, to them that are called according to His purpose."

May God be pleased to use my testimony of His goodness to be a witness and encouragement to those around me! God bless and thank you for hanging in there for my typical lengthy post! :-)