Standing Down

Roaring winds that sounded hauntingly parallel to a demon's howl, blew through my living room window. Terrified at the smoky lick of 165 mph winds, I tried to run up the stairs with legs of jelly. I had just recorded a goodbye message to my son on my phone but yet, I fought to live.

Rewind four years before, my son's contractor grandfather, Joe, had swung by my house to drop off Valentine's Day gifts for us. He had never seen our town home and wanted to do a walk through. It was the perfect time since I had just made an offer to the owner to purchase it.

His professional word was gold to me. Running a successful, multi-million dollar contracting company I knew his knowledge base would help me to decide if the owner's offer was good. He walked up the stairs and looked over the house. He deemed it a solid structure. So I bought it.

Back to 2018, Hurricane Michael screamed outside and Joe's words came back to me. I had something to fight the hysteria with as I watched the tornadic vortex try to suck my roof off. Knees buckling, legs shaking, I tried to stand but was empty as could be. Through shaky tears, I said with meekness, "This structure will stand!"

Growing a little more confident I said it louder. "This structure will stand!" Louder and louder I repeated, "This structure will stand!" I repeated it until there was not a hint of doubt left. "This structure will stand! This structure will stand! This structure will stand!"

Guess what? It stood and so did I. When the storm comes, stand it down and tell it, "This structure will stand!" Speak your way into a miracle.