Beginnings and Endings and Beginnings

So, here I am on a sweltering June Saturday in Arkansas.  Fortunately, I’m inside in the air conditioning, and I’m thinking of beginnings and endings.  Specifically the beginning and ending of Mim’s Scrapbook Spot that Jeannine and I own.  The opportunity to go into a business that was based around a hobby that we both love was just like a dream come true for us, and we’ve loved it.

It’s kind of scary to own your own business…it’s kind of a gamble, and if we’d known the economy was going to tank, I don’t know if we’d done it.  But you know, that’s where faith comes in.  It was so clear to both of us that this was the direction that God wanted us to go.  How do you argue with God if you’re a person of faith?  We didn’t.

We’re now faced with God wanting us to go a different direction for a variety of reasons.  We’re both still teaching full-time.  It’s been hard to have two full-time jobs for three yearsJ!  We have parents with health issues, in-laws with health issues, our own health issues…..and on and on.  So many reasons to go out of business.

I can’t say that the decision to close our store has been an easy one to make, but again, it’s so obvious to us both that this is what God wants us to do.  Again, being women of faith, how do we argue with God.  We didn’t.  That doesn’t mean that the decision hasn’t come without tears and hours of agonizing as to whether we were really hearing from God or if we were just both physically exhausted. (We are!)  But we now have perfect peace and certainty that this is His will for our lives at this moment.

And isn’t that all He promises us?  If we continually seek Him, He will lead us moment by moment and that we will know His will?  I am so often reminded of a conversation that I had once with a dear friend from my college days, Judi Matkin.  We were talking about the determination to know God’s will for our lives.  I said something to her to the effect that I wanted “writing in the sky” to always know for certain what God wanted me to do.  She looked at me and said, “But, Terry…God promised to be a lamp unto our feet…not a search light.”  I’ve kept that comment close to my heart for almost forty years.  I’ve remembered it and thought upon it many times when I was trying to decide what to do in various situations.  I’ve prayed, “Oh, Lord, just show me where to put my next footstep, and when I get there, just show me the next.” 

And you know, it works!  God has been faithful to lead me every step of the way…when I have chosen to stay on the path that He has illuminated for me.  It’s only when I go off onto my own path that the way gets dark.  Hmmm…imagine that.

So…as Jeannine and I embark on a new path that He has set for us, pray that we will continue to seek His will and that we will be as faithful to Him as He is to us.  Pray that we will stay on the path that He has illuminated with the light of His lamp.