One of my favorite scriptures is Proverbs 3:5-6, which says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take (NLT).
Although this is one of my favorite scriptures, I’ve haven’t always applied this to my life. The part I had trouble letting go of is the part that says, “Do not depend on your own understanding.” I was and sometimes still am the type of person that has to make sense of everything that takes place in my life.
Towards the end of 2013, I decided to start a childcare business. I chose to do this because I wanted to bring in more money. I wanted to use the money towards me and my husband's personal goals. This was also allowing me to continue to stay home and teach my daughter (who was only three at the time). I went through all the classes that I needed to take just to get certified and registered as a childcare provider in the state of Maryland.
I was so excited about starting childcare. We went out and got all the supplies that I needed to be successful. We changed our downstairs area to look more kid friendly. My daughter was so excited about meeting new people. I was ready to go.
Once I received my license and became certified, I expected to have people knocking at my door. My husband and I did a little marketing, and we went around our neighborhood passing out flyers. We also put up child care listings on childcare sites.
After a month of only receiving one call and two visits, but still not one child in my care, I became frustrated. Everyone I knew that started a childcare business had children in their care right away. I was wondering what was going on. I was so sure that I would be successful right away. Nonetheless, I was still looking forward to starting my business in childcare.
One morning I had awakened really early. I was trying to go back to sleep but couldn’t get back to sleep. I was brainstorming on what else I may need to do to bring in children to my day care.
As I was running thoughts in my head about the childcare, I heard the Lord clearly say, “I never told you to do that.” I asked out loud, “Huh?” He said again, “I never told you to do childcare.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I was wondering, “why not?” Then I thought, “I just went through all of this for nothing?” All I could think about was the time and money I put into getting this child care business started. Then I started thinking about the money I could make in the business so that I could contribute in increasing my family finances.
I then asked the Lord, “Well what is it that I am supposed to do?” He said, “I want you to focus on writing. You need to get out all the books I placed inside of you."
God has been dealing with me for a few years about getting my books out. I’ve just been procrastinating and not too sure why. At the time we had started a Christian t-shirt clothing line, and that had also become very important to me, and I knew it was going to take a lot of hard work make it successful and to get it to where we wanted it to be. Right then I knew that doing child care would slow me down from getting those things done.
I talked to my husband about what God had said to me. He was a little puzzled at first, but he said, “If God told you not to do it, then you don’t want to go against God.” We both agreed that we never did seek God on the matter and we should have talked to Him about it first before deciding to do it.
The funny thing is the moment I decided not to do childcare, that’s when all the phone calls started coming in. I wanted to trust God with all of my being of why I shouldn’t do this. Instead, I kept telling myself again how I’d be helping my family and how the money could be used for the things I really wanted to do. So, I entertained the thought of doing child care again.
I heard the Lord’s voice again telling me not to do childcare. I knew I had to listen and so I did. I said, “Ok Lord, if I’m not supposed to be doing this, then I really need you to come through for us financially. I will trust you completely and let go of trying to take matters into my own hand. I will trust you and lean not on my own understanding.”
Something unexpectedly happened for my family and me. Two days before Christmas we received a check for over $1000 from an overage in our escrow account. We started praising God off of that. But then God blew our minds even more, and two days after Christmas we received a direct deposit in our account for $5000 from my husband’s old employer. You can imagine how ecstatic we were. To me, that was God’s way of saying, 'When you learn to let go and trust me, you’ll see what I can do.'
From this experience, I have truly learned to trust God, no matter if I understand it or not. God knows exactly what He is doing.
It’s now four years later from when God told me not to do daycare. My husband quit his job and started his own business two years ago. We are making more money now than we have ever made working in corporate America. I assist him with the business, and I have time to work this ministry that God has called me to do. I’m also working on having my first book completed and published by early next year.
When you learn to trust God, the unexpected can happen for you. So, my friends, TRUST GOD, SEEK HIS WILL and let HIM DIRECT you.
#stayaffirmed
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