God, not your __ status, defines your life.❤️
If God were speaking directly to you this morning, what word would He place in there?
The text was originally written, God, not your marital status, defines your life. (So whether single or married or who we are married to- whether the most difficult or the most magnificent of mates, we can be defined by our partnership with God which is ETERNAL.)
For me, though, marriage isn’t the issue on my heart at this moment. So Holy Spirit chimed in this morning with “or career status.”
“God, not your career status, defines you, Daylene. ❤️” {And anyone else reading this who needed to hear that.}
Perhaps we are in different seasons right now which are causing us to both need that encouragement.
Maybe someone reading this is facing the possibility of unemployment due to the vaccine mandate (I’ve had several people come across my path who need prayers about that.)
Maybe you’re a mom, like me, who wants to be home with her kids and yet there’s also this other, personal creative drive that you sometimes struggle to contain within the time that you have and you feel guilty. At times it feels like you’re shortchanging your kids by taking some time for this calling, and at other times it feels like you’re falling short of what God wants from you because you’re limited in time due to having so many duties at home.
The enemy- he likes to put up fences and box us in.
He does this by presenting choices.
So many of them.
TOO many.
And then he gets us to sit around and question where we are at, if we made the right choice.
And some of us climb to the other side of the particular fence he is making us focus on, and we think that the grass will be greener, and maybe it does seem to be so at first- but after awhile when the newness wears off we are disillusioned because we find that the landscape isn’t perfect there either.
Not all of the world’s encouragement quotes are good but there is something to “The grass is greener wherever you water it.” 🌱 💦 ☀️
However I’d go a step further and say that we can learn to be most content by looking up (at Jesus) instead of down and around.
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I didn’t even intend at all to write about marriage today since that’s not what I’m struggling with at the moment, but I know that many are. And since that’s the original context of the verse He brought me to today, I will go ahead and exhort anyone who needs it while I have the opportunity.
The grass isn’t greener on the other side of the marriage fence, whether that means singleness or searching for someone else.
Both being in a committed partnership (no matter who it is that is our spouse) and being single have blessings and challenges.
And sometimes watering the grass where you’re at does make it greener! It really does.
I’ve seen my marriage improve alot as my husband and I have made a point to invest in learning about each other more and doing our best to love the way they need it and not just the way we receive it.
But the ONE thing that’s helped our marriage become better than it ever has been before is having God in the center as our mediator, comforter, guide, and number one common ground.
We each became happier people, easier for one another to please, when we started looking UP at Him, more than at our “grass” to see if it was green or brown, or at others’ marriages or single lives “on the other side of the fence.”
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Going back to what was originally on my heart to write about- career status- or personal callings and passions and using creative talents versus serving in ways that feel more general whether at a job or at home…
The grass isn’t greener on the other side of the career fence, either… no matter what the enemy might say.
Whether that means finding a career where you can feel secure by a set salary and benefits, either doing something you enjoy, or something you can tolerate enough to make the work worth it….
Whether that means having ALL the time to work on a job or personal project that with the creative skills that make you feel alive…or serving at home 24/7.
Career defined means “an occupation undertaken for a significant period of a person’s life and with opportunities for progress” – so even if serving at home replaces a traditional career, we can still think of it as such.
Any service whether paid or unpaid, outside of home or in the home, comes with blessings and challenges.
And sometimes watering the grass where you’re at does make it greener! It really does. Investing in our work and in our family with prayer and a good attitude and effort makes a difference.
But just like He’s already shown me in my marriage, the ONE thing that I think God is trying to show me that can help me find the contentment I’m looking for in the work/life tug of war that the enemy keeps trying to set up in my soul…
is tearing down that fence, and turning my eyes up!
Work and life are not separate.
The work outside the home which I do not naturally enjoy does not need to compete against family, so that I’m resenting it and looking over to my family-side-of-the-fence longingly, wishing I was home all the time. (Which is what happened just before I made my first jump from working full time outside the home to working from home.)
Work inside the home which I do not naturally enjoy (the things we don’t think of when we wish to be home full time, like the fact that when we are all home all day, the house needs cleaned more than once, and we have to cook 3 meals instead of 1)…does not have to compete against passion, so that I’m resenting it and wishing I was able to do what I love always. (Which is writing and encouraging, and this particularly is the encouragement He is giving me right now.)
He’s making it clear that the real battle isn’t about where I am or what I’m doing, it’s a war between my flesh that wants to feel pleased and be about me always and my soul that wants to serve and be about others always. And I can’t be all about me and all about others all at once. So the only way to reconcile this is to give it ALL to Him.
So that when I’m in the block of time where I can passionately do what I love, I do it for His glory and to draw others to Him. I can see it as not even just a joy that I get to do, but a job that is purposeful and can have impact (even if it’s unpaid.)
And when I’m in the blocks of time where I am called to serve in other ways, that I don’t naturally flow in as much, I can see it not just as a “job” which makes me feel a flesh resistance to it, but I can see it all as a joy because I get to do it with Him.
I used to want nothing more than to be my own boss and not have a boss over me. That’s actually more heavy than I could have ever imagined. Now, I understand nothing is better than having Jesus in the boss-seat of every part of my life. He’s not only my boss, He is also my best friend, comforter, guide, and the connector that helps me in relationships.
My marriage transformed so much when I allowed Him to teach me that the number one goal is not necessarily to be made more happy, but to be made more holy— more like Jesus. He also showed me that I can find joy in doing things I don’t naturally, as an individual, love to do (like anything athletic really 😆) – with my husband, because I love my time with Brett, not because I love the activity itself. And you know, I’ve come to enjoy cornhole more now than ever because of this new mindset.
This morning, He brought a new sense of peace to my mind, calming the chaos that was there between “all the things” and my flesh and soul tugging me back and forth between the ones I enjoy and the ones I don’t, so that I felt constantly pulled apart.
“With me”, He said, “it can ALL be a joy!
Because you enjoy spending time with me and learning from me!”
“And- it’s also ALL counted as service unto me. The parts you love that don’t feel like work, count just as much as the parts that FEEL like you’re doing a job, because you’re doing them all for me. For my glory. To grow my kingdom, not your own or anyone else’s. It all matters.❤️”
As I dwell on that this season, I am confident I will become an even more joy-full person, more content in all areas of life, as I look up at Him more, in the “doing” (both creative work I enjoy and cultivating work that feels more like work), instead of letting the enemy make me wish I was someplace else or doing something else. ☀️
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Romans 5:1-5 MSG
“By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus.
And that’s not all:
We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us.
We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—
out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory standing tall and shouting our praise.
There’s more to come:
We continue to shout our praise
even when we’re hemmed in with troubles,
because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us,
and how that patience in turn forges
the tempered steel of virtue,
keeping us alert for whatever God will do next.
In alert expectancy such as this,
we’re never left feeling shortchanged.
Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!”
God is so good! He brings out the good in ALL!
Amen! 🙌🏻 ✝️ 🙌🏻
From Full 