Mikles Speaks on God’s Truth

November 29, 2001

Inspirational speaker Ronda Mikles told Oklahoma Baptist University students of her own personal struggles as a way to illustrate God's truth and steadfast plan during the Nov. 28 chapel service.

"How many of you like change?" Mikles asked. "Do you ever feel like your life is one big change after another?"

She told students that even though they encounter changes every day, God's truth never changes. Mikles, a 1975 OBU graduate, began by describing her own journey from OBU into life after college and the bumps she faced along the way.

She married at age 39, she said, and she was not able to have children due to an illness. One day while driving down the interstate had a vision of her husband's grandmother holding a baby and her mother-in-law looking down on the grandmother.

The vision reminded her that although neither of these women was her birth mother, they were significant figures in her life. She said she heard God's voice in her heart saying that she may never have a child on earth, but she would always have a child in heaven. This gave her a peace about the changes in her life.

Mikles went on to say that God, in his infinite wisdom, never changes, and Christians should take strength in that fact.

Her next illustration was another tribulation in her life. A tornado destroyed her house forcing her and her husband to live with her parents for seven months until the house could be rebuilt, she said. Shortly after this, her father passed away. Despite these hardships, she felt God guiding her and leading her through the struggles in her life.

"Start with the Bible," she said. "As Jeremiah says in Lamentations 3, the Lord's love never ceases. Jesus died for you."

She closed by challenging students to be genuine in their faith. She described a little girl whose mother made her work to earn a two-dollar set of imitation pearls that she had seen in the grocery store. When she finally earned the money she was so excited that she even kept the pearls next to her at night.

Her father tried three times to take the pearls from the little girl. On the third try, the little girl finally gave her father the pearls. He left her room and returned with a genuine set of pearls, because he wanted to give her the real thing, not just an imitation.

"Be genuine," Mikles said. "Remember God's truth never changes. As Hebrews 13:8 says, keep your eyes on him."