Welcome to the Storm

When I was given the opportunity to write, I really didn’t know what to say. First, I was honored to be given an opportunity to use my voice on a platform dreamed up and worked out by another woman that I highly respect. Because I respect her, I respect this platform, all that it took to bring it to fruition, and all that it will produce.

So taking a note from Mom Dreams’ previous guest blogger, thank you Breanna, for the opportunity to write on this platform, and I pray you and this platform continues to be blessed and covered.

Now, welcome to the storm. It’s a place in life where everything is rearranged and where chaos seems closer than a friend, the place where the only thing that you can do is take cover, hold on tight, and pray you don’t lose your grip.

I currently live in Texas with my family, and I’ve lived here my whole life. Lately we have been having a lot of storms. These storms aren’t usual. They don’t sound the same as years before .They don’t feel the same. The sound they make gives me a sense of uncertainty. Yes, I know tornadoes are unpredictable, but when I was younger, it was easier to tell if a storm had tornado potential. There were certain natural characteristics that you could count on to help you navigate if you should take shelter. It was a stillness in the air. The temperature dropped. Even the time of day would give it away. I have been blessed to escape several tornadoes, and the day I am about to describe was no different.

I was woken up at 6 a.m. to 80 mph rogue winds and a siren, TORNADO WARNING!!! There was a live tornado on the ground, and my family and neighborhood were in the direct path of that tornado. We were told to move to our safety areas . We got everybody up in the house, and all 8 of us took cover. I prayed over my home and all the people in it. I asked God to cover us and our neighbors.

We heard the wind blow. I heard some things fly. The lights flickered off and on for a while. I even felt the wall shake a bit, but we emerged without a scratch or any known damage to our house. Then reports start coming in on our neighborhood groups . There were power outages everywhere. Sheds were picked up, thrown, and fell on cars. Whole trees were snapped in half, and pictures of relocated trampolines, green houses, and broken fences were posted everywhere.

It didn’t register to check our own backyard until we heard another neighbor lost a third of their shared fence. Then I remembered our previously broken fence. See this fence was broken by our neighbors and they have yet to fix it. I was sure it had been easily taken away by the storm, but to my surprise and slight disappointment, that ugly fence was still there! Not only was the fence still there, all my scattered planter pots, cheap little green houses, umbrella, and chairs were all there, and in the same place!

I was confused because everyone else's strong fences blew away, and we have lost a whole canopy with less high winds blowing. That ugly, damaged fence was still standing, SMH. God tapped me on the shoulder and said, “Well you asked me to cover everything that belonged to you. Yes, even your broken fence.”

I know it sounds odd that I would be disappointed my fence was still there, but this fence has been a source of frustration. It has been a whole issue. We didn’t even break it and the ones who did are too lazy to fix it. I don’t wanna pay to fix something I didn’t break! Sound familiar? I literally wished my problem would fly away, but all that would do is leave a big hole that no one would fill.

There are parts of you that you think don’t matter. There are things about you that you are ashamed of. There are things you wish would just fly away, things about you that other people broke and left you with the responsibility to fix. You are wondering why it hasn't fallen off after everything you’ve been through. Why hasn’t that flown away, not just what broke, but the way it made you feel when it broke?

We often hear that storms come to destroy or to clear a path, but I think sometimes they also come to show us how important we are to God. The things we dislike and the things we are ashamed of, He cares about it all. Some storms come to try to destroy you. Some storms come to clear your path. But some storms come to reveal your broken places that God still loves.

You may be in a storm right now and you believe you’re not going to come out intact. When you’re uncertain, if you trust God with everything you own, He won't just cover the things that you love, He will cover your broken places. He covers every part of you.

That broken fence is like a broken heart, the place of shame. God doesn’t want only the shiny parts of you. He wants all of you. Broken mind, heart, and random, intrusive thoughts scattered in your mind like my planters, He wants the unhinged parts of you as well as the secure parts.

When he says He’s covering you, it means even the places you don’t desire to see anymore. Those things that are painful and shameful, God wants to take away the shame, not hide it. He doesn’t want you to believe that any part of you isn’t worth saving. It was you that was broken, the Dream, the Hope, the Gift …You.

No matter what you think or believe, that part of you deserves to be saved. That part deserves to be mended, no matter how it happened. You are worth being saved, all of you, every piece of you - every ugly piece of you.

God says He loves you unconditionally. He doesn’t love you in a fraction. He loves you fully. He wants you to know the child and the adult in you are worth saving. He wants to be the one that gets the credit for fixing your fence! You thought the storm was going to take you out so you prayed.\

God says, “I will cover your broken fence. I will save it for the mending. This time, the storm didn’t come to steal, kill or destroy you. It will reveal the pieces left after the storm clears, the parts of you I care about mending. It shows you how much you matter, and that I am not ashamed of any part of you. It all mattered then, and it matters right now.”

“The parts that other people took for granted, the parts that you have convinced yourself no longer matter, and the parts that you had a hard time mending on your own, I’m about to fix your broken fence. I’m about to clean up your yard full of disheveled things, and this time nothing is going to move you! The storm is not going to take away from you. I am covering you in all things. In the sunlight and the storm, I am going to allow you to have the process and the time to heal from what other storms have caused you. All the weathering that you have endured will be as if it never happened. I’m giving you back all your pieces and making it whole again.”

Warning, this will change how you see and love yourself and how you stand on business. You will trade walls for boundaries and broken expectations for healthy relationships. It will cause deep laughter to roll from your belly and natural affirmation will flow from your tongue. It will set you free, forever changing your identity from broken to healed to whole.

So if you feel a little chaos right now and nothing’s making sense, give everything to Him like I did during my storm. Watch what He covers in the storm. When it passes, you’ll see what’s left standing. The things that remain are clearly what He says matters. It’s time for you to believe in yourself in the way God knows in you, and yes I said knows. God doesn't need to believe because He already knows what you can do. He knows the end from the beginning.

Some of your greatest achievements are going to come through some of the most broken places. It’s why those were the places of target. Those were the places that held the key to you understanding your identity, shaping it as ugly instead of beautiful in your eyes. God is about to show you how beautiful you are and who you have always been through His eyes.

You are worthy to be mended. Welcome to the place where you find your value, freedom, and true identity. This is the place where all things become new, where beauty is revealed. You are leaving the former and stepping into your latter. What once was considered a limitation, makes you limitless. Welcome to the storm.