Tag: KnowYourWorth

Transitional Seasons

At some point in life, everyone experiences a phase of transition. It could be a career change, a new relationship, moving to a new place, making new friends, the loss of a loved one, a new church, starting a family, and so on. These transitions can be challenging and uncomfortable.

The Freeze

We have a large screen at one of the two schools I work for that plays calming instrumental videos. When a video is playing on the screen, one of the students loves to run up to the board and rewind it while it is playing. That might work at home, but it isn’t an appropriate method for a classroom setting to keep rewinding the screen. Our solution to this problem is to freeze the screen to handle it. When the screen is frozen, the video sound continues to play in the background without interruption. You can now hear the video while the screen is frozen.

This particular moment was highlighted to me in a way because the way this video was on a big screen for all to see made me think about our lives in transition. How? There are things on our screen of life that everyone can see. Not only can they see your life on that big screen, but you are personally going through a transition in life that you are trying to figure out “off the screen.” It may appear or be perceived that you are “frozen in time.” Just like that big screen in the classroom, it was playing as normal, then something interfered with it, and it had to be frozen. You could still hear it, but it was no longer in motion.

This experience has taught me that the uncertainty in life can make us feel stuck in a particular moment. It often leads us to believe that we’re missing out on things or that our time is running out. We may even wonder how long we will remain in this frozen state. 

There may seem to be no movement, but you can still hear it. Life sometimes appears frozen, but what if this perspective is wrong? What if this is God’s way of protecting us or redirecting us to where we need to be? It’s hearing the voice of God that keeps us motivated in seasons of transition. Actively listening and hearing what God is saying to you in this session will keep you on the right path. Asking God for his wisdom during this season is vital! It’s serious. Now the real question is, “Is God re-directing your path? Is this a season on which you must refocus? What exactly are you supposed to be accomplishing this season? What are your plans?”

The Bible mentions, “Many plans are in a person’s heart, but the LORD’s decree will prevail.” Proverbs 19:21 In this season of transition, what is God saying to you?

“Perhaps this freeze is God’s way of recalculating our steps, refining certain aspects of our lives, and fine-tuning them before we can move forward.“

Seasons of transition can present opportunities for growth and change, but they can also be unpleasant due to the unknowns. It also may be that your true purpose is hidden until the appropriate moment and conditions are met by being what appears to be frozen in time. I adore discovering the things that God has brought to light in my life. So let’s investigate a few of the advantages that come with freezing naturally. I went with food freezing as a benefit; view this via a spiritual lens.

Benefits of freezing food…

  • Availability & Freshness
  • Time-Saving Convenience
  • Economic Choice
  • No Preparation and Added Food Safety
  • Sealed Freshness

Other benefits are…

  1. Consistent, high quality
  2. Superior Taste
  3. Unbeatable Value

*Logs off and cue the shouting music! Being frozen is not always a bad thing! That state of transition and the pause in transition have benefits! Yes, transitions aren’t easy, they aren’t convenient, they don’t look perfect, and they have you questioning your faith. But what if—just what if? This is the season that brings you the most clarity and brings you to a place that directs you to the people, the places, and the spaces you’ve been ordained to ENCOUNTER! God has a timeline for us all; it’s our duty to get before him and seek and find what he has for us! He wants us to become consistent, high-quality disciples. He wants our lives to have a superior taste so people can eat from who we are. Produce and grab people out of the kingdom of darkness! He teaches us in his word that we are valuable and will always be valuable because of Him, not us!

Questions I often ask myself in a transitional season…

  • Who and what individuals do I need to connect with during this transition? 
  • When does God want me to transition?
  • Where is God leading me in this season?
  • Why is this transition taking place?

Can I tell you that most life transitions do not necessarily indicate that you are unstable? This is especially true when it comes to leaving a place of worship or finding new employment. I’d like to demystify the myths around these two types of transitions. They are frequently discussed from a one-sided perspective, which can make people feel as if they are outside of God’s purpose when transitioning. When you’re going through a change with these two things, it’s always a good idea to pray and seek God’s guidance.

“Especially if you are the leader of your entire family. This directly affects the lives that are connected to you.”

Ask God for his direction and the wisdom to know when the right time is to make a change, or if a change is even needed. It’s important to be patient and cautious during these times and to make sure that you are making the right decisions for yourself and those around you. Trust in God’s plan and have faith that he will guide you on the right path.

guidance in transition

In every life-altering transition in my life, I first consult with God in prayer. I filter through myself, and I ask myself questions. I gather evidence to make sure this transition has nothing attached to it that I’ll later regret. Transitional seasons and seasons to endure look similar, but the defining factor is, “Is it you or God?

Is this a season you have to navigate through and mature through? That your only intention is to flee? Or is this a season in which you’ve proven that you’ve established, developed, and accumulated experience, and it’s currently time to move forward and expand elsewhere?

