Roadblocks …

ByKathy Stephens

roadblocksI came up on this train the other night here in town and as I came to a standstill I saw that the cross bars were down, Lights were flashing, horn was blowing and I could actually feel the vibration from the roar of the engine. I sat there thinking….. Isn’t this how LIFE IS. Just when we least expect it, It throws down the crossbars, flashes it’s light and brings us to a stand still. Sometimes the pain from the “roadblock” causes us to vibrate within.

At first the interruption can sometimes be aggravating, making us irritated at the STOP, the halt in our lives, making us scared of the unknown STOP, BUT if we stop long enough to think upon the event we find that if we will allow GOD to TAKE OVER, our breathing begins to return to normal, the vibration seems to lessen and the fears begin to subside.

As I drove to my kids for THANKSGIVING yesterday I was pondering over the things in my life that have caused cross bars to fall, lights to flash, horns to blow, my soul to vibrate. It seems that for the past almost year I’ve been waiting for all those things to return to normal. May never be normal again but what I DO know is that GOD will use these ROADBLOCKS to slow us down, get us to regroup, take another route OR get us to seriously access the things in our lives. The best thing HE CAN AND WILL DO, is grow us right in the middle of the STOP.

Are you at a STOP, a ROADBLOCK? TAKE A BREATH. BE THANKFUL for them cause SOMETIMES… just sometimes, they are so much more than that. Isaiah 43:19 “Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”

Stand Tall…

ByKathy Stephens

stand tallAs I left from photographing a sweet family Sunday afternoon this is what I saw. I stopped along this drive and rolled down my window and thought how quiet it was and how alone I felt at that very moment. I couldn’t get to my camera so I reached and grabbed my phone and shot this. In that moment the whisper of the spirit spoke to me. It was as if I heard Him say, “Look at that tree”. It was standing there all alone in that field YET STANDING TALL. It was as if a voice was saying, ” do you know how many storms this tree has weathered to get this big and tall?”… ” Really GOD?”, I whispered back. Been through a bunch of those in my life.

As the days and now months have gone by since Dennis’ death I’ve questioned my existence. What do I do from here, where do I spend my time, how do I walk this out? I’ve asked God more than once “what am I suppose to be doing?” Truth is I”m learning that our lives are NOT in the doing, but in the BEING….

Today as I was reading God’s word I came across one of my favorite verses in Isaiah. It’s a verse that I’ve clung to for years when I was going through the hurt and pain of something. Here it was again and I immediately thought about the picture I snapped on Sunday. I thought about this tree and the whisper. I want to share it with you. It’s Isaiah 61:3 “To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that he may be Glorified. ”

So If your going through some hurt and pain right now I pray that you will find comfort in this verse as well. I pray that you will allow yourself to be ROOTED in Christ, Stand Tall. Weather the Storm….

What are you BECOMING???

ByKathy Stephens

becomingThrough out my life I have done a lot of things. UNLIKE my husband who worked at the same job for 30 years. I’ve owned a State approved Day Care, Owned a nail salon, been to nursing school, taught art to elementary students, Been a wedding Photographer, worked on Capital Hill, built spec homes, sold real-estate and i’ve always laughed and said “if God had given me boobs i’d probably have been a stripper”. I KNOW, I KNOW. some of you are gasping for air right now. ha SORRY….. it’s a joke but probably does have alittle truth mixed in cause I do love to dance. (side note: it was just sorta true when I was much younger)… It seems that i’ve never really known what I wanted to be when I grow up.

Over the past couple of weeks i’ve had the privilege of visiting with a friend of mine as she watched her husbands health decline and who ultimately went to be with the LORD and this morning my day started out with a 7am phone call from an official asking me to come to another friend of mines home cause her husband had just passed away. I say privileged cause it truly has been. My heart breaks for both of them. I know what they are facing. This doesn’t make me special but because of my journey, it make me broken, it makes me available, it makes me….. well it allows me to know what that truly feels like. I just hope that in some small way my pain can become a source of help for another. It has once again reminded me that life is truly fragile and sometimes short. It then reminds me to remind you of that fact in hope that you will take an extra moment tonight, tomorrow or next week to spend some extra time with someone you care about.

I’ve been asking GOD a lot of questions as I approach the year anniversary of my sweet husband’s home-going. “what would you have me to do Lord?”. That’s been a big question. I’ve told him that I will do what ever He ask me to do but truth is I’ve begun to realize that it’s not about DOING… it’s about becoming….. I saw this inspirational quote the other day and I’ve been pondering over it ever since. It’s so true of my life. I’m becoming. Many things about my life have been taken away and GOD is brining new things into my life and I PRAY that I can truly BECOME what HE has meant for me to BE all along.

What journey are you on? What are you becoming??? The word BECOME means to undergo change or development. GOSH I sure need that. What about YOU???