What is in the way of your true calling?

I want to share this blog post from Beth Moore. I love what she says:

"Satan will never oppose us more than when he thinks we're onto our callings. Bet on that. As L.B. Cowman said in Streams in the Desert, "Both in the physical realm and spiritual realm, great pressure means great power." (p.9)"

How many times have you been working toward your dream? You knew you were on the right path. The path that God placed you on? And then things got hard. And you struggled, and you fought and you got tired. And then you gave up.

We are never going to reach our full potential and fulfill our calling if we don't power through the obstacles. And the harder the fight, the better the outcome.

Go read her blog in full, you'll be glad you did. Beth Moore

I would love to hear your thoughts. Please click on the "Amen" below and leave your comments. Thanks!

Do you believe?

I'm in the middle of a Beth Moore Bible study about Believing God. Not believing in Him. Believing Him. I'm struggling with the concept and am certain that is why I was led to take this class in the first place.

While I pray to God regularly and ask for guidance, deliverance, direction and blessings I always add a disclaimer inside my head. Because prayers are not always answered the way we want them to be. And it can be due to a multitude of reasons: God has a better plan. We mess things up, because we do indeed have free will.

God can be all prepared to bless me abundantly, but my I may ignore his signs, or may get impatient and because I am all sinful by nature, turn my back on His plan. On His answers.

I am trying to stop preparing myself for disappointment when I pray. That's not what God wants. He wants me to BELIEVE Him. I need to stop doubting that He wants greatness for me. That he wants me to be fulfilled and happy and loved and loving.

Mark 9:24 "Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!"

Romans 4:23-25 "Abraham didn't focus on his own impotence and say, "It's hopeless. This hundred-year-old body could never father a child." Nor did he survey Sarah's decades of infertility and give up.

He didn't tiptoe around God's promise asking cautiously skeptical questions. He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready for God, sure that God would make good on what he had said. That's why it is said, "Abraham was declared fit before God by trusting God to set him right."

But it's not just Abraham; it's also us! The same thing gets said about us when we embrace and believe the One who brought Jesus to life when the conditions were equally hopeless. The sacrificed Jesus made us fit for God, set us right with God."

I would love to hear your thoughts. Please click on the "Amen" below and leave your comments. Thanks!

God is Faithful!

Rondi Kirby
Written 1/05/08

Psalms 68:35 "You are awesome, O God, in your sanctuary; the God of Israel gives power and strength to his people. Praise be to God!"

God is so awesome. I know this and have always known it but there are some days when I feel/know it more. Some of you are familiar with our situation. I am a stay-at-home mom of two beautiful girls. They are 3 ½ and 5 years old. As with most stay-at-home moms, money is always tight. That wasn’t always the case.

When both my husband and I worked full-time (before kids) we made great money and really didn’t have to budget much. We got married when I was 23 and he was 21. When I was around 26 we started trying to get pregnant. We got pregnant almost immediately and I lost that baby at around 9 weeks. After that we tried and could not get pregnant. We had been trying for over two years when fertility treatments started. They got to be expensive. We did almost a year on clomid and 1 month on injections and other hormone medications.

We were getting ready to do our next month (out of pocket) fertility treatment when God gave me something else to focus on. I started listening to Dave Ramsey and got carried away with him and his financial philosophy.

My husband and I knew that we wanted me to stay home with our kids when we were finally able to have them. We also knew that wouldn’t be possible unless we got a bunch of stuff paid off. In 8 months we paid off $17,500 in debt and made our last car payment. The next month I got pregnant.

Five years later we had two kids and finances that were depressing. I was scared to share how bad it was with my husband and I didn’t know what to do. I knew that God put the desire in my heart to stay home with the kids so I knew going back to work full-time wasn’t the solution. So I tried many different part-time jobs. And as with most part-time jobs, they always wanted me to work more hours and more days.

The last job I had they paid me $10/hr and I was suppose to work just school hours. Tuesday/Thursday 9:30-1:30. Shortly after I started working they said that they really wanted me there two full days so I had to find a babysitter who could pick them up and keep them until I got home. I had to pay the babysitter $5/hr, which didn’t leave me much money to add to the family budget.

By February 2007 we were upside down about $400 month and the current job wasn’t working and I was getting so stressed out trying to figure out what to pay and when. At the same time I was starting to feel that I should homeschool Audrey. My plan was to do that when she got into 1st grade. I talked to my husband and he wanted me to start when she started kindergarten. So that leaves us around $400 negative each month, homeschool on the horizon and no idea how to get the bills paid.