Wise counsel is your saving grace in your transitional season. Who do you talk to in your transitional seasons? Transitions shift the norm; they shift your way of thinking; they poke at you until you are in a clear mental state to answer well. This is about those who have denied things in life to do what God wants to accomplish in their lives. I’ve recently been hearing in church, “Disciples are different from a believer; disciples dominate.” This means if you are to dominate anything, you have to do it according to what God says. So if you want to accomplish, dominate, and succeed in life, your transitions must be God-led. I made a transition out of a job and position that I loved. But under the conditions of them overworking me, I had to consult with God, and through convos with my parents at the time, what should I do? So I first paused to not quit; to be honest, I was done! But I waited, gained, and learned so much at that job that it was the foundation I’d gained there that helped me succeed in my current job. I’m glad I didn’t quit. I waited until the end of the school year and wrote my resignation letter. I was at that job for 4 years. They truly hated to see me go, but I had to. I transitioned without another job lined up, wrote the resignation letter, and all that. Yep, I walked by faith into my next place of employment, with nothing lined up. 

“That grace was lifted for that job, and I left with no offenses, but I knew my worth! “

My faith at that time was built up to make a move like that because prior smaller victories prepared me for my next faith challenge. I didn’t just leave on hope; I left with the assurance, “If God can answer the prayer to get me here, he can lead me to my next there.” During that transition, it was scary, but I knew I had made the right decision. I was led to go to a job fair during the summer and got hired on the spot, but I didn’t hear back for some weeks. The only thing I knew was the particular district I had to stay in. I later received a call from a previous co-worker asking if I was still interested in this particular district. I said yes; she set me up with the area coordinator, went on an interview, was hired at that specific district, and the rest is history! I knew my transition was God-led, and even though it appeared to be frustrating, it pushed me into a life change and a tax bracket change! What still baffles my mind is that I was offered a job in another district, but I didn’t take it because of the district I was led to work in. I was specific even in my transition on where to go. I’m currently doing what I love to do and have years of financial testimonies from this one transition! Yes, challenges still arrive, but I’m built for them! 

you’re recalibrating

Sometimes our perspectives need a little adjusting. Even after the God-led transition, there’s this thing in between where our faith in God is still being developed. It’s in the wait where our inner man is developed for our future assignments! Our character is often developed in those frozen (waiting) stages. God wants our character to be in a place where we’re able and capable of handling what’s in our next assignment. If not developed, you’ll keep circling back to the same scenarios in your new environment. So sometimes our season of being frozen in time can look like recalibrating, resting, and gaining insight, wisdom, and counsel from the Lord and people. It’s not all bad unless we’re in total disobedience to God’s instructions. That will keep you stuck and unproductive with no growth! Think about the benefits of the frozen food that’s mentioned above. It preserves the freshness and quality! That’s exactly what happens to us; who you are is being preserved, so in the meantime, seek God in what you’re supposed to be doing while you wait in your transitional season. 

Be encouraged in your transitional season!

  1. Keep God first (Matt. 6:33)
  2. Keep Godly wise counsel in your presence (Proverbs 19:20-21)
  3. Seek God for wisdom and instructions. (James 1:5)

THE FIGHT. THE UNCERTAINTY. THE SURRENDER.

Have you ever fought something and said I won’t give up until “I WIN” at all costs? Yes? Then me too! That’s a phenomenal drive to have, but what if the fight is against your God-given assignment? What if the thing you are fighting, is what you are supposed to surrender to? Is submitting to the will of God easy? Not one bit! Following God’s will can be excruciating! I call those moments the Garden of Gethsemane moments when Jesus was in agony in the garden. Matthew 26:39 “Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”  Walking in full surrender to the will of God you have to put your flesh under subjection to fulfill certain things he wants you to do. Making Jesus Lord over your life is also including him in decisions. To walk in obedience to God, you’ll have what seems like significant losses but on the other side of obeying God is an abundance of blessings! Obeying him rather you can see what’s on the other side or not, is a step in the right direction. You don’t always immediately see the benefits of following his instructions, sometimes it’s years down the line before you see them.

“Sometimes, you’ll lose people, you’ll lose environments, and you’ll even suffer at times. You’ll have times of feeling all alone and asking yourself, “Is it all gonna be worth it?” Little did I know, yes it was worth leaving what I thought what was best for me behind!”

But before I understood that, I fought tooth and nail with God about changing my career for a very long time before acknowledging his plan. I’ll be honest. I feared I would be losing a prominent future, a future of wealth, financial freedom, and stability. That’s what I thought I was losing. So, I was not willing to give it up.   

