Thursday, August 7, 2014

A Gift of Believing

I am so grateful.

I am a blessed individual.  Down through the years, people have blessed me and my family in so many ways.  It would be a very long blog post indeed if I listed all the ways that someone has touched our lives.  Some things I've already shared with you such as the time my sister-in-law helped us all get new Easter clothes when my husband was too ill to work. (Read about it here.) When our home was flooded, How God Gave Us What We Wanted recounted how our churches and many many people came and helped.  I wrote about the girl whose own home was flooded and came to fill sandbags at ours in a Friday's Favorite Five post.

The world is still filled with people who want to make a difference.


Today, I want to share about something in particular that someone did that made me happy. It wasn't a monetary gift. I didn't even recognize it for the gift that it was until years later.


It was the gift of believing in me.


First, a little back story.  18 years ago, I became a church secretary.  It was a wonderful time in my life, because for the first time ever I had a job I really enjoyed.  In fact, it was so much fun to me that often I would be involved with a project and forget to stop at quitting time and go home.  I lived for Mondays when the job would start all over again!


Life, being what it is, made sure things would happen to suck the joy out of my fun.  Things happened at the office and working was no longer the fulfilling adventure it once was.


Often, when God is ready to use you at a new level, you will start to feel dissatisfaction for the way things are in your life. This is so that you will be ready to do something new.



My previous pastor left and the church called Pastor G. as our new leader.  Pastor G. was such a hilarious co-worker! He was a natural comedian but he also had vision and discernment. Long story short, he saw potential in me and asked me if I would be willing to teach the young adult bible class.

Nervously, I agreed to give it a shot. I found I loved it but would never have attempted it had Pastor G not asked me.


Later on, he even let me lead a few midweek bible studies when he was out of town. And closest to my heart, he allowed me to share my devotionals in our newsletters.  


If I ever achieve my goal of being an author and speaker to Christian women, it will be because Pastor G gave me the gift of believing in me and a chance to start learning to chase my dream.







Mama's Losin' It

This post was written in response to Writer's Workshop prompt 5.) Tell us about something somebody did that made you happy.  If you'd like to read other stories, or share your own, visit Kat's blog, Mama's Losin' It.

9 comments:

  1. Beautiful story! That is a precious gift, indeed.

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  2. How neat for him to believe in your abilities and to say something about them and getting you involved in something you enjoy doing!

    betty

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  3. It's a gift indeed to have someone believe in you! Good luck in your writing endeavours!

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  4. How wonderful to have a person to encourage you like that. Often it takes other eyes to see what you yourself can't see. I'm glad you have been given those opportunities.

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  5. Well said Jerralea. God knows just what we need and you needed a Pastor G in your life! Someone to "believe" in you. Thanks for sharing this and I hope and pray that the Lord is grooming you to be a speaker to women of faith! :)

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  6. Your quote, "Often when God is ready to use you at a new level, you will start to feel dissatisfaction for the way things are in your life" really spoke to me! I'm feeling that in my own full-time job right now. Great post!

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  7. Wow, that's a beautiful gift indeed! And I love what you say about finding dissatisfaction in something means it's time to move to another level. I've never thought of it like that, but it makes so much sense!

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  8. I was drawn here because Kat had your post featured on her writing prompts list for this week. I was struggling to get something from my head onto my blog and was inspired by your words, particularly that particular sentiment that dissatisfaction is how we know it's time to move on. It's exactly what happened to me.
    I enjoyed your post and I thank you for the inspiration (I linked back here to you from my own post).
    I wish you much happiness and success as you move forward!

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