So, a funny thing happened on the way to admissions…

My daughter recently turned five and I registered her into two private Christian schools in the area when she was two.

So now that admission assessments are being carried out, I have been praying for God’s will on which school He wants her to go to. I have laid it in His hands, because even though both are Christian, does not necessarily mean He wills her to go to a particular one. Especially the one I have my heart set on, as my church is based there. I have not been hearing too many good things about the one I really want her to go to, for various reasons, but I can’t take advice from man, and I have asked the Lord to make the decision for me.

However, I frankly told Him that I was a little concerned how I was going to know what His decision is. Both are excellent schools, so how would I know? If I get a peace about one school, I was worried it was just my favouritism toward that school and not from God. So I asked Him something outrageous – that He should deny Jordan’s entrance to the school if that was not the school He wanted her to go to.

After the assessment I got an email from the school saying they cannot accept her yet because they feel she needs to go to a Speech Therapist! I laughed! Of all things! This is a child who is extremely shy (which I think prompted their ‘finding’) yet uses words like ‘fascinating’ and ‘impossible’ and articulates extremely well for her age. I took her to a speech therapist just in case. I don’t want to be a biased parent. Turns out she scored within a seven year old range and I asked the therapist to email the report to the school.

So I said to the Lord, “Lord, if that was Your doing, she’s passed the test, so now what?”
The school emailed me a week later saying she will only be accepted into the school if she goes for speech therapy! Hah- after those scores, they’ve STILL made her acceptance conditional! My heart was so set on this school, but I no longer have a peace about it.
Well I asked for it- for her application to be rejected if it was not His will! It makes me wonder – if I never sought His will at all, I would have fought tooth and nail to get her into that particular school! Yet, here God shows up in the way He knows how – faithful.
I will continue to pray that His perfect will is done in this situation. I don’t need to know His reason, just His choice.
Blessed be the name of the Lord!

A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. Proverbs 16:9

 

Allow God to be your Recruitment Consultant!

My first HR job was extremely trying. I enjoyed the work and my boss was fantastic, but the company had no respect for the position and the writing was on the wall that the department was trying to be worked out. By one man. One new General Manager who spewed poison out so badly that it influenced others around him. It was a very trying time that would often leave me in tears. I was being groomed to take over from my HR Manager when she soon retired but that prospect no longer interested me, so much so was the torture. I would start my day with half an hour of prayer alone in my office or else I would face a day with no blessing or strength. Yes, it was that bad.

I prayed and fasted often for a new job as lifting my head off the pillow in the morning was very difficult. I prayed consistently for the Lord to change my attitude to still love my job. I would profess blessings over my job constantly and offer all I had for the day to the Lord. This helped tremendously and the Lord was very faithful to me in this area.
However, no job came and the torment against HR was increasing. I have always been blessed to quickly get shortlisted for jobs, but after months of trying there was nothing. My friend in Christ one day suggested that perhaps it was the Lord’s will for me to stay there. I got nauseous at the thought but trusted in God that He knows best.

My prayer attitude then changed. I have learned a very hard lesson before that to not ask for God’s will in an area leads you to mountains of trouble. A good whipping indeed. I did not want, out of fleshly desperation, to grab the first job that seemed good to me. I knew that the Lord did have something in mind for me and I wanted Him to choose the job for me, and not me choosing it for myself.  I fasted in the beginning of 2012 for 14 days for a new job. I told God specifically that  I wanted to only take a job that He wanted for me, and in order for me to know His will perfectly, I asked that He not allow me to ever get shortlisted for a position I applied for if it was not what He wanted for me. I don’t trust my fleshly decision making! I applied for many jobs and never heard a word. This time I had peace that God was leading the process perfectly.

Eventually in May I was shortlisted for a senior HR position at a top university in South Africa. Even though I was shortlisted I still prayed that if this was not the job God wanted for me, that He would not allow me to be successful in obtaining it.
The interview was horrendously scary – my first panel interview!
But to cut it short, I got the job! This is the best job I have ever had! I have been placed with a magnificent HR Assistant in Christ and that office is blessed because Jesus is glorified every day. He has helped me excel in every area of my job and I thoroughly enjoy every moment. God orchestrated this perfectly – everything about the job fits my personality awesomely!

Times do get tough and they are tougher when we are desperate. It is so difficult to understand that God knows what is best for us. His ways are not our ways, His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8). It will always seem as if He is not listening to us, but I encourage you to press on, the end line ribbon is waiting for you to run into it.

Yes, it might take a while but God is there, leading the process. We always want things immediately, this is a world of immediate satisfaction. But He has not left nor forsaken you – your faith is just being tested and He is waiting for that next window to open up for you. The worst thing is to think is that you should just to follow your own path when you are impatient waiting for the Lord’s answer – you will land up in the same frustrating situation, or even worse. If He needs you to wait, wait. It took me a year and a half to find the perfect job, and God was faithful right to the end because I literally placed it all in to His hands. We may think we know what we want, but God will always know better. He will bless you with your perfect fit.

