Images of flattened neighborhoods and wood splinters strewn along the coastline where gracious Southern homes once had stood were etched in my mind. As Hurricane Katrina slammed into the coast of Mississippi and Alabama, it annihilated everything in its path.

A few years later after visiting New Orleans, I began thinking about how some structures were destroyed while others withstood the storm.

My Story

When I was 19 years old, my parents finally divorced after 24 years of marriage. When I asked them why they divorced, they answered, “A break down in communication.” One day I had a family; the next day I didn’t. Seemingly, overnight the storm decimated my family.

When the torrential rains of life swept into our home and the gale force winds blasted against it, our home collapsed. And my family suffered.

After the storm, we looked like splinters of wood scattered across the sand. My father left my mother. I left for college. My 16-year-old brother moved in with another family. My 12-year-old brother was enrolled in a boarding school. And my mother lived alone in an empty house.

My Application

Every day I have the choice to make either wise decisions or foolish decisions. And the consequences of my choices will either strengthen the foundation of my life and family or weaken it.

When I snap at my children, fantasize what my life might be like if I were married to another man, or gossip with my daughter about someone that offended me, then I have chosen to build my life on an unstable foundation.

Likewise, if I apologize to my children, resist imagining my life with another husband, and stop gossiping with my daughter, I will strengthen the foundation of my life.

Although a storm of Katrina’s magnitude doesn’t come often, the daily decisions I make still count. Because one day when another big storm does come, the foundation I have chosen will determine the outcome.