I love one grocery store.
What I really mean is I love to only go to one grocery store at a time. You will never find me zipping around from store to store to find better produce, a brand or a better deal.
Tom Thumb, Kroger, Aldi, Costco, Sam’s - how many are you willing to go too in a 2-hour frame to find the best deal?
I am always amazed at the coupon clippers who can compare the weekly grocery ads to their grocery list or the people that can figure out who has the cheapest toilet paper by the price per square.
This is a gift and talent.
There are times in my life that I should have been like this, out scouring the weekly ads and then writing up my grocery list accordingly but I have never done so.
I still wonder how much time, energy and gas I would save if I did this. I also know Coupon cutter queens would say hours of time, pounds of money and barrels of gas. Of course, I would not challenge them as I am sure they walk around with their super sharp scissors for any coupons they might see out and about.
This is not my skill or gift or talent. My super power might be my ability to use my time effectively. Someone else's super power could be budgeting or spending, routing their day, checking off their to-do list, investing time with people, acts of service, administration things, scanning groceries at the store.
I share this because on the Noisy Narrative podcast this week we sat and talked with Cheri McKean, mom of four, long time member of Frisco First and recently retired from JC Penney and started her own business, Breadcrumbs. Cheri found herself laying in bed in the mornings with no kids at home, no one waiting for marching orders at corporate and asking God many questions.
God is this all there is to life?
God is there more to life than this?
God do you have a purpose for me in this new season?
Do you ever lay in bed in the mornings asking God questions about life?
I believe this is a sweet time just conversing with God about the small mundane things as well as the big things. Sometimes we go through seasons when we lay in bed too long because life is too hard to face or other times when we spring out of bed because we love the season we are in. God literally has us in all those different seasons for a reason and it is up to us to choose to interact with Him.
Cheri is in a place in life where her skills and gifts are being used differently. Cheri never really questioned if God is using her where He put her but so many of us do. She knew she worked for a reason, she knew she was on PTA for a reason and season, she knew she could not miss kids activities for a reason but when the kids moved out, her job was gone she started wondering God what do you have for me now?
The author Barbara Brown Taylor says in her book An Alter what many of us think and feel about where God has us right now.
“One common problem for people who believe that God has one particular job in mind for them is that it is almost never the job they are presently doing. This means that those who are busiest trying to figure out God’s purpose for their lives are often the least purposeful about the work they are already doing. They can look right through the people they work with, since those people are not players in the divine plan. They find ways to do their work without investing very much in it, since that work is not part of the divine plan. The mission to read God’s mind becomes a strategy for keeping their minds off their present unhappiness, until they become like ghosts going through the motions of the people they once were but no longer wish to be.”
We all go through life and ask those questions, wondering about where I am going to be used and what my purpose is. No matter if you are single, married, divorced or a widow. We all ask these questions and wonder where God is going to use us. I love the quote because it reminds us to invest where we are, where God has us right now on this day. In your work and with coworkers, with your family and with your family let’s be women who dwell on this present happiness.
Proverbs 30:24-27 talks about four things on earth that are small - 2 Insects and 2 animals.
Four things on earth are small,
but they are exceedingly wise:
the ants are a people not strong,
yet they provide their food in the summer;
the rock badgers are a people not mighty,
yet they make their homes in the cliffs;
the locusts have no king,
yet all of them march in rank;
the lizard you can take in your hands,
yet it is in kings’ palaces.
Ants are wise because they have the ability to plan for the future. Rock Badgers are timid weak animals, yet they make their homes in a safe place away from danger. Locusts have no king and yet they can fly in formation and devastate a crop within minutes. Lastly, the squirrely lizard. You can pick him up with your hands but he can also have the run of a king’s palace. Two ideas come from these verses, physical limitations may be compensated for in other ways; since God protects and provides for even the humblest and lowest of His creatures, He certainly will provide for His own daughters. He has a point and purpose for you, sister.
As the Lord provided Cheri a great job that used her gifts and talents at JCPenney, and was there with her and her husband raising four kids, while not losing her mind, He also provided a way for her to use her gifts and talents to help others in retirement.
We hope you never lose the wonder with God and not give up on Him using you in ways that you could never imagine. Our prayer is if you feel like you are not being used, seen, heard or feel small that you will remember the Proverbs 30. God wants Kingdom Builders. He wants to use the gifts and talents He gave you and created in you. You might have to step out of the boat and trust the Lord as you walk on water.
We hope you enjoy the podcast and remember to commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established. (Prov. 16:3)