Battle Ready - Testimony by Johnny & Jewels Parsons

Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.

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   Praise the Lord. Thank you, Jesus. Um we're so excited to be here um with you guys today. Um we're we're very thankful to be here. Um we've been through a lot. We're going to tell you a little bit about us. Um but we're very thankful to be a part of Grace. Um and anyway, my name is like she said, Julie. You can call me Jules or Julie, whichever you prefer. and I'm Johnny and I with Parsons and Road Music. And so we have been uh traveling for the past 10 years um you know doing music full time. And so we just want to give you a little bit of our backstory and um and tell you just a little bit about our history. So uh we've known each other a long time. We've been married 30 years. April 12th was 30 years. And but we've known each other a whole lot longer than that. Um we've known each other since I was five years old, believe it or not. 5 years old back in the 80s. So that's going to date me a little bit. Um we met through gospel music. Our families both had groups. You know, back in the 80s there was a lot of rep. How many of y'all remember the 80s? All right. There's a few. Okay. Well, um, there was a lot of gospel groups back then. And my family had a traveling, just not real farreaching, but kind of regional traveling quartet. My dad and uncle, and I sang with them when I was 10 years old, and Johnny's family had a group. Yeah. My mother and dad uh sang with my sister and my brother-in-law back in the late 70s. And then in the early to mid80s, my mother and dad had a trio, a country gospel trio with my aunt Lois. And I did have an aunt Lois. So, um, but yeah, a lot of musical history in our families. Yes. And me and my sister both had a crush on him and she's younger and so we would always uh, you know, be like, "Oh, is we called him little Johnny. He was little Johnny back then." Yeah. I looked good back. And uh we would always fight over, you know, who liked him the most and who was going to have him or whatever. We were really little though, y'all. Crazy. But anyway, but we would end up at the same dates together. And so that just gives you a little bit about how we knew each other. Um I had I was saved at 10 years old in Baptist church, uh real independent fundamental Baptist church, and I had a real experience of being born again. Um, but as time went on, um, I backslid and, uh, ended up going a different way. But me and Johnny ended up dating back, uh, when we were teenagers, so we had a period. She broke up with me. She thought the grass was greener on the other side. No, actually I my mom and dad liked him and so I was

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   rebellious and so I said, "You I see it." Yeah, cuz they like I feel like they liked him better than they liked me. But anyway, so I broke up with him. We dated for a little bit. She broke up with me and then I married another girl. Yep. And so uh they were married. Meanwhile, they were married. They had a daughter and she's 34 years old now. Put all this dating put all this together. No, she couldn't. But anyway, and I went on to um be very promiscuous and I got pregnant with our oldest, Michael. He's 30 years old now. And um actually um we ended up coming back together while I was pregnant with Michael. Yeah. And uh basically what happened and everything, basically what happened there was um um I I made a profession of faith at the age of 13 and I got baptized. I went to the Christian church. And if you you know anything about the Christian church, if you're not baptized, you're not saved. So, I sort of got baptized so that I would be saved. But I didn't understand what I was doing until later on, and I'll tell you about that later on. But, um, I come into the marriage with a bunch of baggage. I had a sexual addiction, uh, pornography. I had uh been had wild buddies at real early ages. Mother and dad didn't know the half of my what was going on with me. So, um I'll say this. If you're a parent in here, make sure you know what your children is doing at all times. And it's just it's just it's I know this is a marriage conference, but if you're a parent, you keep control of your child because their direction is what happens to them early, stays with them, and those demons are after your children. They're after us. And uh that's something that we're just learning after 30 years is how to deal with these demons and get them out of our our lives. So we married in 1995 and it was actually after we dated while I was pregnant and when I my son our son was 5 months old we got married in 1995 and um then we went on to have two more boys and we spent the first 15 years of our marriage um just struggling and really I'm surprised we didn't kill each other. Uh we had a lot going on, you know, at Skyfall the couple of Brianna and they told some stories. We had very similar stories. Um where we have scars to prove our stories. Um one time I went to hit Johnny, I missed. He moved out of the way and I hit a metal fan and so I had I have scars on my knuckles from that. But u yeah, one time I got mad and I was leaving. She didn't want me to leave. So she jumped on the hood of the car and I

