Channel Markers

Channel Markers - channel markers are navigation signals on federal waters to aid in safe waterway navigation....I love the water. I love being on the water in the boat. I
love the memories of spending all of our spare time on the water when the girls
were young. I have been missing the water and have been thinking about all of those days of the best times ever. Thinking about that - my ADD mind wanders
to the evenings that David and I, along with our Kindred Spirits, took the Boating Safety Class. The fun of that was the seriousness with which the guys approached the class - and how the ladies would slip out to take a bathroom break and head to the mall. AND we still passed the final exam!! Back to channel markers...just like the markers that guide us safely through the waters on our boat trips, there are channel markers that God gives us along our journey in life that guide us, direct our way, and keep us in the safe waters until we complete our travels. So I began thinking about the markers and just where in my life the markers have shown up. Channel marker - being born into a Christian home - having two Godly parents. This set me on a path that would forever shape my life. Channel Marker - my Daddy dying unexpectedly and at such a young age. I was only 14. I know that this changed my life forever. Channel Marker - Decisions about where I would go to college. Two transfers, and I was where I needed to be. This decision would change my life and career plans - one semester of volunteering with autistic children and I knew what I was called to do. This one decision to go to school in Charleston would be the most important channel marker of all. It was at tfhis time that God brought David into my life - and there he remains 30 something years later. I heard someone say today that long marriages are "well-seasoned". Ours definitely is. Channel Marker - Our wedding day. Channel Marker - Decision to move from Ohio early in our marriage to south Florida. God brought us closer to family, and brought Sam and Mart into our lives. Channel Marker - pregnancy, and the birth of Kaiti. This marker would redirect us and totally change our lives. The three of us journeyed along from south Florida to Merritt Island to Tampa and there we found another Channel Marker - a move to Charleston. God brought us back to the LowCountry where we had gone to school, where we found our Kindred Spirits, where we found a church home and family, where Kelly was born, and where we bumped right into a huge Channel Marker - Walk to Emmaus. This weekend was spiritually life-changing for both of us in our faith journey and our relationship with Christ. Channel Marker - Susan, Kindred Spirit...diagnosed with cancer and taken from us - so young, too young. A lesson in faith, prayer, and how to do whatever it takes to just get through. Lessons for a lifetime. Lessons that were so difficult and painful to learn - but lessons that shaped all of our lives. Channel Marker - Hurricane Hugo - loss and survival. Channel Marker - David's Dad's death - this marker changed our family once again in a forever kind of way. Channel Marker - guiding us to leave Charleston and head back to Florida. Being guided to make this move only by God and as a total move of faith. Little did we know that we were moving here so that we would be in a place to care for David's mom. This move was like being in the boat at night, when the water is dark and black. The only way to navigate is by the lights on the channel markers. You have studied the book, you know what the lights mean - and you navigate by faith through the dark water. And here we are looking out for more channel markers in our lives right now. Waiting for God to put the markers around the curve so that we know which direction we are supposed to take.

I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.Isaiah 42:15-17