Learning to Submit.........

Does anybody remember this post?  One of the reasons I enjoy/enjoyed blogging so much was reading back over my posts to see how God talks to me.  You'd think I'd know to "never say never" and to NEVER try to guess what God's future plans for me are.  Maybe someday I'll learn, although I have to say I'm getting closer every day!  :)

So anywho....it's this part of the post that is funny...

"I have no intention of ever entering the "real" work force again"

After we moved back to KY from Montana, we went back to the trailer next door to his sister like I said.   The Man and I still desperately wanted to work together in some capacity.  We tried several things that just didn't work out.  We tried "property preservation".....lets just say that didn't work out at all.  We cut wood, but that wasn't enough to make ends meet,  so we prayed and we talked and we prayed some more.  I applied at the school as a cook (because that's what I did in IL for a little bit) and I didn't hear anything. 

Pretty much this entire time I knew what God wanted me to do.  I could feel it, and He was saying it and I wasn't listening (STILL) because it wasn't what I wanted to do.  (See how that works there, I)  Finally in desperation because we were SERIOUSLY out of money, I did it.  What was it you ask?  It was to go apply at the Mickey D's in town.  I thought there is no way that I'll be able to work days, no way I'll get weekends off, no way I'll like it.  Off to town we went with a sour face and a bad attitude.  A toddler attitude of FINE if this is what you want FINE!  I walked up to the counter and asked for an application.  The girl said she'd get a manager.  The manager (Colby) came up and asked if he could help me.  I told him I was interested in a application.  He told me to go home, apply online and put his name down as the referring party.  I did so, and within a couple hours he called me for an interview for the next day.  I went to the interview, he asked me if I had transportation, what shift I wanted (days), he asked me if 3 am was too early to start and I said nope the earlier the better.  He asked me if I could go to orientation that day (it started in 2 hours) and could I start tomorrow at 3 am?

Do ya see a pattern here?  When it's what HE wants, it tends to happen very quickly for me.......

So I started working at McRonalds........I had a love / hate relationship with it.  I used to come home crying and telling The Man I couldn't do it, I just needed him to tell me I could quit.  I wasn't going to quit, but I needed him to tell me I could, (even though after a few weeks of working there I informed them that I wasn't working weekends anymore.  They could have me Mon-Fri or not at all, and they said ok, no more weekends for you).

I worked in the kitchen and there was a specific co-worker that just rubbed me the total wrong way.  I had good days, but I had lots of bad days.  I was good at it, very fast, accurate, and my days flew by, but I was so tired when I got home that I slept the whole afternoon away!  I was like a spoiled little brat, still telling God, I don't WANT to work here.  But then something happened.  I started taking my Bible to work and leaving it in the truck.  On my break, I would go out and read my Bible.  On the 10 minute drive to work in the inky black with the huge starry sky my only company, I'd talk to God.  I began to pray for that co-worker that I didn't like.  The change was pretty immediate.  I began to love my job!!  I had so many opportunities to witness.  So many opportunities to share God's love with people who maybe didn't know.  God led me to so many wonderful scriptures that have taught me so much.  He helped me to see (once again) that it isn't about me.  It really isn't.  AT ALL.  Life is not about us.  It's about what He wants for us.  It's about total submission to His will in our lives.  It's about recognizing and accepting that what God wants for us, and what we want are most often wildly different and learning to be really ok with it.....

I was pretty lost and confused, trying to figure out who I was without all my animals.  Without Champ, without my goat girls.  I was sort of like a ship without a sail.  I'd sort of lost my way.  It's hard to explain, but God had a whole lot to teach me, a whole big lot that I needed to learn.  I feel like He had to strip even more stuff away so that I had no distractions, so that I could really listen to what He had to teach me. 

During all this, The Man had his own things going on with our Maker.  He was looking for a job and not just any job, but the job that God wanted him to have.  He had several opportunities, but the one that he felt God leading him to take was at a small, family run cabinet warehouse.  We saw the job in the newspaper.  He went in and spoke to them one morning, and he had an interview with another company later that afternoon.  After getting out of the interview with the second company, the first place called and offered him a job.  He took it and quickly became the receiving manager.  It's the first Mon-Fri, 8-5 job he's ever had. 

After being at MD's for a little over a year, (and learning to joyfully submit to God's purpose in being there)  (and after actually getting hired at the school as a cook, and staying at McD's for 4 am to 7 am, then going to work at the school from 7:30 am to 2:30 pm and deciding I didn't like it at all and after summer break, deciding not to go back to the school but to stay at MC's full time...)  the inventory position opened up at The Man's warehouse and I went in and talked to them. I was offered the job at $2 an hour more than I was making in my current job, plus I would have health insurance.  See when insurance was offered to The Man, it was going to be too expensive to put me on the plan.  We prayed about it, and then just put The Man and The Youngun on it, having Faith that God would provide insurance for me in His good time.  And He did............in His good time!

We went to Montana because we wanted to work together.  God led us out there and it was a wonderful experience, but it didn't work out for us to work together out there.  God led us there as one more learning experience. I'm so thankful that in His good time, he's allowed us to work together.  We get up together, get ready for work together, ride to work together, work together, have lunch together, and ride home together.  It is a wonderful blessing.  I'm sure not every couple would feel that way, but we truly love being together and we work very well together. 

The job hasn't all been sunshine and roses.  We've had moments of frustration.  Not with each other, just with the job.  Of course those come with every job.  We went through a spell a few months ago where we really thought God wanted us to go elsewhere.  There was a whole lot of prayer, and a whole lot of job searching, and a whole lot of job applications.  We kept praying for God to show us what He wanted us to do.  Well guess what??  We finally figured out that we are RIGHT where God wants us to be.  There's much more for us to learn right where we are!! 

Till next time.....I remain yours in Christ.....