Living so that Bible Study Call to Action: Embracing this season

Another great Bible Study from Proverbs 31!  I wasn't able to keep up with the group due to my busy work schedule, but I still managed to finish the study and I got a lot out of it.

The Bible study was Living SO THAT....I look at it as focusing on intended outcomes.  We make this choice SO THAT... I'm all about results so this was right up my alley.

At the end author Wendy Blight asked us for our final call to action which I would like to share here

My Call to Action

Embracing this season of humbling, learning, and training SO THAT I can be the leader, wife, and mother He has called me to be.  By enduring this season, I will grow SO THAT I can have power and have real influence.

Embracing this season

I am no longer fighting this season of my life.  This is one of the perspective changes I had a few months ago.  I realized if I am going to teach and lead people, I'm going to have to have something to teach about!  Rather than fighting the journey and racing to get to the next place, I am taking the time to observe and record all of what I am learning so that I can use it to teach others about staying in the race, having faith in your vision even when it looks pointless, ignoring convention and blazing your own path, and how you do not have to wallow in the mire and quit life.

Now having had the misfortune of listening to some really poor teachings in my earlier years, I know that the best teachers are those who actually have something to teach and it often comes from personal experience with the subject matter.  People who just get up to shout, yell, and scream with no substance may be entertaining but the audience doesn't learn anything and there is no change.

I've decided to embrace this season and roll with it.  While sitting in church one Sunday a few months back, I thought:  Wow I am really going to be a good women's empowerment and Get Your Life motivational speaker.  I'm going through this process and learning so much and I can't wait to show people there's victory on the other side, but you have to endure the journey.

I've said that one of the things I find discouraging (especially amongst the Christian crowd) is that I don't feel like a lot of people are completely honest about their journey.  They like to share the cleaned up and sanitized version of their testimonies, and then they minimize the discouragment others feel when they were just in the same position not long ago!

This season of Singleness

Now you know I am going to bring this up, but let's look at singleness.  On the Christian blogs when they discuss this subject they give church answers such as:

I read the Bible every day and God is my husband so I never think about the fact that my nights consist of tea and Golden Girls reruns.  I also have my eyes closed praying all of the time so I never notice hot guys and wonder why I am still alone. 

Then you get the people who get married and then they sanitize their entire single experience.  They never mention the fact that they were grumbling and complaining about their single status before Mr. Wonderful showed up.

I want to be real,  Yes I have hormones and they get TURNED UP when they see bald heads, smooth skin, and hot male bodies  Yes I am sick of being single and feeling unwanted and like something is wrong with me.  I want to share with people here's how I got through this and there is victory on the other side

Humbling, Learning, and Training

Every great leader has to go through a season of humbling.  I believe this season of extended singleness is definitely a part of that.  Otherwise I would be thinking "Look at what all I have done!"  My ego and pride would have been completely out of control, but this weakness of mine is going to reveal God's power and show God's glory.  

In the past few months alone, I have been led to humble myself.  I've realized how wrong it is to be and demanding and inconsiderate all in the name of selfish ambition.  I even have made up my mind that I owe Mr. Excitement an apology for my behavior last year.  I have to consider other people's feelings and needs before my own.

I am learning so much whether it is by my own experiences in what God is showing me or from anointed teachers and leaders.  When they speak I can definitely relate to what they are teaching because I've experienced a lot of it first hand. I couldn't say that last year.  When Jakes said Circumstances don't matter....I knew exactly what he meant because I've experienced it.  The facts don't matter, what matters is how we respond to it.

This is also a season of training.  I will tell you this:  Doing this fitness competition has taught me a lot about the importance of having a system to get everything prepared.  Sounds like a skill set a leader, wife, and mother would need to have!  I believe also that I am in training to learn how to be faithful in the small things, so that when we get to the big things I will also be faithful.

There's nothing worse than listening to a teacher who doesn't know what they are talking about or a leader who doesn't know what they are doing.  You've got to be trained in whatever it is you want to do.

SO THAT I can be the POWERFUL and INFLUENTIAL leader, wife, and mother I've been called to be

This season of training has a purpose.  I've been called to be a leader, wife, and mother. I don't just want those titles.  I want to function in those roles with power and have considerable influence.

When I think about the preachers that I've known over the years, what separates the bad ones from the good ones is: power.  There are some preachers who can do backflips, shout, scream, and run around the pulpit but they have no message.  It's all fluff and pointless.  Nobody even remembers what the sermon was about.  The only thing worse is someone who is a boring speaker with no message.  They aren't even entertaining but just drone on and on.  

The good preachers have POWER and it has nothing to do with screaming or running around the pulpit.  What they say is soul stirring and resonates with the crowd.  A-ha moments are going off all around the building.  It is the POWER of the anointing and guiding of the Holy Spirit.

This is the type of POWER I want for my movement. I do not believe I have been called to a church.  I'm too inclusive and I think that churches are exclusive to anyone who doesn't fit into their cliques.  I want to be out amongst the people whether they subscribe to my religious views or not. It doesn't matter because I am about serving the people and I don't think that's where the American church has their priority.

I want to be a woman with influence not just with others, but with my own family.  I want to influence my family to live out their God given purposes and to have a relationship with God.  I want my husband and children to see the life I live before them and be influenced by it.  I believe in this time as I am clearly envisioning and putting into action who I want to be then this time of preparation is invaluable.

Living so that...

I have heard it said that if you hate the process and the journey, then you will hate your life.  So true because very little of life is the destination, most of it is process and journey.  

OK let's say your destination is marriage (really?) Are you going to hate your life until you get married? (That's the way I was going)  Relying on marriage to fix your life is a surefire way to have a miserable marriage.  You cannot rely on anyone else for happiness.

I am enjoying my time being single and learning and growing.  This is a time for sleep, quiet, and getting up and going where I would like to go.  I'm sure once I become a wife and Mommy I will want to put everyone out of the house becasue I want some sleep, quiet, and to watch the Golden Girls!  Time to enjoy it now!

I am living SO THAT:
 I can be who God has called me 
SO THAT he will receive Glory and not for my own selfish ambition.

I am so excited to see where God is going to take me...and I will be blogging about it all the way!

To God be the Glory