Testimony Tuesday: The power of prayer

By Bella Agnello

For the past 14 years, Deidre Sizer served as the assistant director and tutoring coordinator for The Cove, Cedarville University’s tutoring center. Stepping into retirement, she knows that God will continue to lead her faithfully in the grand adventure he has planned for her.

Sizer did not always see God this way. Until college, she did not know how personal God was, or what living by faith looked like.

That is how Sizer learned the power of prayer firsthand. Her family, especially her grandparents, prayed relentlessly for her to become a Christian. Growing up in a Christian home, she learned to get involved in the church but did not know what faith in God looked like.

Sizer recalls the way her grandmother’s faith impacted her during her high school years.

“I’d get cards in the mail, with verses, saying, ‘I’m praying for you,’” Sizer said. “I went through a period where in high school I didn’t care much about church or anything. And I wasn’t really living for Jesus at all.”

Sizer became friends with people who took her away from church. She grew indifferent towards God and continued to walk away from her faith until her parents asked her to enroll for at least one year at Cincinnati Bible College (CBC), which has since closed its doors in 2019. There, she began to feel God tugging and pulling at her heart.

“I started realizing I really don’t think I know much about this [faith] after all,” Sizer said. “I’d be listening to a sermon, and I just kept feeling this tugging. I knew I just wanted more.”

God began calling her to him by planting people and situations throughout her college years. Her roommate started to realize that she did not know much about faith, so she began initiating gospel-centric conversations and praying for her. She also got to live on CBC’s campus once she attended the University of Cincinnati the following year, which was only a ten minute drive away. 

Soon after college, Sizer met Tom, who would later become her husband. After a few months of dating and doing devotionals together, Tom realized that she may not have a personal relationship with God. Not knowing what else to do, he prayed for her and asked his parents to pray for her, too.

Tom took Sizer to see Christian singer Dallas Holm in concert. Holm sang his song “Rise Again,” which tells of the crucifixion of Jesus from Jesus’ perspective. She was physically hit by the verses, which told her that Jesus loved her, delighted to save her from herself and wanted to have a personal relationship with her.

The next day, Sizer heard the same song in church. When she got home she ran to her room, got down on her knees and started praying. She finally believed that she was a sinner in need of a Savior and asked God to forgive her and have a relationship with her.

Sizer called Tom, laughing and crying.

“He heard me crying, and he [later] said, ‘I knew immediately what had happened – I knew that you had accepted Christ,’” Sizer said.

One month later, Tom proposed to Sizer on Christmas Eve.

Though Tom already graduated from Liberty University as a Finance major, he wanted to go back to school to get his teaching degree. When he got accepted into Cedarville, Sizer started looking for a job in the area. She took an admissions job at the university and slept on the floor of an all-girls apartment for four months until they got married.

From the very beginning of their marriage, the Sizers learned the importance of keeping God at the center of their marriage. One of the biggest ways they saw this was through praying and seeing their prayers answered.

“Oh my goodness, the amount of answered prayer we [had] – it’s just mind-blowing,” Sizer said. “I’ve told a lot of people before they get married that the number one thing is to keep God in the middle of your marriage at all times. There were so many times where we prayed about something and we would wake up the next morning and we’d say, ‘No, we’re not supposed to do this,’ and ‘You know, God told me the same thing.’”

God reminded the Sizers of his faithfulness every step of the way. On top of answering prayers, he used mentors and people at their church to walk with them and disciple them as they started their new family.

The church again came around the couple when they had their first child.

“When I first had my firstborn, they were having a ladies Bible study at church and my husband encouraged me to go,” Sizer said. “I just imagined all these older ladies just sitting around talking, but I said, ‘Okay, I’ll try it because they had a nursery, so there must be other people with kids.’ I went, and oh my goodness, it changed my life.”

For the next 17 years, as Sizer stayed at home to raise her four children, she got to regularly attend her ladies Bible study. She drew encouragement from the strength that the older women exemplified in their faith, and even went on road trips with some of the women in the group. She and her Bible study group are still connected and share prayer requests and praises in their group text.

“We’re still involved in each other’s lives, but it was an amazing time, and I’m very, very thankful that I took that step,” Sizer said.

Once her kids were older and would soon attend college, Sizer again started to look for a job. Her friends told her to apply for a job at The Cove. When Director of The Cove Kim Ahlgrim met her, she knew right away that she would be perfect for the job.

Little did Sizer know, but God would bless her with a boss that instantly became her best friend.

“God brought Kim into my life,” Sizer said. “We knew pretty quickly we were going to be friends. We had a lot in common, and I’ve never laughed at anyone as hard as with Kim, that’s for sure. We’ve had crazy times together, and lots of laughter.”

Sizer is now retiring after 14 years of working at The Cove and is moving to Cincinnati to be closer to most of her kids and her grandchildren. She cannot wait to spend more time with them, have them over for sleepovers and travel with them.

This year, the Sizers will celebrate 34 years of marriage. They are excited to experience all the adventures God has planned for them in retirement, including getting plugged into a new church family as well as hopefully doing some short-term missions together.

Sizer sums up her life in Ephesians 3:14-19, where Paul says that he bows down to God the Father, who strengthens his people with faith and the ability to grow in love and know the love of Christ. She lives evermore in the fullness of God and knows that he will continue to be faithful to her for the rest of eternity. So, she will keep praying about everything in her life, from finding a family to buy her house to saving a lost family member. And she lives by faith, knowing that God will faithfully answer her prayers the way he knows best.

“I have over and over again seen God answer prayers,” Sizer said. “He is so faithful.”

Bella Agnello is a junior Broadcasting, Digital Media and Journalism major with a concentration in Journalism. She enjoys thrifting, listening to records and reading classic Russian literature in her spare time.

Photos provided by Deidre Sizer

*First photo: headshot

*Second photo (left to right): Tom Sizer, Deidre Sizer, Kim Ahlgrim, Rahul Jacob ‘17, Rufus Matthew ‘22, Sarah (Colgan Matthew ‘23

*Third photo: (top row) Kim Ahlgrim, Katy Ferrell, Crista (Illian) Dodson ’91 (bottom row) Tara (Alderfer) Winter ’17, Amy Frey, Danielle Burns, Becky (Selden) Kuhn ’78, Deidre Sizer