WRITTEN BY CHERYL WELLS
My title sounds impressive and like I’m tough, but that’s not what it’s about. It’s funny, as I was thinking back to many years ago and topics that I have spoken on, this is not the first or only time that I have thought a lot about and written about weathering the storms. I guess that’s what happens when you are my age and storms are just a part of life, right? Anyone got any storms going on or did you just come through one? Storms for us can be our own storms that we are actually experiencing, but storms can be even those that we are witnessing and watching, right? Anyone seen any storms lately that have wrecked them? Storms that are devastating the nation, or your friends and family. There is so much anxiety across the nation and the world today because of what we hear and watch on social media or other ways. We have a front row view, and it is not necessarily good for us or for our body. It effects our heart and mind and all other systems in our body.
I’m not going to go there because even with the current circumstances going on, God has held me and led me, and I am at peace. He has been my firm foundation, and this one unshakeable truth has held me over and over throughout my life.
“As for everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like. They are like a man building a house who dug down deep and laid a firm foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built.” (Luke 6:47,48)
I’m asking God to speak to you in a way that you won’t forget when you are troubled again by struggles and trials you might face. First of all, I want to speak to the topic of leadership before we get too far into this. I never saw myself as a leader when I was younger, and I had probably a bad taste in my mouth because of experiences I had. It wasn’t even on my radar that God might be preparing me or that there was a way God might want to use me to be one. In fact, my family still to this day says that I was so shy and afraid of my shadow that they can’t believe the things that I have done or am doing even right now.
Leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less. Everyone has influence, everyone. Who is in your life and who do you cross paths with that knows you and listens to you? Who might care what you say or listen to your stories? Who is watching you and maybe modeling their life after you because of how you live and how you love? Who sees your hard work and what is making a difference at work or in life anywhere? Who are you adding value to and coming alongside of in big and small ways? Who is learning from you and growing spiritually and in many other ways? Who have you shared your story with that sees or hears something that might inspire them and cause them to look at their own life and mostly to look at Jesus? Do you see my point?
Adding value can look like so many things, and we make it so difficult, and most times miss the opportunities to bless and honor others in the ways that honor and bless God. I am a recovering codependent that was raised in a dysfunctional family of addiction and abuse. I daily read from alanon and adult children materials and this has so helped me in this stage of my life as I continue to recover and heal. I want to say that I chose over 40 years ago to grow and to press into the new life and the growth that is work and is intentional as a Christ follower. I would read the promises of God and in childlike faith I chose to believe that God would really do what He said. I love Psalm 23, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want, He makes me to lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside the still waters, He restores my soul.” I memorized it as a child when I was afraid, and I would hide in my room in the corner and read my Bible that someone gave me.
I’m so grateful that I memorized scripture when I was very young that over the course of my life God used to bring me back to Himself. I love to share my stories of how God drew me unto Himself and how He has worked over and over throughout my days to bring healing and peace and stability to me. I use my testimonies and my influence to show people that God is real and that He is with me and that He can be with them. I make myself vulnerable by sharing with others and it opens so many doors to minister and to point people to Jesus – but also it can add value to their lives by showing them that no matter who they are, what they’ve done or what others think, anyone can live differently and God is with them to love them and to empower them to grow and overcome anything. I continue to share my growth even now so that others can be encouraged to keep working at it and trusting God for health in every way.
I married at age 17, a pregnant teen that had been raised in an alcoholic abusive home where my mother had gotten married at age 15, as well as my three siblings were all married at 16-17 years of age. Mike, my husband was 18 and had just graduated from high school 2 months prior and was on his way to college. We told our parents and got married 2 days later at the First Church of the Nazarene because the pastor there agreed to and took our 50 bucks. We tell our story a lot and often say that it was not a good plan for us to get pregnant and to marry at that age, but we see and know God’s providence and sovereignty was at work. Amen. We have been married 48 years this July with about 2 years off for bad behavior. We have been remarried for 44 years this March 6. Yes, we divorced and remarried each other in 1981. We had our first child Michael at age 18 and 19 and then divorced when he was 2. The end or so it seemed, of our family. We had three other children over the next 16 years, and I am so grateful for the gift of being a mom and grandma. I had so much to learn.
My husband was raised in a home where they learned how to work and how to lead. They are a family with lots of issues, like yours and mine, but they were a wonderful family that accepted me eventually and loved me as their own. They watched us struggle so much at first and then they watched us love and grow and they observed us as we committed our lives and our marriage and our kids and our business to Jesus. Mike has a work ethic like no one I know, and I was raised with a will and a desire to study and work hard too. We are both work horses, and some of that comes from an unhealthy root in our dysfunctional homes that we had to learn and take to God. There were so many really hard storms for us because of the business and the weight of all that through the years, and each time we would take it to Jesus in prayer and surrender it, God was faithful.
Psalm 31:14 says, “But I trust in You, Lord; I say, “You are my God.” God will help you silence the voice and lies of the enemy and take away the shame, as you trust Him and cry out to Him and know He is shining on you, and He loves you. You are His beloved child. He will walk with you and lead you, as you surrender your life and your will over to the care of God. No matter the storm, there is life after and it can be so good.
