Savour the Moments and Then Relax!

Many challenges and changes have lead to my becoming a champion this year in 2011! My husband and I have embarked on a journey of homeschooling and building our careers and education all at the same time. We are both working for a not-for-profit health and wellness retreat centre and have seen it grow by 100%-200% this year, since my husband started full-time in February! This has been a very rewarding accomplishment! We are both working hard at home, with our children and our new black lab puppy, and at both of our various positions with our careers. I have been working a day a week, a couple of hours away from where we live, I've been working from home a couple of half days, and also at the retreat centre a couple of days a week. During this time of both of us working and homeschooling our children, I have completed a course to become a financial planner and took two provincial licensing exams for all personal insurance  & mutual funds. I was so happy when I passed these provincial licensing exams! What another great accomplishment, this year, after having arisen to the challenge of leading Teenagers at the Family Camp in the summer!
      I was placed in the position as the Teen Leader at Family Camp this summer, which was a daunting and stretching challenge to me! I haven't lead teenagers for many years and felt quite out of touch with what their interests were since I have been predominantly teaching children for the past several years. It turned out to be one of the most fun, exciting, and rewarding volunteer positions that I have done in quite awhile! I had originally volunteered to teach the children, since I had directed a children's vacation bible camp during the previous summer and really enjoyed it. Leading teenagers after having had 2 children under the age of nine and not having worked with teens for several years, felt like a difficult load to add to my life. However, it really increased my faith and confidence when they had said that I was the best teen leader that they had ever had! They also mentioned that they had not expected to like their leader, but were surprised when they actually did! Wow! Thank you, God for your answer to my prayers. What a great group of teenagers to lead, even though I know that many people said that they were a difficult group to lead, I didn't see it because I saw them for who they were and valued each one of them as an individual- a child of God! I am still in contact with these great teenagers and I feel really blessed to call them friends! I'm glad that we were all able to grow close to each other and to Jesus during this great camp experience! I have renewed excitement for the new areas that I will be embarking on in the coming year.
Starting in the new year I will be adding to my array of work positions by working for a not-for-profit financial planning company. They (Faithlife Financial) give a large portion of their profits to the members that invest with them, the members charity, society or church that they belong to, and to World Vision, Family Life Today, Promise Keepers, Girls Night Out, Couple's Night Out, and Disaster Relief organizations. I will be proud to be representing them by helping individuals and families with their finances and being able to support great, charitable causes, at the same time. This complimentary addition to my career has come about due to a miraculous happening in my life when I started to follow a financial plan, to get out of debt, earlier this year. It was going to take me 27 years to get rid of my credit card debt; however, I was able to pay them off in just 2 months, instead! This radically changed my outlook on life. my faith-in-action, and everything that I was doing! I believe that wholeness, balance, and wellness should be a part of our entire lives: physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and also financially, as well! I am starting to get on track to begin to balance every area of my life, with the Holy Spirit's help to allow my body to rest, while my spirit is alive with new life that only comes from Him! During this time of homeschooling my children, building my business, building our careers, and furthering my education, I have had alot of time to REST! Let it be done on earth, as it is in Heaven, where resting is just a part of being, where PEACE surpasses anything that we have ever experienced here on this gerbil-wheel of life! I enjoy taking a break from the wheel and just watch it go around and around, and then I position myself back on it to relax and recline on it! I just need to be reminded, every so often not to get carried away and start running on it again. To take care of myself and love myself, so that I can truly love my neighbour as myself. My neighbours are the children, teenagers, friends, clients, and family members, that are my life. Learning the art of loving and having boundaries and wisdom in all the relationships that I have has been a huge learning curve for me this last year. I haven't been perfect at it, but I plan on getting better at it, day by day, as I get my physical, mental, emotional, and financial life into balance and abundance! You can follow my blog to read about the successes that I've found in the little moments of life that have added up to the great accomplishments that I've had and the ability to rest in all that has been done and will be done. Let it be done on this earth through my life and in my life, as it is in Heaven!