GREYHAIRLADYSPEAKSOUT

“Even in life’s construction zones, the Master Builder never stops working.”
From jackhammers to gentle hands, God’s been rebuilding me from the inside out.“

Some projects take a lifetime, and the best ones are built with grace, grit, and a few red flags along the way.

Over the years, I’ve been part of plenty of small groups and networking circles where someone inevitably pulls out the classic icebreaker: everyone writes a fun fact about themselves on a slip of paper, tosses it in a hat, and we all try to guess who’s who. Without fail, my favorite one to share and the one no one ever guesses, is about a summer job I once had.

Ready for it? I ran a jackhammer on a heavy and highway crew. Yep, this girl in steel-toed boots and a hard hat, busting up concrete under the hot summer sun.

It actually started a little differently, first as a flagger, then pushing a wheelbarrow, and before long, I was trusted with that jackhammer. Each job change came with a little raise, and as a newly divorced mom raising two small girls, those extra dollars meant the world.

One of my favorite memories from that time was showing my dad my first jackhammer paycheck. He was old-school, old-world in his thinking men did the hard labor, women did not. I proudly handed him that check to look at, half expecting a pat on the back. Instead, he looked at it, grinned that knowing grin, and said, “Well, you do a *!#! man’s job, you get a *!#! man’s pay.”

Let’s just say that didn’t sit well with me. I smiled and said, “No, Daddy I did my job, and I got my pay.”
He never said another word about it after that.

Funny thing is, all these years later, I realize life is still kind of like that summer job. I’m still on a worksite of sorts, flagging down red warning flags, hauling emotional wheelbarrows full of lessons, and yes, occasionally picking up the jackhammer to break through some old, stubborn concrete in my soul.

God’s still building something in me. It’s noisy, messy, sometimes heavy work, but I trust the foundation is strong, and the end result will be worth every swing of the hammer.

“Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” — Philippians 1:6

Author’s Reflection:
Sometimes I think God must smile at my “construction zone.” He’s patient with my detours, kind when I need to pause, and always ready to hand me the right tools for the job. The red flags, the wheelbarrows, the jackhammers, they’re all reminders that the work in me isn’t finished yet. But maybe that’s the beauty of it… we’re all works in progress, still under the careful, loving hands of the Master Builder.

Work in progress, Marie