Opportunity Knocks Again

This could also be titled “My Plate is Only this Big Part 11” or perhaps “Practice what I Preach”.

I have always had a heart to do ministry since I was very young. This is all I ever wanted to do. Hence, the reason I went to Bible College. When I was in high school, my dream was to be a wife, a mom and in ministry. That simple. Guess what? I am living my dream.

Now, my heart for ministry has turned specifically to moms and wives in the same season of life as me with young kids. I have a lot to say about this, as you can tell already. Because I had no idea that living my dream would be so hard!

I had pretty much emptied my plate of ministry responsibilities last semester and that is why I wrote about my 8 month season of rest in a previous blog.  In January, I started picking pieces back up again little by little. Sure, that is only a once a month commitment, I can do that no problem. Let me pile a few of those on. Sure, you want me to lead this, I would love to. Yes, I can volunteer there, that is my passion. And my life went from 0-100 mph in no time.

Until February rolled around and everything I said yes to had started and was under way for the new year. I had committed to so many things, I felt like I could not breathe. My schedule was filled morning, noon and night with everything I had to get done leaving no time to rest or play with my kids. It took me one full week to realize I was in over my head.  And my family was paying the price. I was on edge. My housework was suffering. My peace and joy were gone. My physical body ached.

 I wrote down a list of all of my involvements and met with one of my mentors about it. I had to take some stuff off my plate. As much as I hated to back out, there was really no option around it. One of things in particular that I am giving up is a life- long desire of mine. But it is not my time, not my season. It will have to wait. My ministry will always first be to my husband and my kids. Everything else is secondary. I need to make sure I can offer them the best of me. For some of my friends, it has meant saying No to a dream job opportunity or giving up a current career for right now.

When I told my husband all of the groups that I had committed to and the ones that I could no longer be a part of, he looked at me and said, “Melissa, Aaron and I are your group. We are your small group.” True that!

Ladies, we need to always remember that the time to raise our kids is now and this opportunity is only going to come once.  We only have one shot to do it right. We cannot put them on hold. We only have one marriage so we might as well put the time in to make it a good one. To quote one of my mentor’s, “We can pay now or pay later”. We have to say No to some of the good things so we can say Yes to the very best things. And those best things are our husbands and kids.

Those other opportunities will knock again.