The Story

The story of Chara Armor started off as Broken Clay jewelry. Broken Clay was born out of a story that was God-given. It has a lot of my life story and experiences built into it. I have some of my story on my About Me page. Broken Clay was born out of some deep healing that God did to my mind, heart and soul.

While at a women's retreat God met me in a place of brokenness and devastation. So many things in my life pointed me towards the theme that I believed for my life. I believed that I was too ugly, too broken and too worthless to make a difference in this world. I hid myself in the background, even avoiding events where someone might see me. It was really out of character when I went to this woman's retreat alone, knowing no-one, but God had set a divine appointment with me. He met me there and changed the trajectory of my life. I came there broken , listening to the lies of the world and the enemy of my soul. I came believing that I wasn't worth noticing and ugly. Actually I had put everything through a filter of my believing that I was ugly, stupid and worthless, every experience, everything said about me, everything done to me intended or not, everything was colored by my beliefs about myself.

God in His mercy and love took that weekend to teach me the truth about who I was to Him, who He created me to be, and most importantly who He was. I found out that God was LOVE, that He was merciful and full of grace. He told me that what I believed about myself was an absolute lie. God gave me a new name and helped me to see myself in that new light. His name for me was Beautiful. He helped me see that the enemy of my soul wanted to destroy who God made me to be. God showed me that I was loved endlessly, that I had a purpose and that He had a plan for me. He created me and that He didn't make junk. That whole weekend I shook, it was intense, it was a time of great healing of my mind, body and soul. He also gave me a symbol of a flower that looked like it was drawn by a child and a verse to remember what He had told me. The verse is Psalm 45:11 in the Message version of the Bible it says "Be here - the king is wild for you. Since He's your Lord, adore Him"

When I went home my husband and my children knew that something had changed and strangers were coming up to me telling me how beautiful I was. it was so weird and great at the same time. Because of the drastic change in me, people who knew me asked me to speak at a teen moms retreat and for some reason, I said yes (VERY unlike my old self). While I was preparing to talk, I asked God what I could give them to help remind them after the weekend about who God said they were and how much He loved them. He gave me a picture of a piece of clay, impressed with a flower and a chip broken out of it. It was to be a piece of jewelry a necklace because it is worn near the heart. Something they could touch to remind them of His truths. |So I made some and the girls were grateful and wanted to buy some for their friends. From there other places wanted me to speak and I brought sold jewelry there. Many people came up to me and told me stories of how God worked through this jewelry to heal their hearts and minds, it helped them remember what God said about them, not what the world said.

Recently I have had a renewing of my understanding of Broken Clay, I am not in the same head space that I used to be. I have learned more about what God wants for me, for His children. I believe that God wants to change the name of Broken Clay to help people understand that He will not leave you forever in a broken place, but He intends to heal your spirit. God calls us to Joy. Chara means joy in Hebrew, not the "happiness" that everyone is trying to pursue, but the joy of the Lord. Joy in spite of the circumstances we are in. Joy because you have a deep knowing of who God is, who you are to Him and a deep relationship with Him. He wants to give you His joy, a joy no matter what. Chara is God-given joy, He gave me a new idea to help show the joy, an acrylic poured art piece on the back. one full of color, to give an expression of the joy.  I think that the art side shows that even though others might see someone as broken, that there is so much more hidden on the inside.

In this world, with an enemy who has come to destroy those that God loves, you need to wear armor.  I believe that if you know who God says you are and who God is, it helps keep the arrows of lies from getting to your heart and soul So put on the Chara Armor as a reminder of God, His love for you and the joy that He wants to give you and may you be blessed by it.