Grace Upon Grace

WRITTEN BY CHERYL WELLS

I am excited to begin this journey of blogging for my business. We have been open for 14 years and through the years I have done a newsletter but we stopped that quite a few years ago. I think it was because I was so busy and overwhelmed at the time. I am in a new season and I know this will be good for me. My hope and desire is that it will maybe be a good thing for you too. I am writing to you as friends and customers, maybe to others who are small business owners or managers, and also maybe just as someone who is interested in growing and hearing someone else’s story with struggles and progress.

That’s the first part of the story that I want to focus on. It has been a steady pattern of struggles and failures along with progress and growth that has lead to new and exciting times of success. Like I said it has been 14 years that seemed so long at times, but the learning never stopped. Truth is that I’m 64 and I opened my first business on the day of my 50th birthday. It still makes me laugh when I think about it. I had no idea what I was doing and I started out thinking that I would hire a manager who would know what to do. I know, you are laughing with me!

I learn by doing and so I tried to do that a few times, and then I realized that I was the one to learn it and do it myself. God must laugh at us most of the times, don’t you think? I stepped in and in the midst of being so stretched and overwhelmed one day and I felt like there were so many things that I had to figure out, I sensed that the Spirit of God spoke to me to “reach up and grab one thing at a time and ask Him what to do with it.” It was such a clarifying moment for me that I never forgot it. That’s the way it is when God shows me something and I know it’s Him. And it worked over and over for me. He has lead me all the way and it took time and lots of work. There was so much for me to learn and I had to ask for grace every day and give myself grace also. You’ve heard the saying, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. I had to do it and learn it one step at a time. When I tried to do too much at once, it didn’t work and it was so stressful and hard on my old body. God’s grace that saved me in Jesus and the way that He made for me to know God personally, also saves me and empowers me everyday to live and to work and to love the way He wants me to.

His grace is sufficient for me, for His power is made perfect in my weakness. That was my greatest truth that I needed from the beginning. I am weak, but He is strong and He will give me His strength when I ask and believe Him for it. I’m still there and thankful for grace upon grace. Give me more grace today, Lord.