others see me is NOT how he sees me. So, about 9 years ago I began to open that door. I felt a greater purpose for my life. I began praying for clarity and discernment. This is where God really began to reveal himself to me . 

​

      People always ask me how I came up with the idea of spoon crosses and this is how they began. I went to bed like any other night and the next morning before I could get out of the bed I "heard" the phrase, "Tie spoons together".  I somehow knew that it meant to tie them into a cross because I was interested in learning to make crosses at that time. Now, when people used to tell me that they hear God tell them things, I used to get a little freaked out and was full of skepticism and questions. I had never heard him to my knowledge, so I didn't feel like I could relate.

 

     Now I know different. I can now say that what I heard was not an audible voice. The best way I can explain it to someone is when you are consciously trying to remember something and it pops into your head like "Oh, I can't forget to go to the grocery store." or " I can't forget to pick up the kids ."  Well once you decide," Oh, I don't need to go to the store today", or "I don't need to get the kids because dad got them." the thought goes away and doesn't keep coming back to you. So, when I heard "Tie spoons together" I immediately tossed it out of my head saying." I'm not doing that." That is going to look horrible."  But, there was great persistence to it.

 

      The more I tried to ignore it, the more it came back. I can say it returned to me countless times during that day and at that time I didn't understand why. When I said to myself I wasn't going to do it, it kept returning. Finally, at the end of the day after ignoring God's prompting the entire day, I went to my kitchen drawer. I pulled out some kitchen spoons and curling ribbon and began wrapping it around the handle of the spoon. With that small act of faith and finally, obedience I felt God's overwhelming love and guidance.

​

      The ideas of how to construct the cross came so quickly I had to get paper to write it all down. To this day I have that paper. It looks like a mad woman wrote it. The writing is all over the page, in different directions and definitely not organized. I knew what supplies I would use , how I would perform each step of constructing the cross like I had done it before. Now, the first one I made was crooked and not very refined, but at the time I thought it was perfect.

   

      God has refined them over the years and has definitely shown me that IT'S NOT ABOUT ME. I would pray over the cross I was about to create, finish it  and then let self-doubt creep in and I would make another " more suitable " cross that I liked better. Every single time I do this the person will choose the one God originally had me create which humbles me, so it's not about me . So how will God use me? I now know that whatever you think is a weakness God can come and show his grace and his strength is magnified in your weakness . I can speak passionately about the Lord and his greatness through these crosses.

    

How will God use you?                                                            Stephanie Stennett