When You Walk in Your Purpose

Making the Move

We made the move from Pittsburgh to Montgomery. During the process, packing, selling, donating, or tossing out things, getting help with packing the moving containers, and scheduling shipping, I was tired and emotional. I would be excited and look forward to what was to come one minute, then crying and questioning my decisions the next.

I woke up one morning to my daughter crying her eyes out. She was going to miss her friends and worried that she wouldn’t make new ones. That gutted me and made me truly question the move. However, I knew that the move was part of God’s design. Things had come together to perfectly for it not to be.

• When I was questioning where we should go, I asked God to tell me and use my daughter to do it. That happened the very next day.
• When I prayed about the 14 years of clutter that needed to be gone in a weekend, that answer was provided.
• When I wondered how I was going to get some things done that took better skills that I had, people with those skills randomly called me and came to help.
• When I worried about having to find a job as soon as we moved, my company offered me a part time, remote position.

All of that was from God. He told me where we should go and made sure we would get there. With that in mind, I pressed forward.

The house sold quickly. The closing took only a few minutes. The place we wanted to live once we moved had an availability and the agent ensured I got one of the two spots. We were on our way!

When the move finally happened, all of that stress went away.

On the Road

The drive was a breeze. My daughter and I played the radio and sang along, loudly and off-key. We stopped to eat in this little town in Tennessee where everyone was so polite, even the customers. We stopped to see an actual rocket when we hit Alabama. It was such an amazing thing to see. I really enjoyed that long drive. We stopped in Kentucky overnight and just rested, swam (my daughter, not me) and talked about the things we saw along the way.

The best part of the trip was definitely the truck drivers blowing their horns for my daughter. It made me feel like a kid again and she loved it!

Settling In

But, with all of that, I was still worried. I had to get her into school here and public school was not going to be an option. After researching the Christian schools, I narrowed it down to two. I was going with option one due to lower tuition costs, even though I wanted option two. But again, God had a plan. Option one would never answer the phone, no matter what time I called. So, I called option two, and was told that fifth grade was full. I wanted to cry. The only other option would be home-schooling, but my daughter wanted to be with other kids. However, later that morning, I got a voicemail that the fifth grade actually had one spot left and I needed to call immediately so that she would get it. I was in the car with tears coming to my eyes thanking God for that one spot. I called right then!

Things were going so well that I started to worry. I worried more for my daughter and wondered if it was right to take her from the only home she’d known. Things were going so smoothly that I was kind of waiting ‘for the other shoe to drop’. I felt such a peace here, that the devil was trying to sneak his way in with doubt.

When we moved into our new place, I bought some canvas chairs to sit in until our couch arrived. We were sitting in our chairs playing Minecraft when my daughter stopped and looked over at me.

“I really like it here,” she said.

Her face showed pure joy. Even though I hadn’t prayed about my worries, God answered them anyway. I’m back in a city that I thought I’d never live in again. I’m looking around and seeing just how beautiful this city is. The people are so polite that I initially didn’t know how to take it. My daughter actually looks forward to the next day at school because the teachers and staff love the students and it shows. The students look after each other. She’s only been there five days, and she’s making friends who are helping her out since she started so late.

Learning to Live in Peace

We’re now seeing our family a few times a week. I’m cooking at home instead of rushing to a restaurant because I’m too tired to cook. We’re inviting family over for dinner and having dinner at Nana’s a couple of times a week.

I couldn’t believe it, it seriously is like a dream. The stress I felt before we left is completely gone. Even though I’m only working part time and know that I’ll have to eventually supplement that income, I’m not worrying about it like I would have before. Our place is only partially furnished and things I want are still buried in boxes, but that isn’t bothering me at all.

I’m a person who gets stressed rather easily, so I actually wondered what was going on.

A couple of days ago, I was waiting in the car line to pick my daughter up from school. I had a radio program on where they were speaking to a woman who’d written a book about stress. Unfortunately, the name of the program and the author’s name escapes me, but one thing she said didn’t.

“When you walk in your purpose, you feel less stress.”

That hit me so hard I stopped reading the news on my phone. That was it!

It was God’s purpose to come back here. I didn’t want to, I kind of felt like it was throwing in the towel. But, now that I’m here, I know that it’s exactly where I’m supposed to be right now.

My daughter needs to know her family. To see her and my brother bond so well brings tears to my eyes. She invites him over for dinner and Minecraft. I sit and watch them talk and build amazing things (in the game). But it’s their bonding. The alone time she and my mother gets fills me with joy. She seems less stressed as well. Her little face is always smiling now!

Next Steps

I feel that a part of coming back was for her. I can see changes in her, even though we haven’t been back a month. Now, I need to find out what is in store for me. I have so many ideas in my head, that I need to slow down and talk to the Father about them. I can be impulsive at times.

The point of this rambling post is to speak about walking in your purpose and how, once you do, the daily stress will ease. I’m not saying it will go away completely. We live in a sinful world and things will happen that will cause you stress. But, when you are following God’s plan for your life, you will learn how to deal with it.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Jeremiah 29:11

God doesn’t want bad things for us and, when we follow His plan for us, good things will unfold. He will ensure that we succeed.

God Will Make It Happen

Think of Joseph and his brothers. Joseph dreamed that his brothers’ sheaves of grain bowed down to his, indicating that they would one day bow before him. His brothers resented this, threw him in a pit and then sold him as a slave. He was arrested and jailed. However, he was eventually put in charge of the land in Egypt, where he had the people store grain because he knew there would be a famine. Because of the famine, his brothers eventually came to him and bowed before him, not knowing who he was. Eventually, Joseph let them know who he was and his family settled in Egypt with him.

God had a plan for Joseph and no one was going to stop it. The sin they committed against Joseph actually led to people making it through the famine.

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today
Genesis 50:20

God planned for me to come back home. Once I stopped fighting it and followed his plan, things started happening quickly. I am working at home, keeping up the house, preparing dinner for the night, getting my daughter to and from school, unpacking, getting furniture, visiting family and I feel wonderful and blessed!

Ask God for His plan for you. Submit to Him when He reveals it. Things will come up, but know that God’s got this. That’s what helped me when we were trying to declutter, sell, and pack. Knowing that it was planned by God made me not worry so much about the how it was going to happen. I did worry, but not like I did before. And the things I worried about took care of themselves, through God’s intervention.

Sorry that this post rambles and apologies that it is so late in coming. However, I didn’t want to write a post until I felt it was of God and this one definitely was.

Praise His Holy Name!

Prayer for today.

Our Father, I pray that each person reading this grasps that true meaning that You want them to have. That they ask for Your will and then follow it. That they know that, with following You, the pressures of this world will not seem so bad. Because when You have a plan, You will ensure that we are able to see it through if we follow it.
Amen