If I'd Had My Way

Everything was gone, taken right before her eyes and with nothing left to salvage. As she watched her mobile home being destroyed by fire, Ruth Scheltema wondered what God could be teaching her through this tragedy. 


However, as she looked down at her precious, and safe, trio of young children, Ruth realized that her most prized possessions God had spared from the fire. 


This incident is one of many events where Ruth experienced God’s direction of her path, shared in her new autobiography, If I’d Had My Way. The book chronicles Ruth’s time spent as the wife of a missionary pilot, while she, husband Hank and their family served as missionaries in the Brazilian Amazon.


The title says it clearly: Ruth mentions several times over the course of her life where she felt if the situation had gone her way, things would have been entirely different, and closer to her own determined plans. 


When her husband was gone on lengthy flight missions; when she wasn’t able to communicate with the women and children of the villages she was in; when she struggled with trying to uncover her purpose in God’s plans: these events could have gone differently through Ruth’s plans, but she saw the events as miraculous ways God was teaching her obedience to His will. 


If I’d Had My Way is filled with stories of one couple’s motivation to serve the Lord wherever He lead and one woman’s opportunities of growth to learn to trust and obey the Savior of her heart. 


What Ruth imparts most through her life story is that everyone has been in her position, spiritually, where following God doesn’t seem to “match up” with one’s plans. Yet as she proved through her life, putting one’s life into the hands of the Lord garners more rewards and experiences than anything money can buy.