Be inspired

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God has always been a part of my life. 

 

There has always been an intrigue. A pulling of my heart strings that I could never really describe but knew all the same were there.

 

I grew up in church and, although I would not say I had a personal relationship with the Lord, that unexplainable pulling was there. Always the pulling. 

 

Through complicated circumstances and life decisions, my childhood was not always the most stable. The product of a broken home, I was tossed back and forth daily, constantly living out of a multitude of bags. It was irregular and confusing. But even then, God had a plan. 

 

Through another frustrating set of circumstances, my mother and I had an incredibly rocky few years. A lot of hurt and pain settled into the crevices of my heart that I never thought would be alleviated. But our God is one of grace, forgiveness, and redemption. He can trade a crown of beauty for ashes, and in my case did so literally. 

 

We were sitting at the "dinner table" one night several years (and I air quote that because at the time we were actually eating off of TV dinner trays in the living room, but that was essentially the dinner table to us). My mother and I heard the loudest crack of thunder and lightening I had ever heard in my life. I'm honestly not exaggerating when I say it shook the house.

 

We peered out of the side window in our home to see if anything was hit, but noticed very little, so we decided to proceed back to our meal. As we sat back down to continue with our marathon of The Office, it suddenly occurred to us that the TV picture was a weird shade of bluish green... That's odd.

 

But then came the smell. There was something off within in the home and my nose was the first to pick it up. "It doesn't smell right in here," I explained to my mom.

 

We stood and wandered into the back of our home to investigate. No sooner did we reach the end of our home, then we realized that there were large flames shooting out of our dryer that were quickly spreading throughout the back family room. We scanned the rooms around us and noticed the walls starting to slowly turn black.

 

It was in the walls.

 

I scooped up my cell phone and our family dog and booked it outside into the storm all while dialing 911. I was panicked to say the least. After waiting what felt like a lifetime (an all of 3 minutes and 48 seconds), the fire engines arrived on the scene. But it was essentially too late. 

 

It took the local fire department over 2 hours to finally put the fire completely to rest and the inside of our home was scorched beyond repair. Most of our things were destroyed by either the fire or the water damage.

 

But we were alive.

 

God had pulled us out of the fire

 

and kept us (and our pets) safe. The fire that could have eaten us whole, took from us only possessions and I am eternally grateful for the new outlook in life I received from the experience. I had been saved. Over the following years, my relationship with my mom was saved.

 

Five days later, at a local Christian summer camp, I clearly heard God call me back into a relationship with Him, and I chose to devote my life to His purpose. It was scary, new, and I honestly had no idea what the heck that was going to look like, but I knew that if He could pull me out of that terrifying storm, then what couldn't He save me from with my life fully dedicated to Him.

 

That was nearly 8 years ago and my life has not been the same since. And believe me when I say, that does not by any means, mean the storms have stopped. It simply gives me the understanding that I am not going through these storms alone. 

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I walk every day with Jesus now.

 

I am on a journey of knowing Him oh so intimately. My savior and redeemer. And the crazy thing is, all of that unrest from my childhood, all of the tossing about from home to home, has prepped me for my true calling as a missionary. I have lived overseas in various countries for various lengths of time over the years. 

 

I am now the director of global missions for all of the campuses of my church and I get to live out God’s purpose daily. My husband and I created a candle company where we donate a portion of our sales into the ministries and mission teams I’ve created strong relationships with over the years. I 100% get to live in the destiny that God was knitting together for me from the moment I was born into chaos.

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Beauty for ashes. 

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