This is a pic of Grant, my daughter Julia, and their son Judah playing over Valentine's Day weekend...so cute!
Chapter 8: When the World Says No!
View Suzette's blog here at http://godlyrose.blogspot.com
"When God calls you to do what is right even if the world is against you, in confidence you need to obey God's calling on your life." As women we have to obey what God calls us to do to be truly happy and satisfied. God may call us to marriage, motherhood, and ministry all at the same time, or at different times in our life, but we will never fulfill our life's purpose if we let the world decide what is right for us. God always knows best!
I like to look at the young life of Jesus mother, Mary. God chose her to become pregnant before she was married. What would the world think of her? What choices could she have made to change her situation (abortion was very popular with the Romans, and she could have done that, she also could have kept the baby but had a quiet divorce like Joseph wanted). She did neither. She didn't focus on the negative aspects of the challenge instead in confidence she stepped out in faith and trusted that God's plan was bigger and better than she could ever imagine, and truly it was! I can't wait to meet Mary, what an amazing young woman she was.
The world looked upon Mary's situation with questioning eyes, but I love how Mary chose to trust God in confidence and obey His will for her life in the midst of so much adversity.
The problem with people pleasers:
*never fulfill their destiny
*too busy keeping everyone happy
*formula for life failure
Joyce says, "Step out and found out". Sometimes you will make mistakes, although confident, but at least you tried. Never be afraid to step out in faith and try something new...there is so much to learn from new experiences and challenges!
"Turn away from the people who try to discourage or accuse us instead of allowing what they say or think to affect us adversely." I loved this quote because I am the type of person who wants to please everyone, and keep everyone happy even if the people I am trying to make happy are discouraging me...this taught me that those people are not profitable as friends and perhaps I need to step back and evaluate who are my real friends in my life, and who are the people who I let control my decisions.
I loved how Joyce listed famous people who were not afraid to struggle to fulfill their life's purposes, she talked about Rosa Parks, Ben Franklin, Sydey Poitier and many more. These people had huge obstacles in their way and without their confident drive to push forward and ignore what the world was saying at the time, perhaps our world would be MUCH different without them. "Satan fights progress of any kind." A confident woman presses on and says YES when the world says NO.
Age is nothing but a number! I love how Joyce drilled home the fact that we should never make decisions based on our age. The world may say, Oh you are too young/old to get married. Oh, you are too young/old to have children. Oh, you are too young/old to start that ministry...but what about God? Isn't God in control of our lives? Doesn't God have a say? Can't God perform miracles? Let's trust Him! "It is not the years in your life, but the life in your years that counts!" Adlai Stevenson. Confident people don't focus on their age, remember that all of our days are numbered and that our time is in God's hands!
Such great words of wisdom, thanks! God's way is the best way, and only when we are following Him will we truly be at peace with ourselves.
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