The term Gracefully Broken is being broken by God, so that he can take you to higher places with him. To be gracefully broken is to surrender it all to God so that he can position you, promote you, and put you in a place where you can develop a new level of character, or experience a new blessing.
Now I know many you are thinking like I still think at times myself; God should have chosen someone else for this assignment. It has been almost four years since I buried my husband, Rev. Kenneth Foster. While Kenneth was here on earth, we touched so many people lives with our love story, and he was so proud to share our story with everyone.
I am never ashamed to tell others that I am still grieving, still healing, still in counseling, still empty, still questioning, still texting his phone, still listening to his sermons, still playing his video of him singing to me, still coping.
One day God said, “Gracefully Broken”
It became clear to me; through all my hurt and pain, I am now the voice for widows in my church, in my community, on my job, in my family. As a child I knew my voice was my gift, I just never knew that this would be the platform that would allow me to be a voice of comfort to others who will walk, or who has already walked in a Widows Shoes. When I became a Widow at 43, I was lost, lonely, and confused.
I now make it a personal goal to reach out to widows in my church, my community, and I have been my stepmother’s guide since the passing of my father. My stepmother said to me, “I do not know how I would have made it without you being my guide”.
I am still not clear why this is the path that is placed before me, as I am broken. I try and tell myself that my husband chose this assignment for me.
We all have our own healing to do, and we decide how we heal. I will continue to heal by helping others on this journey if it is by blogging, sharing a story, buying a cup of coffee, creating a checklist, starting a grief support group at my church, and taking time to listen to the older lady story about her life, because I have that same story, I am just not an older widow.
I will continue to be Gracefully Broken and allow myself to be a servant and help another Widow who has to walk in a Widow Shoes.
About Jamie Foster
Jamie Foster resides in Daphne, Alabama with her daughter and two grand puppies. On January 10, 2019 at 10:30 p.m. her life was shattered as the man that God kept for her suffered a heart attack in his sleep. A fairytale that began so beautifully just three years prior ended in tragedy. She made a statement two years before she started dating Rev. Kenneth Foster, as he preached a sermon at her church. She said to a friend, “I am going to marry Rev. Foster one day, and make him a very good wife”. Two years later, after about 4 dinner dates, Kenneth told her; that God showed him that she was his wife. They married a few months later on November 28, 2015. In three years, they lived out their wedding vows richer, poorer, sickness, health, and till death do us part.
She never imagined that she could feel so much pain in her entire body!! The love of her life the man she prayed for is now gone. She immediately began to question everything she knew, everything she believed in.
After Kenneth’s death, she had nothing else to hold on to but the Faith that they talked about, the Faith that he preached about. The road is a difficult one, but she pushes forward. On this journey, she has come in contact with women all over the world who share the same grief and the same pain that she does. She started to find comfort and joy in knowing that others understood her heartache and pain.
In 2021, she left her full-time job to focus on her Mental Health. She became the CEO of Foster & Foster H.R. Solutions, an Independent Insurance Agent, a blogger of Foundation of Truths, a Motivational Speaker, and she is penning the pages to a book that is long overdue.
Jamie always knew that her gift, was her powerful voice and she is walking in her purpose. It is to help encourage, motivate, inspire, and lift up all of her fellow sisters as we are all on this journey together. She lives each day no matter how hard, by the words of Jeremiah 29:11 “I know the plans he has for me”.