I've had a lot of that lately, what has God called me to do, what should I keep in my life and what do I need to remove. One of my sweet Sisters in Christ informed me months ago, that she sensed a season of pruning, so maybe this is that time. My health has been at it's worse and I've had so many tests and appointments that I allowed that to be an excuse to keep me away. It's hard to get a sense of the right direction sometimes, but ultimately I believe deep down - we know, it's just a matter of if we want to listen.
Since I started homeschooling our sons, I'm very confident that homeschooling is the first priority, as it is God's will for our family. The next question was whether to continue to with my Scentsy business, every time I would stop and pray about continuing the business, I would get a call or a text for an order - so I'm taking that God wants to still use me there. What I've learned is maybe I need to redefine the question I'm asking God; not just, "God do you want me to keep the Scentsy business?" but I need to be asking, "God HOW do you want to use my Scentsy business?". So that's where I am on that front - God uses us to plant seeds and sometimes to water seeds, perhaps His use for me with Scentsy is more than just what I thought, a way to be bolder with sharing my faith and testimony.
When my husband is gone for months, I spend my time busy with our sons karate twice a week and I volunteer with our children's ministry (Kindergarten through 5th grade) on Wednesday nights. I've found an incredible joy being with those kids, it doesn't matter the age, they are all bundles of light eager to soak up God. I've joked before that I'm amazed how much I enjoy these kids, I've always thought I wasn't a kid person, you know more of a dog person! But once I was asked to be a camp counselor at our summer church camp three years ago, I've been hooked! It's an intense week of non-stop action, singing, and loving on God and kids; I relate Kid's Camp experience to pregnancy and childbirth, so much work, but you're so blessed by the results, that you forget about the pain and labor and by next year - you're all ready for another!
Prior to my Wednesday nights with the kids, I worked at our church bookstore, which was great, I could volunteer before and after service - but after we closed the store, since I had already done Kid's Camp I had God nudging on my heart to move to help with the kid's ministry but thought no way, that's once a year and I wouldn't want to miss out on Wed night services... but God pulls us where we need to be, whether we realize it or not; I might not get a sermon out of Wednesday nights but my heart is full of God after! So Wednesday night volunteering while hubby is gone, is a for sure keeper (Remember, my husband is working away months at a time, so when he's home for a short few weeks, I take time off from all volunteering and homeschooling - after all, God is the foundation of our family and God needs a strong family to be a true family of God!!)
Here's a public announcement if you don't volunteer at you church, pray about where God wants you to help, all churches need help, don't ever assume that they have plenty of help or there's nothing you can do - helping your church does more than help YOUR church - it feeds your soul.
The final thought I have on this is; I have to pick an area that I need to work on and really focus on that one issue. I'll have to pray to discover which area to go with, I've got so many things that I need to work on, and I've learned that when we try to change too much, it can be overwhelming and instead of having one success, I suffer from many failures from trying to tackle so many issues. So I'm going to work on concentrating on one area and once I feel I've met that goal, move on to the next.
Sometimes I believe the saying, 'the road to hell is paved with many good intentions' can be used to sum up a person's desire to 'fix' so much in their lives, that they end up disappointed when they can't fix it all - they give up, it's kind of like the people who think they can't come to God because they've messed up so many times, that He would never take them now, they have to clean up their lives before they can walk through a church door or get on their knees and call out to God - but that's the wonderful part of Salvation - NONE of us, not one, will ever be good enough, clean enough, perfect enough to get to Heaven not without Jesus!
Jesus is the only way, His blood on the cross washes as clean as snow, His one perfect sacrifice was all that was needed - the hard work was already done, all we have to do is accept Him as God's only Son, sent to die on the cross for our sins, and that death couldn't contain Him, because He rose on the third day and is seated at God's right hand in Heaven and there's nothing more that He wants than for all the people of the world to come to a saving knowledge of the King of Kings - because one day, every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.
If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved. (Romans 10:9-10 NLT)
