Want to share this writing from my beach vacation at Pine Knoll Shores in North Carolina this past summer. I hope this ministers to you in that place in Life that you now find yourself. I have returned to this little piece several time since writing it and it does lift me each time. I pray it also does you.


After a restless night having a nightmare from my Domestic Violence Marriage of many years ago, I woke early and had an urge to walk the beach alone as everyone but my Nephew was still sleeping. So tea mug in hand I started out, it was just as high tide was going out, still some pretty strong waves coming in. The Holy spirit began showing me how the waves coming in from the ocean are so like our lives. I walked along a few paces in the smooth sand where the waves had rolled out, suddenly a larger wave swept in and would have knocked me off my feet, IF I had not dug my feet into the sand. God said this is how life is, you are going along everything is going fairly well and suddenly something in your life tries to knock you down, IF you do not stand firm in me you will be swept a place you really do not want to go. When you stand firm on My Word, trust and look to me life will smooth out, You may get tossed around a little but, you will remain upright. There are several places where large deposits of shell have been deposited when high tide is coming in, God said these are graveyards of shells that have become stranded on land, you will see some that are crushed or broken, then you will find one that has little damage, once in awhile you will find one almost perfect. These shells are likened to my Children's lives, some are battered, bruised, and broken while others are deposited on the shore still beautiful with little outward showing of there time of being tossed and rolled in the waves for years. What makes one shell more resilient to the waves I do not know, but in my life I know my relationship with Jesus Christ has changed my life for the better. Yesterday as we walked on the beach I mentioned to my Sister, Kathy I had never found a large Conch Shell in all my years of beach walking and shell hunting, as I walked this morning in the middle of one of the “Shell Graveyards” there was a top of a Conch sticking up surrounded by piles of broken pieces of shell, I almost walked on by thinking it was most likely a broken one as nothing very large had been seen deposited on our walk yesterday. Tiptoeing across the broken bed of shells I reached down and pulled out a large Conch shell, tears came to my eyes as I looked at it. It was not quite perfect but it was a whole shell, there is a piece of the outside layer peeled away, there are a few cracks , chips and crevices, but it is a whole intact shell. I turned it over and on the inside it is beautiful. The Holy Spirit spoke these words to me in my spirit, “This shell is like your life, on the outside you have a few layers missing from being, battered and bruised by life, but on the inside where My Spirit resides you are beautiful”. This has ministered to me so much this morning, the last 2 years have put some cracks and crevices in my shell, but on the inside I am trusting that I will continue to look to Jesus and remain faithful to the calling on my life. I was deposited on the graveyard of life for a time, not swept away. I dug my feet in and stood firm even in the greatest time of loss in my life. God has been faithful, given me the time I needed to heal, I thank Him for His Grace and Mercy that keeps me standing in the sands of Life !