Working for the Weekend or Working for the Wonder

Are you just getting through the hum drum of the day? Or are you working for your maker?

Are you counting down the minutes until you're free from the workday? Or are you cherishing the moments to minister where you are?

I've had a number of jobs prior to the current career I'm in.

1. First job I had was babysitting, which I think is a job we all have. I babysat mostly prior to finding Jesus, so I can't use that as an example.
2. My first real job, with all the W-2 paperwork goodness was working for Hallmark (no, they did not invent Valentines day). I worked there for 3 months in Las Vegas, then when I went back to college I was able to transfer to a store in Reno.  I had Jesus in my life back then, but didn't fully know the extent of what He could do, or what I could do as a believer. I was still very self focused at the time. I ended up  leaving that job because I think I couldn't get time off to go see my family in Las Vegas for Christmas.
3. My second real job was working as a Resident Assistant in the dorms. Oh how many lives I could have impacted if I prayed for all my residents. There were a few I'd pray for here and there, but over the 2.5 years I was an RA, that could have been 30+ students who had another stepping stone. (We could also talk about all the kids in my classes too, but that's for another time)
4. The third job, after I said goodbye to ResLife was a brief summer job in Vegas working at a photography studio (school pictures). It was a small downstairs staff of 5ish people. Again, how self centered was I to just think about me and my circumstance, rather than those around me I could have been praying for! This summer though, I was starting to fall away from Jesus and do my own thing. This was the start of my not so great few years walking independently of Jesus.
5. Following that was working at Ann Taylor (Job 4). It was there I met a friend who later calls me out on my lifestyle choices. There, I really got to see humanity. There I developed an appreciation for leaving clothes better (or as best I could) than I found them. There, God began to work on me. There, he provided a temp job which turned full time. There he provided me the foot in the door to where I am now.
6. After a year in retail, and the last couple months working that part time and the new full time job, I said goodbye to that and fully embraced the full time career where I've been for 5 years now.
7. Once summer hit however, I itched somewhere to work retail again, so for about a month I worked at a Coach outlet store.
8. A short time later, while still working the fifth job, my seventh job was working as a Daisy Duke line dancer, which I did for 2 years and quit this past June.

All that to say, look how many lives I've interacted with,  whether one time customers or repeat ones, talking Jesus (when I could), acting like Jesus...


Romans 12:2 states, "Do not be confirmed to this world". We are called to be different. Let us stand out from being the complainers and the gripers, from posting about how much Monday sucks and how the weekend is gone too soon. We are where we are for how long we are became God put us there. Let him use you.


Do not worry...there are many verses that address this, so pick your fave, but do not worry about your job/your career (also preaching to myself here). You're where you're at to serve a purpose.


I'm learning to embrace where I am and show Jesus when I can. I'm not in a place where I can necessarily talk about Jesus all day everyday to anyone I come in contact with, but I can read my Bible on my breaks or Lunch in the break room. I've left my bible on my desk between those times.


Work for the Wonder, don't necessarily work for the weekend. There have been so many times at my current job where I've hated every minute of every day. I've wallowed in the slowness, felt frantic and crazy in the busy times, gossiped, talked behind people's back. And after the first couple years, I wanted out. I also did not like nor get along with my supervisor for 2ish of those years. I looked for other jobs, somewhere I could be more free, wear jeans rather than business casual. But something kept me there.

God. 

There never was another job posting I saw that I liked. I never got interested enough to set up a job interview. I just stuck it out here, wallowing to myself "At least the pay and benefits are worth it." Man, what kind of life and perspective was that?

I have a purpose here, and in the past 2 years, I've worked real hard to change the way I talk to and about my coworkers. I've really tried to bring Jesus with me into the work environment. I'm still not great at counting down the minutes to the end of the day. I'm still not great at taking upsets and frustrations and looking for the good. But I've been more conscientious of thinking, "If someone didn't know, would they figure out I'm a Christian, would they figure out by my actions I love Jesus?" In a customer service field where most of your interactions are "scripted" so to speak, it's hard to talk about the day to day, especially when my time with the public is more limited these days, as I don't interact with the public like I use to.

As of today, I'm switching my mindset. I'm letting each day be a renewal for my mind to work for the wonder, "Jesus, I can't wait to see what you'll do today". I still get excited for the weekend for other reasons, but at least now it isn't, "I can't wait to leave this cruddy place."

What are you struggling with in the day to day? Comment and let me pray for you <3

God is so good and faithful to answer. Go into the rest of this work week asking God how you can work for the wonder instead of working for the weekend.

How Sweet it is to be Loved by You

Time with my sister-in-law has been amazing. She is a beautiful soul chasing after God’s heart so differently than when I first met her. But time does that. If you’re passionate about life, you won’t stay the same. You will be looking to be the next great version of yourself, of who God created you to be.

When you’re open to change, God uses that to pour into you the next great lesson. And last night’s aha moment? Nicknames, Pet names and all the things you call your husband. (Great title for a book right?)

