Press THROUGH THE Storm by Judge Ieshia Gray

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Press THROUGH

THE Storm by Judge Ieshia Gray

In March of this year, this country was turned upside down. As businesses shut down and families stayed in the home, many of us struggled with the fear of the unknown. I know I am not alone when I say thoughts of my finality, humanness, and mortality pervaded my thoughts. Yet, I knew I had to press on; but how do we find the strength to press through the storm? Because if it is not Covid-19, life has shown me that there WILL be storms.

For me, one of my biggest challenges in life has been dealing with the loss of my unborn child, Elijah. For eighteen weeks, I carried him in my womb. I sang to him at night, whispered to him in the mornings, and loved on him even before he was born. When my water broke, I knew I would never be the same. I couldn’t get time back to change what was happening.

No amount of pleas to God would change the fact that I would have to deliver him still unformed and not ready for this world. So how

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when life throws you the unexpected, the devastating, and the unplanned, do you find the strength to press through the storm?

Number one, you must have faith. For someone who is in despair, it can be the hardest thing to continue to have faith. When your soul cries, that is when you must turn to God. When Elijah left this earth, it was a sermon from the pulpit that healed my soul. You cannot give up. You must continue to turn to God and know that he has the ultimate design for your life.

Number two, you must move. Move, in every sense of the word. Move your body. Move your mind. Press through the storms of life. When you just want to lay there and wallow in your brokenness, that is when you must use every strength in your body, to get up! Take a walk. Let the peace of God’s creations remind you of how blessed it is to breathe in the air, to place one foot in front of the other, to be.

Move your mind. Make a commitment to only focus your mind on the positive. There is power in your thoughts.

For me, it meant saying to myself, that I am a mother and I will hear my children’s laughter. Even when the doctor had no hope, I would continue to say, I am a mother and I will hear my children’s laughter. Your mind can change your reality. Move your mind toward the positive. When you change your thoughts, you will see the manifestation of that change in your life.

Lastly, you must know that God is there. God is here even now. During our storms, God is still there. Do you remember the story

of Elijah in I Kings, Chapter 19? Remember how Elijah ran in fear for his life and hid in the caves and there he found God, a soft whisper letting him know that everything was going to be ok.

It was that sermon that was preached after I lost Elijah that healed my heart. I knew God was telling me then that everything would be ok. So now, when I hold my son and daughter at night, my spirit rejoices, because I know God was always there, even through my storms and he is still here now, letting us know that everything is going to be ok. No matter your storm, stay encouraged. Press through and know that God is with you.

Judge Ieshia Gray