We’ve all encountered a fight in some shape or form, from having to move to a new city, a new neighborhood, starting a new business, or a new career path. This is something we can all identify with sometimes, fighting the very thing that’s best for us. Some of us have strong wills, so sometimes it takes circumstances to break that wall we’ve built for us to yield to God. There are areas we have built walls maybe even towers for God not to touch. Those walls will come crumbling down when we’ve built something without his approval. Sometimes it’s those very things that wake us up to realign us to walk in full surrender to his will. Fighting while we’re supposed to be surrendering is costly! This is why I’m grateful to God! God’s love didn’t point the finger at me, and say “You loser, you messed up your whole life!” The enemy did, but God didn’t! Instead, God’s love gave me the option to choose him. He didn’t leave me in that state of mind, he didn’t leave me behind those walls of doing life my way! He loved me so much amid the fight, he loved me while I was fighting him! My eyes well up with tears when thinking of how patient God is with us, even when we fight with him! God’s love reaches beyond our fight and brick by brick he removes the hardness of our hearts. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the fight, there was still a process to work through before I fully surrendered to God’s assignment. After a fight, you have to rest and recover, you have to pause and rethink what caused the fight in the first place. I discovered through some internal examinations that I needed my soul to be made whole. Uncertainty isn’t a comfortable place. It’s a place where you see your flaws, and it’s a place where you see your weaknesses. It’s a place where you see the inner man for who it really is. A place of uncertainty can be a place where growth is needed, and healing, and faith has the opportunity to grow. It’s a place of re-alignment, meaning you got off track somewhere, you missed the mark.

“During this time there was healing that I had to walk out. My mind, will, and emotions, my soul had to heal. God had to perform some internal work in me to understand that my worth and value truly came from Him and not outward things!”

While I fought to change my career, I kept landing jobs to work in education! After graduation, I seemed to always gain employment in schools! To put things more into perspective, these are the years right after graduating college with a degree in architecture, which was my dream career. But, God graced me to work with youth, and this came naturally to me. Isn’t that ironic, the thing we fight against the most is the very thing that’ll have the biggest impact on our lives and on the lives of others! Throughout my life, I have had the grace to work with youth, ranging from kids-young adults most of my lifetime. So as I continue to work in schools, this particular school I encountered, had me rethinking working in education. I started to have encounters of being taken advantage of, boundaries being crossed, and a lot of undermining and control being prevalent. The work environment was very toxic, it got so bad I requested to have a meeting with the principal and had to write a letter of my concern for the safety of the children in my classroom for being out of ratio. I encountered a lot of moments at this school, that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. I said in my heart, “no thanks, if I have to go through mistreatment, I don’t want to work in another school! I’ve had it! I made up my mind, let me go ahead and start looking for graphic design jobs.” I had my mind made up, to not return to work in a school. If I was gonna have to deal with mistreatment, forget it! But later I understood that those encounters were a set-up to make me reject working in education.

I’ve tried to reason my way out of situations where I’m sure God was like, “Wait until she sees what’s on the other side of her surrendering.” After the uncertainty, I surrendered to what he wanted for my life. I talked myself into not wanting to continue to work in schools, because of that one incident. I finally hung my boxing gloves and waved the white flag to surrender to one of God’s assignments for my life. I had a brief moment of trying to go backward because of a situation that left me feeling like this is not worth it! But isn’t that the trick of the enemy to have you opt out of something cause you’ve had a bad experience with it? Bad experiences cause us to view from a filter that’ll group everything in one basket.

“Rather a bad relationship, a bad encounter with a church, a school, or a car dealership, you name it, one bad experience doesn’t mean they are all the same. That’s something I had to deal with, not allowing a bad experience to abort my assignment. I had a moment in prayer and I’ll never forget it, I said “God, if there is a certain type of child you want me to work with, I’ll do it!”

Shortly after that prayer, I was given a word in 2015 that God will use me in the classrooms and I’ll make a difference so much that it’ll be newsworthy. That word confirmed so much! Throughout the years I received a few more confirmations on the impact I’ll have in the classroom. Little did I know, God would place me in a room filled with special needs children. Working with special needs kids I’ve gained so much respect for humanity, I gained so much respect working and understanding how these little humans are valued by God. They are not mistakes, they are not to be overlooked or mistreated because of their outward limitations. This put an advocate mentality in me, just for people in general. Nobody’s life is wasted!

This was a world I have never seen, this was a world I was introduced to that stole my heart. I call them crumb snatchers cause there always snatching snacks lol but I’m absolutely grateful to God, I get to play a role in developing positive behaviors in the kids I work with.

 

 

All those fears I had of not being financially secure and not being able to accomplish certain things were crushed, God was and still fully providing for me! To this day being blessed and provided for by a decision, I made 8 years ago. So much favor has followed me in making that decision to work with a specific type of child. I had no clue I’ll be placed in self-contained classes working with special needs children, my heart is overwhelmed working with them. I value them, I love them and I’m built to develop them. 

Everyone has a fight, a time of uncertainty, and something they have to surrender to. I’m honored to have shared one of mine, relating to following what he wanted for me in my career. That moment in prayer catapulted my entire life! I pray you hear God amid the fight and uncertainties in life and that you’ll be motivated to surrender to the assignments he has in store for you. If you already have, share with others your “Worth Story” it’ll bless them!

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