It's Just the Way I Like It

By Gail Diamond

When people do something stupid or embarrassing, most of them keep it to themselves and never tell a soul. Not Gail. She tells everyone! Laugh with her as she tells stories of her first day of college, blue legs, scary airplane rides, getting lost, falling, and tragic motorized shopping cart disasters. Her life hasn't been all fun and games, but it reads like one. Like everyone, she has experienced trials and challenges along the way.

Gail shares her struggles as a wife of a farmer, a mother of three small children, and crazy mishaps that just seem to follow her. She shares the story of her husband's tragic fall through a barn roof and how God gave her peace even as she drove to the emergency room.

For someone who likes to be in control of her life, she seems to be out of control most of the time. Learn how God used those times to teach her how to laugh at herself and discover the lessons God had for her. Her stories will make you laugh out loud and bring you to tears. Join her as she shares some of the stories that have brought her to where she is today: from being never enough to finding pure joy in a life that is just the way she likes it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 27, 2023
• ISBN: 9798886446982

Book preview

Table of Contents

Title

Copyright

Introduction

Prologue No. 1

Chapter 1: When You're Just Not Good Enough

Prologue No. 2

Chapter 2: Sometimes You Just Have to Take the Stairs

Prologue No. 3

Chapter 3: When You're Feeling Blue and Your Puddle Runs Red

Prologue No. 4

Chapter 4: When Nobody Knows Your Name

Prologue No. 5

Chapter 5: Wrong Place, Wrong Time

Prologue No. 6

Chapter 6: When There's Nothing Left, Let God

Prologue No. 7

Chapter 7: You Gotta Pull It Together and Go Again

Prologue No. 8

Chapter 8: God Knows Your Name

Prologue No. 9

Chapter 9: Let God Help You Face Your Puddles and Teach You to Laugh

Prologue No. 10

Chapter 10: Not Lacking Anything

Prologue No. 11

Chapter 11: Pure Joy

Epilogue

Questions and Reflections

About the Author

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It's Just the Way I Like It

Gail Diamond

ISBN 979-8-88644-697-5 (Paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88644-698-2 (Digital)

Copyright © 2023 Gail Diamond

All rights reserved

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Covenant Books

11661 Hwy 707

Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

www.covenantbooks.com

This book is dedicated to my parents, Tom and Wilma McCoy. Thank you for being a wonderful example of what a mom and dad should be and for showing me what love looks like.

Also, to my children, Rachel, Jesse, and Luke. Thank you for giving me so many things to laugh about and for allowing me to tell those stories. Thank you for always encouraging me and for being my biggest fans.

And to my husband, Louie. Thank you for giving me such great story material and for listening to me tell those stories over and over again. Thank you for being a Godly husband and father and for showing our children what it means to have an unyielding faith in the One True God.

Introduction

I am nobody special—just a wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister, an aunt, and most of all, a Christian.

I have been married to Louie Diamond for more than thirty-five years. We have three children, Rachel, Jesse, and Luke. They are each eighteen months apart in age and as different as they are similar to one another. The greatest gift I have, as their mother, is to know that they belong to Jesus and are walking in His ways.

Louie and I live on a dairy farm in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, just a little over an hour from Pittsburgh. While Louie does the farming, I do the teaching. I have been a music teacher in the public school system for more than thirty years. Our children are now grown and are out exploring what God has in store for them. As of this writing, Rachel lives in Atlanta, Georgia; Jesse in Sunnyvale, California; and Luke in Tucson, Arizona. When I encouraged them to chase their dreams, I never thought they would go so far to chase them.

I am thankful to God for the joy He has given me in my life, but it hasn't been all fun and games. Like everyone, I have experienced many trials and challenges along the way. I want to share some of the stories that have brought me to where I am today. I hope God blesses you and allows you to find joy and hope through my trials and challenges.

Enjoy!

PS. I am special. I am chosen by God—and so are you.

Prologue No. 1

It was my first day of class, and I was so excited. I was finally away from high school. I didn't have to try to fit in there anymore. This was my chance to start fresh. Just be me. I was ready. College, here I come!

I got dressed in my new first-day-of-school outfit: a new jean skirt that ended just below the knee (I may be on my own, but I'm still a conservative girl), a pretty flowered top, pantyhose (does anyone remember wearing those?), comfortable shoes, and a new burgundy cloth purse.

I felt so mature and excited to start this new phase of my life. I looked out my window, and it was raining. So of course, I put on my stylish new yellow raincoat to complete my outfit. I grabbed my book bag, and out the door I went.

Here I go!

It was my first day of class. The world was at my feet. I was ready for this big adventure.

Then, I opened the door.

Chapter 1

When You're Just Not Good Enough

All through school—kindergarten through twelfth grade—I never felt good enough. Other kids made fun of me. They even sang mean songs about me. I was never good enough to sit with the cool kids, sing the solos in the choir, or play the piano for the high school ensembles. I wasn't pretty enough or skinny enough. I was just never enough.

Raised in a family of eight, our home included Mom and Dad, two brothers, four sisters, three bedrooms, and one bathroom. The four girls shared a bedroom. My older sisters slept in a double bed, and my younger sister and I had a bunk bed.

This may not seem too bad, but I remember a time when my grandmother was sick with cancer, and we moved her into our home so my mother could care for her. The top of our bunk bed was moved into my parents' bedroom for grandma. My dad moved to the couch, and my sister Brenda and I both slept on the bottom bunk together—my head on one end and hers on the other. This may explain my desire to never sleep on anything less than a king-size bed.

This is not a story of how poor we were. I never thought of us as poor, but we weren't wealthy either. I would like to think that we were just a typical middle-class family, but my family was definitely not typical—and we probably didn't have a lot of class either.

My dad, Talmadge Monroe McCoy, was a self-employed contractor raised in the Deep South. He was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and raised in Booneville, Mississippi. (Now those are some Southern names.) I only tell you that because everyone thought my dad had the neatest Southern accent. He had such a slow, Southern drawl that everyone had a difficult time understanding anything he said. He may have had an accent, but I never noticed.

While serving in the Army, my dad went home with a buddy for a weekend in Southwestern Pennsylvania. This is where he met my mom. They were at a dance, and when it was over, he asked my mom (in his sensational Southern accent), Would you like me to carry you on back home?

My mother said, Heavens, no. That is way too far! It wasn't that far, but she thought he was literally going to carry her home.

Being from Mississippi, he was never truly at home in Pennsylvania. He compared everything to the South. Church was not as good as it was in the South. The church sang'ngs, as my dad called them, were never as good, and the food was not the same. I don't remember my mom ever making