This year has been a testing on for me. I discovered that in so many ways on I am on target with what God has for me to do and in others I miss the target by a long shot. However, through it all I have been tremendously blessed.

At the beginning of this year I had it all planned out how my year would go. I was going to be Forty, Fit, and Fine.  I did reach a lot of those goals: I am about 40 lbs smaller, I did turn 40, I started caring about myself more, and I learned to appreciate all that God has blessed me with.

To know that I am worth more than rubies in His eyes so much so that He knows the number of hairs on my head amazed me to no end. Once I grabbed on to that fact… I AM WORTH SOMETHING…it changed the way I approached my entire life.

God is just good like that!

As I considered my business and how it fits with my life I saw some things I like and some I did not like. I enjoyed the fact that I was actually making an income online. I loved that God was directing much of it. I did not like the fact that I was not giving Him total control. I did not like that fact that I was missing out on some tremendous blessing because I did not give Him total control.

Over the past few months my life has been shaken up quite a bit. To such a point that I have had to truly look at where I was in life. I had to access my strengths and weaknesses; consider my principles and values; and look at my true mission in life.

I had no other choice. God literally had my life at a standstill in the area of business. Everything seemed to go south and nothing was working the right. I was not getting it. I was working everyday at something but the outcome was not as I always expected.

I took some time to speak with two women who are just gems to me and realized some things. I needed a serious adjustment in my approach to a few things.

I was working from a standpoint outside of my scope of values and principles. Yes,  I was within the scope on so many levels but I was starting to become discouraged by the lack of dollars and it was driving me into positions I did not care to be in. I was starting to get desperate and even ended up working on a project that cost me in the end. I did not hear God say no but I did see the warning signs early on and just kept at it.

Ahh well…lesson learned!

Here is the core of what I learned:

• When you think that God is giving you something if you are not sure what to do with it…wait! He will reveal it to you. It is ok to step back for a  while, evaluate and just wait. Don’t move ahead until it is revealed to you whether or not it is for you do.
• If you feel led to help someone, don’t allow them to step over you and then come back for more. Some folks will give you a pity story over and over again just to get your sympathy, milk you like there is no tomorrow, and then leave you with the empty carton.
• Stay within the scope of your core values and principles. In everything you do, use them as you gauge. If what is before you does not fit then it is likely not for you.

I saw that – especially with business – staying within the core is what matters most.

So I am biting the bullet on a few things in my life. For the purposes of this post, I will share one of them.

• I will be writing more than I have in some years. I am signing up with Examiner.com for the Oklahoma City area, and I am once again going to take on writing clients. One of my values is that I care about the whole health of my family. When I was sticking with the writing finances were good. It was where God told me to go and I heeded. Then I got greedy and went way out of my scope. Not that I was not to add more to be list of services but that I totally left the writing out because it did not fit what I wanted to do. Instead of scaling back on the writing some, I  stopped all together. I even stopped writing my devotions, encouraging words and articles for magazines. I was tired of doing it; and yet, writing is my love!

Sometimes you have to get to your breaking point to see the big picture. This past summer I was there.

I am writing my core values and principles out again so that I have them to gauge where I am and what I am doing. God has given me a list and over the next few months you will see some stuff that I am not even sure how to implement…and yet He has put the task before me.

Like the core of an apple, if what is on the inside starts to rot due to lack of care, then the flesh will just smell and taste nasty. I don’t want my core rotting to the cause of stench. As a servant who lives life on purpose, I must allow my core to be nurtured for the glory of God!

Related posts:

1. You Can Get Back Up Again Today I Facebook I posted the following… My life this...
2. What Happens When You Take God Out Of The Box Yesterday I talked about Trying To Box God In.  Today...
3. The Errors Of An Excuse Today I am thinking about excuses and so I am...
4. Cross Blog Conversation With Erin From Mom’s Resource Blog I just love Cross Blog Conversations because you meet...
5. Erin Wonders About My Plans If you have been following my Cross Blog Conversation with...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.