In the know.

Lisa Westerman, a Texarkana gal, has traveled many career paths in her lifetime. From teaching school, to owning a hair salon, to playing the role of caregiver, it seems her career darted in and out of a variety of paths, but none quite like what she would encounter when she applied for a job to join the dining team at Cornerstone. Little did she know, this path would be a life altering one.

“Every job I ever held was always about paying bills, nothing more. I think it’s because I fought God for so long. I was always the one doing the talking, telling God what I needed, but I wasn’t very good at listening,” confessed Westerman. All that changed when she fell in love with the residents at Cornerstone. “If I was serving them pizza for example, I’d put on some music and create a pizza party instead.”  After working in this capacity for a while, in 2020, the Life Enrichment Director position came open at Cornerstone.  Lisa wanted to apply, but decided she ought to pray about it first, and this time she would listen to God’s leading. “I remember going home and praying about it with my husband on Thursday, then he died on Saturday,” recalled Lisa. Stunned and now grieving, Lisa accepted the position and began stepping through this new season of life without her life partner.

So much was going wrong in her world and the world around her making it a formative time for her. “Old Lisa might have laid in bed and not got back up” shared Westerman. But the elders at Cornerstone were waiting for her, embracing her, telling her “We’ve been through this, you are going to make it.” These words reinforced what she already knew, this was now home and exactly where God had called her to be. “It’s not like walking into a job, it’s like walking into your home,” said Lisa. She went on to say this career path not only connected her to purpose, but it  also fortified her faith and led her to reinvent herself saying, “It’s kind of like an inner fire was lit inside of me. I know this is where I am supposed to be.”

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