[T358]The Business Of Learning

Kathy was sitting in her recliner at her home in California with 3-year-old daughter Lindsay cuddled at her side. Both were watching a show featuring an actress who had designed a line of Victorian jewelry. ?I would love to design jewelry,? Kathy thought. But immediately, the all-too-familiar lack of self-esteem whispered, ?You could never do that,? and she promptly shoved the desire aside.

The desire lay forgotten through several years, the addition of two more children to the family, and two more moves that ended just outside of Houston, Texas. But fifteen years later, Kathy has four children ages 24, 18, 13 and 11, and is the owner of www.TheAngelStop.com, a Christian retail jewelry and home decor company based in Sugar Land, Texas. When Kathy talks about how the company began years ago, she leaves out the business jargon she has recently been forced to learn as a former nurse and stay-at-home mother. Instead, she focuses on the God whom she says has been in the business of healing her life and the lives of others through the company.

?The whole process of this company has been healing. I didn't intend to have a company, but God had intentions for the company,? Kathy said.

The retail site www.TheAngelStop.com began as a hobby for Kathy in 1996. She said she had a need to create, but after having four children, two of which were still toddlers, there was little time to finish projects. So she was delighted to find that she could design brass and silver-plated angel pins in one sitting. Kathy began to give her pins to family members and friends, and one relative suggested she send the designs to someone involved in the Atlanta Gift Mart. By January of 1998, the angel pin line was in one of the top showrooms in the Atlanta Gift Mart. Today, Kathy's hobby has grown into The Angel Stop - Christian Gifts: Angel Pins, Framed Pictures found at www.TheAngelStop.com.

Through the business? growth Kathy says that God was doing a greater work in her life personally. There was a need for healing in her life because of events that stretched back into her childhood, and God began to mend her heart as He began to grow the company.

?I had shame, low self-esteem, the urge to hide or run or both. As Christ began working in my life, I would ask for healing and the forgiveness needed to get rid of the bitterness. But every time He started moving me in that direction, the pain would rear its ugly head and I would retreat back to my prison cell. It was the only secure place I thought I knew.

?God took me to rock bottom in 1997, and through a period of great emotional pain, God gave me Isaiah 61:3. From outward appearances, I had everything, but inside my life was in ashes. Over the next few years God created beauty from those ashes and led me to the place where I could be planted firm in Him, and His glory could be displayed.?

?The company became part of the healing because through the process of growing a company, He pushed me out of my corner where I wanted to stay - the place I was most comfortable in. And to survive, I had to rely on Him. Through the process of Him forcing me out to the world, I found out life was all about Him and that my sufficiency was in Him. I want my life to be about the display of His glory, and my desire is that The Angel Stop be a company that glorifies God and a vessel through which He ministers.?

Today, Kathy's desire is to inspire women to step out with confidence and boldness into whatever God has set in front of them. She says that she has learned through her own journey of healing that faith doesn't mean the absence of fear, but the courage to take steps in the midst of fear.

The path Kathy has taken since the desire to design was sparked eleven years ago has been marked with fear at times, but Kathy says it's been well-worth the struggle.

?A few years ago the Lord reminded me of when I was sitting in San Jose, California with my daughter, and I said I couldn't design jewelry. But He has shown me that He can achieve anything through me.?