Does God want us to suffer?
How would your life look different if you could do anything you wanted?
Excellent question.
It’s a question that I hadn’t pondered, at least not consciously, but now that I look back, it’s exactly what God was asking me after I had my third child.
That was 2006. And because I refused to ponder it, or even acknowledge the question, let alone take that path of my own free will, God set me up so that I didn’t have a choice.
I know that sounds slightly sacrilegious, but truth be told, I’m not a fan of organized religion. I have a deep, personal relationship with God, but I don’t really like religion, at all.
So, yeah, I do truly believe that sometimes he sets us up in not great circumstances to push us in the direction that he means for us to go, to do the thing he created us to do.
I’ll give you a quick recap of my own journey towards doing what I really wanted to do.
It was 2006. I got pregnant with my oldest son in January of 2002, had my daughter in April 2004 and had my third child (second son) in February of 2006. That sounds like two years between each, but in reality, it was 18 and 20 months. In short, within four years plus one month, I had three kids.
I was also $64k deep in credit card debt with no way to pay it off, and couldn’t realistically get a “real job” because the childcare for three kids would literally murder my budget. My husband had no idea, and I didn’t want to tell him until I had it paid off, for the simple reason that he already hated his job, and I didn’t want to stress him out even more.
I got creative. I started a Virtual Assistant business before being a virtual assistant was a common thing. I grew my business steadily, added new skills and eventually moved into Web Design + Branding.
I paid the debt off in under 3 years, and made it possible for my husband to quit that job he hated + start his own business.
If you asked any normal person if that $64k in credit card debt was a mistake, they would absolutely say of course it is.
But, I’ll tell you the same thing I tell every person I talk to about this - it wasn’t.
In fact, it was possibly one of the best things that has ever happened to me.
Because of that debt, I set off down a path that altered my entire trajectory. I have done things, met people, and gone places that I never would have dreamed of back in 2006.
Since 2006, I’ve spoken at a live event in Oslo, Norway. I stayed in Guy de Maupassant’s former home in Antibes, France. I spent a week in a castle in Italy. I stayed the night in a Venetian palace. I visited Cinque Terre, Pisa, and Rome. I spent a magical 36 hours in Paris. I spoke at a live event in London, England, and spent an amazing week in the UK wherein I joined one of my Scottish Clans, found an effigy to my 12th great grandfather in the back of a tiny church and ate in the oldest pub in London (Charles Dickens used to hang out there!)
And that’s why I want you to understand that right now, you can choose to do anything you want. Or you can wait until you have no choice but to head down the path that God wants you to go.
Either way, you will end up in a great place, with the chutzpah and authority to do exactly what you want, just one way is a little easier and a whole lot less painful than the other.
There is a second aspect to this whole idea of living life in a way that allows you to do what you really want that I’d like to offer though.
When it comes to life, especially when you are in a female body in this life, you are going to be told no more often than you are told yes.
You also may have to deal with a spouse, family, friends, and/or coworkers who tell you that what you are wanting to do isn’t a great idea. That it’s not the safe thing. That you are being too risky. That you aren’t ready.
Well…
- Ready is not a real thing.
- No risk, no reward, and risk is manageable.
- Safety is nothing but an illusion.
When God created Adam and Eve, he put them in the garden of Eden and told
them not to eat from the Tree. He knew, very well, that they were, in fact, going to absolutely eat a piece of fruit from that tree. And he also knew that them eating that fruit was the key to them creating a life that was all theirs.
Simply put, your real life won’t begin until you commit an act of disobedience.
I’m not talking law-breaking, or murdering anyone, just a simple act of choosing what you know you are being called to do over what you are “supposed” to do.
This is a deeply personal sort of disobedience.
It’s starting a side-hustle even though your husband thinks you can’t do it.
It’s ignoring your parents when they tell you that you must go to college when you have a perfectly viable pathway in a different realm.
It’s leaving a secure job for the risky life of being an entrepreneur.
It’s not following in your parents footsteps.
It’s doing the thing God is telling you in your soul to do, even when no one else thinks it makes a bit of sense.
Your life is yours, not anyone else’s. And you’ve only got one of them. Don’t waste another second ignoring the call in your soul. Don’t let anything get in the way of living out the path that God has called you to.
How would your life look different if you could do anything you wanted?
It would look like your wildest dreams come true, and some you haven’t even dared to dream yet.
Doesn’t that make it wholly worth it?
- Amanda Arthur Krill is an author, speaker and boldness coach. Her book, Mom Vs Debt: How I Paid Off $64k in Credit Card Debt in Under 3 Years (without becoming a stripper), is an Amazon Best-Seller and has been featured on NPR, ABC, NBC, FOX and CBS. She has a passion for helping overwhelmed moms who are tired of living mediocre lives by teaching them how to tame the chaos of their everyday existence so they can start living a life they can't wait to get out of bed for, every. single. day.
Learn more through Amanda's website.
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