Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Becoming successful


"In this job field, as a nanny, you do quite well," says my business major superior, "But don't EVER stray too far from this venue," she says with a laugh as she zips off to an apointment.
Ugh. She is so ANNOYING I think. Despite that my hair is piled up on my head, curls cascading down, bouncing with my every step, despite my adorable outfit, my cute flower, my matching shoes, my darling five dollar purse, despite the fact that I just PLAIN look good, I can't help but feel a little dull. Like I just don't quite measure up. I can STILL hear her heels clicking her business success in my ears. Grrr...I sooooo wish I had gotten THAT degree! If only, for NO other reason but to show HER!!!
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Have you ever wondered HOW to become successful? I have. Just the other day I was thinking about this as I washed laundry at work. I mean really thinking about this. I WANT to be A successful, woman of God. But how? Should I go back to college and get that degree? Should I find a more elite, established sounding job? Should I start working on my resume? I want to be a successful person. But how? How does one become successful? These questions pondered my mind all day at work, however, no brilliant answers came to my mind.
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Later on that week I was reading a little book of quotes. Nothing to exciting really. I was like blah, blah, blah! All of the sudden I saw this quote that just STRUCK me. It said;
"God did not call you to success. He called you to be faithful." Whoa!!! Ouch!!! That really hit home for me. I was focusing on the wrong thing. But God don't you want us to be successful?" "I want you to be successful but it's NOT what I called you too!"
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Then I began thinking about the things in MY life that I KNOW God has called me too...
Writing. Outreach. Wendesday School teacher. The African people. An active member of my church. These are the things I KNOW God has called me too. My mind goes back to my thoughts earlier this week...
Ha. She thinks she is ALL THAT, I bet I could do waaaaay better than her in public speaking. People LOVE my speaking! Why I even had the lady that wrote PUBLIC SPEAKING TEXT BOOK tell me that she LOVED my speech. AND I bet I could outwrite her ANYTIME! She thinks that just cause she has a degree AND her own business...Well I just NEED to go back so I can SHOW her!!!
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I realize that God did NOT call me to SHOW her!!! Often we get so caught up in showing how great we are. But, it's REALLY all about showing how great GOD is. We want that grade, that degree, that title, but why? We get so caught up in our studying, in our work, trying to be successful, but in the process we start forgetting about HIM. We stay up late reading text books, but we don't have time read our bible. We work extra hours at work, but we miss church services. We catch up with our friends, but we don't have remember to spend time with HIM! We are TRYING so hard to be successful for God and all HE really wants is for us to be faithful.
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I realize that success will not come to me in a good grade, a diploma or a degree. It will not come with money, a fancey shmancey job title, or even my dream-black-pick-up- truck with hot pink pin stripes. I know fo sho it doesn't come in looking good, cause I ALREADY got that down. ;) No, if I want be successful, I need to pray more. Read my bible more. Memorize scripture. Study his word more. Open my ears to the preaching of his word. Basically, I NEED to love God MORE!!!
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The word success is only in the bible one time. Faithful is in the bible 82 times. His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. Matthew 25:23 I can't help but notice that he did NOT say well done my good and SUCCESSFUL servent, he said well done my good and FAITHFUL servent. Yet, there is NO doubt in MY mind, that if God tells you "well done" that you have in fact, been successful.
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"God did NOT call us to success. He called us to be faithful." Then, just as an after thought, from God to me...

"And IF you are faithful you WILL be successful."
WOW! We have it SOOOOO backwards. We wouldn't have to work quite so hard to be successful, if we strived a whole lot more on being faithful.
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A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent. Proverbs 28:20

Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me: he that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me. Psalm 101:6

Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness: but a faithful man who can find?
Proverbs 20:6
Mary :)