We were talking and then she brought up how some names she calls her husband in jest, aren’t the greatest. And I then thought of all the names I call my husband in jest when he may not make the greatest decision, but we laugh about it right after “Poop face” is one, and some probably aren’t as PG as I’d like this blog to be. She stated she and I have never done that, except for maybe once I called her that B word completely joking, we paused, looked at each other, and I think I apologized. My best friend, Robin, I’ve never called her any names beside her own. My other bestie, Whitney, she’s never been called any name but her own. God, I’ve never called Him anything but his own.

Then God used me to give a message to the both of us: “If you love and respect God, and these best friends of yours, and to show that you don’t call them names, why would you call your husbands these names? Do you not love and respect them that much more?”

Whoa.

Then, in a split second, God brought to mind another topic recently covered in a women’s get together I go to, to talk Jesus and learn what else He’s go for us. [Y’know that split second that it all makes sense in your head and you quickly roll with it, but when you explain it to people, it seems to take far longer than forever? Yeah that.]

So my other sister-in-law (my husband is one of eight, so seven siblings, add their spouses…) was talking about how she was counseling a woman who was bad mouthing her husband in this session, and I believe talking about how ‘I can’t believe our marriage is crap, why is my husband terrible?’. My sister-in-law realized that this woman had been tearing down her husband for their entire 30-ish years of marriage. Rather than adding bricks to her husband, encouraging him, complimenting him, she was eradicating the bricks that laid the foundation for her safe place, her comfortzone, Her. Best. Friend.

Picture from a Google search

 

My bit from that? Was a bit exactly.

When we call our husbands “Pooper” “Stupid Peacock” “Bad Llama” we’re pulling pebbles. We’re not yanking out bricks: “You’re lazy and just sit and play games all day”. We’re not damaging their ego with these playful pet names. We’re jesting. But the enemy has been pulling these names back to mind when my husband and I get into the small marital tiffs newlyweds face and have to hash out. And I caught myself this last time, “My husband is not a pooper. He’s a great patient man. Why can I only think of him as a poop face right now?” Because I had spoken him as poopy into existence. I pulled a pebble out of the foundation.

After I said this, I stopped, and she and I both exhaled, “Whoa”. Then I raved about how cool God was for him to say that to us because there was no way that that was from my mortal mind.

So once I got home, I recounted to my husband what I had learned. I apologized for pulling pebbles when I should be looking to add bricks. Lo and behold, he apologized too for all the pebbles he pulled that I hadn’t thought of.

So I’m starting today thinking on how to find those odd shaped pebbles to fill the nooks and crannies to fully secure our firm foundation of marriage. I’m conscious of the names I call my husband, this morning I replied to him calling me “Sexy” by calling him “Stud”, rather than not accepting his compliment and telling him he was still just waking up and his eyes weren’t focused. I want to build him up to be a great husband, as Jesus was for the church.

Amen and Amen <3

21 days to make a Habit

Research has shown it takes 21 days to build a habit. If you do the same thing every day for 21 days straight, you’ve now created something you’re going to do every day. And when you don’t do it, you feel lost, “off”, disoriented etc.

I didn’t realize it until Friday morning (February 10^th, 2017) when I was talking to my coworker, but I unintentionally formed a habit. “I haven’t eaten breakfast at home before work ever since I started. I’ve always eaten it at my desk” is what I told her. I’ve been at this same job for 3+ years (4 in June! Woo!). But eating breakfast at home before work is something I need to change. I need to start and really commit to up at the same time every day and in bed at the same time every night. I’m thinking I’ll be more energized and ready to go if I do these things.

Another habit I didn’t realize I started was one I began at the beginning of the year. I remember as a new believer, just learning to get my legs under me, hearing “Read your Bible every day” was something I was not a fan of. I enjoy reading for pleasure, or doing things because I want to. As soon as it becomes a “task” or a “do this or else” I don’t want to do it; I doubt I’m alone in the matter. But at the end of last year, I decided I was going to read through the bible in a year. It didn’t dawn on me that this was a “task” I was establishing for myself.

But I wanted to get to know my God more, I wanted to know my Heavenly Father. So that when I utilize my gifts, I can listen for His input and His direction as I do the things he has blessed me with. So, I found a reading plan online, copied it into my journal, and have been chugging along through it.

And now, I’m addicted. I carry my bible EVERYWHERE with me. If I walk out the door without it, I feel naked. I read it on my work breaks. I read it after work in coffeeshops between tasks. I’m using reading plan Apps with extra information about context to help me get through it…and my mind is BLOWN at the greatness of our God. Holy cow. So I’ll be blogging about what he’s taught me as I feel led.

If you balk at the thought of reading your bible on the daily, really take those feelings to God and address them. Because you’re not going to get better if you stay bitter. This honestly has been one of the best things I’ve ever done for my walk with God is reading the bible daily. Charles Spurgeon said “Why would I look into the face of man in the morning before looking into the face of God?” (Paraphrased and restated, but it’s still the same meaning). And oh how differently I feel when I spend mornings with God, briefly or extended, versus the days I don’t. I resolved to start my Saturday as this new habit, as Friday was already gone. So, God willing, it will become a new habit to really carve out time in my mornings to spend time with Him before I spend time with mankind: my coworkers, my husband above all else, baristas, fast food workers, grocery store employees, and on and on.

Amen & Amen