I started to pray. I feel like God is calling me to homeschool, I know I am suppose to stay home with the kids. I pray, and pray. In June my friend comes up with this idea to clean houses. So we pray about it and before we know it we each have one house to clean. Now me being a “know more than God” person asks God for four or five houses a month. That would be cleaning at least two a week. I figured I could manage that and it would bring in around 400 a month which is what I figured we needed. Little did I know, God had other plans. I started cleaning houses and was doing a good job and before I knew it I had house 1 (a very nasty house) every other week, house 2 (a much nicer but bigger house) every other week, house 3 (a perfectionist house) every other week, and a few others that were once a month. So I was cleaning a couple of times a week.

At the same time I start trying to homeschool Audrey. I was very busy with cleaning houses and I wasn’t schooling like I wanted to. I usually had to take Audrey with me to clean or pawn her off on other people. I had Madison in a private Christian preschool two days a week. Plus I was trying to keep my house up, and lots of other things. I was getting tired and stressed and I wasn’t doing school like I felt I should. It was like Audrey would get the leftovers and we would do just what is required. I wanted to do more than the minimum but I couldn't figure out how.

So I start praying again and said *“OK God you were right, I really don’t need this many houses and I want to do the right thing and teach Audrey well. But you know our finances. Please work out a way that I don’t have to work as much and we are still able to pay our bills and have a savings account and a cushion in the checking account.” I started praying this around October/November. Now remember, we were negative around 400 a month. When I was cleaning all of the houses I was able to pay the extra bills and usually have around $12 in our account before my husband got paid again. I was expecting a miracle - and as always, God is faithful, especially when you are trying to follow His will in your life.

Around the Middle of November one of the ladies I clean for called and said she had a contract job cleaning the offices at Bellsouth. She wanted to know if I had anyone who could clean out the offices. She said the job would probably last until December. I said sure so I got my friends Diann, Jen, Shannon, and Jeanine to start cleaning. This was a great job. They paid us $15 an hour to clean offices. Shortly after I started cleaning the offices I was able to get rid of a few of the houses I cleaned.


Also, to throw in the mix, my husband told me he took the whole week of Christmas off. Now most of you would be saying great!!! But that is not the case with my husband. When he is home too much he gets bored. So I told him he had to find something to do that week that he was off. If he didn’t, I would plan an activity every day to keep us busy.

I was still working too much so I kept praying. I prayed that God would provide a way for my husband to make some extra money on the side and keep him busy during the Christmas holidays. Now some of you are going to say, “why should you make your husband work two or more jobs just so you can stay home with your kids”. My answer to that is; In our family my husband wants to be the provider for us. Also he is a man who goes stir-crazy if he is home more than a few hours a day. He needs something outside of work and family.

Shortly after I got the Bellsouth job, my husband asked to be put on the access list. That was awesome because that freed me up from having to work and it gave him something to do. He worked and extra 67 hours in a two week period. His normal work days starts at 6:30 am and he usually works until 5pm or 6pm. So he worked his regular job and every night he would go to BellSouth and work. On Saturday mornings and even Sundays he would go and work as much as he could. It was so great. He was happy because that is what he has wanted all along, and I was happy because things were getting less tight financially and I knew he would have something to do the week of Christmas.

God had even more in store for us. My husband talked to his boss the Friday before Christmas and told her that he would be available to work the week of Christmas if the need arose. He knew five other people were off that same week. She said no, she didn’t think she would need him. When he got home he told me what he had offered her and that she had said no. I told him he should have told me earlier so I could have started praying. I told him I would start praying now. And I did. And on Wednesday morning she called him and tells him she has some work for him to do that day. He works four hours but gets paid for the whole day. I keep praying and she ends up calling him in Thursday and Friday. He made an extra $680.00 plus what he had made at BellSouth. He got the $680 in a Wal-mart gift card so I didn’t have to take grocery money out of our budget and I could buy some of the things the kids need.

So as of now, I clean 1 house a week, we have $175 cushion in the checking account, $850 in a savings account and a $200 check waiting to be picked up today. I have been able to spend as much time on school these last two months that I felt I needed to do. Audrey is learning great. I took Madison out of school and am trying to teach her at home and any money I bring in can be used for miscellaneous expenses and school stuff. God knew all along that I only needed two houses, he just waited for me to realize He knew best. God is our Jehova-Jira, Our Provider, for all things, not just money, but family, friends, peace in times of trouble, joy etc. He is always faithful.

* God answered that pray exactly!!!!!!

I would love to hear your thoughts. Please click on the "Amen" below and leave your comments. Thanks!