My Way vs. His Way

The Battle Between Planning and Faith

This morning God reminded me of His all consuming love and power over my life. Last week I made the decision to stay at home full with little Baby Bear time and dive head first into "The Art of Being You". This week alone has brought in multiple sales and for that I am so thankful. Praise God for the gifts He gave me and for the privilege of being able to get to know so many wonderful people on a daily basis! Please continue to support small business owners!! It means the world to us :) 

Speaking of Small Business Owners, I am overjoyed to share my Etsy Shop with you! First, lets talk about the "why" behind creating my own business! In October of 2012, I was in school full-time, working a part time job 11 hours a week, as well as being a mom & wife. I left the house at 7:00am and had classes until 2:00pm. I immediately left class and went straight to work from 3:00-7:00pm. I would then come home, eat a wonderful dinner that my family so graciously prepared for me, work on any homework for the next day, tuck Baby Bear into bed and then crash around 11:00pm. Though outwardly I seemed to have it together, my soul was screaming for God. I literally was too busy for Him. I would find myself searching for Him all day long but would never carve out enough space in my day for Him to find me. Something had to give. I knew that in order to hear what my Father was telling me, I had to SLOW DOWN and downsize my obligations in a major way. In November of 2012, I decided to take an entire semester off from college. In my head these words rang as constant background noise: "Woah woah woah, are you sure? You've worked your fanny off to get ahead in school so you can graduate early. What about all the hours of class planning and class transfer equivalency searching? What about all those e-mails you wrote to deans and professors asking what more you could do to assure deadlines were met, letters where appropriately written? What about ALL OF THAT STUDYING? Are you just going to throw it away?".

It was a Sunday afternoon after a church service when I realized that I had been trying so hard to make plans for my life that I had forgotten to ask God what His plans were. I had Baby Bear when I was 17 years old. He was very unplanned and since then, I had become obsessed with planning every detail of our lives to make sure that nothing unexpected caught us off gaurd. Guys, I not only had Plan A, I had Plan B, Plan C, and in some instances, Plan D. Do you know what all those plans push out the door? Faith. Trust. Surrender. Peace. I was pushing God's way out so I could make my way work. And you know what? It was EXHAUSTING. 

After the trip to Australia to visit my husband's family (more on that later), I started my first month as a stay at home mom and an online business owner. It hasn't even been a week and my soul already feels lighter. Cleaner. Less scattered. More focused. I cannot wait to see what God will do with the time I have carved out for Him.  I hope that you'll follow me through this journey. Share some laughs, a few tears, and maybe even a few ideas! I look so forward to writing again! 

To View my Etsy Shop, click here!

What has God been doing in your life recently?