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   backed out. It's like a movie. And I started to think I off, you know, but I still didn't wind up leaving because, you know, she wouldn't let me. I wouldn't let it leave. But we had a lot of strongholds and we were very immature. I was uh just a week before 18 when we got married. And so we basically grew up together. Um very immature. A lot of strongholds, a lot of addictions like he was saying. Um, and then you fast forward just a little bit, 2003, 2004. Um, we met Nancy. Um, so that was about 20, it was about 21, 22 years ago. Biddy was like four years old, I think, our youngest. And so anyway, um, that was a good time in our lives. Uh, we went to her home Bible study. I have a lot of people that say, "So, how do y'all know Nancy indeed?" I'm like, "Well, we knew Nancy." Yeah, see Nancy Nancy was our pastor before Dean. She just didn't realize it. And uh her and her sister actually they they uh they they were a blessing to us. They really were. I mean we seen we we didn't know uh life like they had, you know, and so we just thank God for them. Yeah. Like we cuz we did live a miserable life. I mean our whole life was horrible. And we would go to their house and you know I guess it's cheers. Is it cheers? But everybody when you walk in would go hi baby the person, you know, and it was all so happy. Yeah. And Nancy loved coffee, you know, and she would have coffee and she had these little this uh uh these coffee cups in her cabinets and uh they would say different things and and it was it was I believe it was God cuz usually the coffee cup that I got said the thing that I needed that week on it it was pretty cool. Yeah. So there was a lot of good seeds sewn in us in those days and we actually ended up going to that Bible study for a good long while. Uh but in 2010 uh we fell off the deep end. Yeah, I fell off the deep end and um you know I gave in I decided to agree with this the devil and I knew what I was doing but I didn't I didn't understand that there was demons I needed to be fighting. I didn't understand. And um I I I made that confession of faith in the year 2000 going riding down the road in uh the guy on the radio station, Christian radio I was listening to. And he said, "Have you ever truly asked the person of the Lord Jesus Christ to come into your heart?" And I had to say no because I was baptized, but I didn't really understand that I needed to talk to Jesus and ask him to come in. And when when I did, I felt the difference. and I felt like I was saved, but I wasn't discipled. I didn't get in the word. I didn't study and pray and seek him like I needed to. I prayed, but that's all.

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   And then by the year 2010, I was off the deep end. So, I told her, "Look, I just want to go satisfy my flesh. I just want to go out and party and drink with my buddies, and that's what I want to do, and that's what I'm And so I left home and uh I was I wound up uh a drunk and I was living in my pickup truck and she was at home and she had been praying for me and uh one night I woke up I don't know why I didn't run over somebody and kill them but one night I woke up in my pickup truck and I had been drinking and I woke up but when I woke up I realized what I was doing I couldn't keep doing. I started realizing I couldn't keep being the way I was being. I was I was wrong. And that was God. That was God moving in on my mind cuz I I I just I wanted to just do what I wanted to do. I didn't want no uh accountability. We had even tried counseling. So Margie's sister was sort of our pastor at that time and she had suggested that we go to Dean and Nancy. So we met with Dean and Nancy. I don't know how much of this Nancy and Dean remember, but we met with them and Dean basically said, "You're not ready." Yeah. Dean came in and he talked to her a few minutes and then he he called me in there and asked me a couple of questions. I can't even remember, but Dean knew. I mean, he he just knew I wouldn't I wouldn't in no mindset to to change my ways. I had I could I could trick you back then, you know, and I would have back then, but he knew. And so anyway, I went and saw a divorce lawyer and I found out that uh divorces when you have children and property, it's really expensive. So, praise the Lord, it was really expensive because I didn't have any money to pay for it. And so, we just kept moving along and um and I had been praying for Johnny, but the Lord actually spoke to me back then. And um these are the this is it's not wasn't an audible voice, but I I heard him in my spirit say that if Johnny didn't change that he was going to die and I like heard that it was a serious thing. And so before that I had kind of just been praying because I wanted my life to be good. Like you know you ever pray a prayer to God but really you have selfish motives and you're really just praying for your life to be good. So, you're praying fix them so I could be happy. And that was basically what I had been doing. But the Lord said that if he didn't change, he was going to die. And it was serious. So, I began to pray different for him. And I began to just pour my heart out to the Lord for his salvation and his eternity. And um not just that, but I I just got before the Lord and and I just poured my heart out to him. And really my relationship, I have been looking to Johnny for a lot more than I needed to be looking to

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