Be encouraged, Reader, He has your best interests at heart.

Wrestling the Holy Spirit for money!

We had just moved back to Johannesburg after one incredibly stressful year at the coast in Port Elizabeth. My daughter had been literally born straight into NICU and was there for a month. My business was on a go-slow because I literally lived at the hospital. At the end of it all, we had decided to move back as Port Elizabeth had just become too bittersweet.
But it felt like we were starting all over again. And money was tight.

We’ve all been there – when it comes to tithing, we hold back just a little thinking of the things we need to buy here and there. Even more so when money is just not rolling in!

God just adores obedience. One of my favourite stories on obedience comes from my aunt. She is a teacher and the Principal of the school had told all the teachers that they needed to purchase a specific pair of shoes – I can’t remember what the reason was. It was “one of those months” where she was short and had already paid her tithing into God TV which was quite a chunk. She prayed to God and told Him she was quite worried about obtaining these shoes as it had been quite a hectic month.

One day she was in the shoe store with her friend and they were looking at the shoes and discussing them. She had noticed this one man in the corner kept staring at her. This happened for quite a while and she was getting a little freaked out and eventually he came over to her. Watch how beautiful he put this, wouldn’t you just melt? “Excuse me, I’m sorry for staring and I hope you don’t take offense. But I have to obey my Father. God has told me that I need to buy these pair of shoes for you…”

Does that not just give you goosebumps? What a wonderful man of God and so incredibly gentle. I will never forget that story. God is so colourful, I just love how He orchestrated this scene! Hollywood has nothing on our God!

Anyway, I had just started a new job at a logistics company in the HR department. God definitely got me that job – my boss was fantastic! She was just great to work with and we had so many laughs during our day, it made the day go faster! Any time I apply for a job I ask the Lord to allow me to be successful in interviews only  if it was His will for me to work there. I don’t want to be where God does not will for me to be. You never find any blessings in situations like that!
However, I was finding that the salary I had was just covering our bills and 2009 was the most stressful year of my life. I had more month at the end of my money than money at the end of my month!

One day, I had left work and was around the corner from fetching my baby from crèche. Sitting at a traffic light, I noticed a beggar begging for money. You see them at almost every traffic light in South Africa! I thought to myself, “Oh how horrible. I wish I had something to give him.” Notice the word “wish”.

The Holy Spirit grabbed this opportunity and said, “You do have something – you have that twenty Rand in the pocket of your bag!” You know, when I think back to that now I always start laughing! I had seriously forgotten all about that money sitting there! In spite of the word “wish” here started the wrestling match with the Holy Spirit!

“Yikes, R20…I forgot about that Lord…”.
“Give him the R20”.
“But Lord, I can buy bread and milk with that now, or at least put in more petrol…”
“No. Quickly give him the R20 before the traffic light changes!”

I hesitantly, but knowing I had to obey, gave the man my last R20. I did, however, thank the Lord for helping me be obedient.
I forgot all about that money. But God never did.

In the meanwhile I had been panicking how I was going to pay the internet contract and endowment policy I had which both amounted to R500.

The following week, my Manager came up to me with an envelope and said “I don’t actually do this, but I wanted to give you R500 cash, just because it was your first two weeks here and I kind of threw you into the deep end and you have worked so hard!”

Like, what?? Did you see what God just did there? He blessed my obedience of giving the homeless man my last R20 by restoring it back to me! R500 is exactly what I needed to pay those two bills! I was astounded!

Sharp lesson to learn! Even though I wrestled with the Lord about that last R20, I gave cheerfully because I wanted to please Him. God loves a cheerful giver (2 Cor 9:7)

Challenge – find someone this week to give cheerfully to! I tend to pray and ask God to lead me to someone who will need it. He always answers!

 

 

The kitten of 1 Timothy 4:4-5

When I was seven months pregnant, the Doctor picked up a problem. There was too much fluid around the baby. This would mean one of three things: the baby was Down syndrome, I had gestational diabetes or the baby had TOFS. I was ssoooo hoping for diabetes. I don’t think anyone in this world has wanted diabetes so badly! Anyway, it was TOFS- a very long story but with a happy ending.

However, when I was 3 months pregnant my cat, Georgia W. Bushytail, gave birth to two still born kittens. She was absolutely devastated. I have never seen an animal so emotionally crushed. I just wish there was  a way of us letting an animal know what has happened, so that they too, can get closure like we do. My poor angel would run meeouwing around the house looking in cupboards and around corners, under beds etc for her babies. She was desperately looking for them. She became possessive over me – I was not allowed to even talk on the phone because she would cry, jump on my lap and put her paw over my mouth to make me stop talking! I was so heartbroken for her, I couldn’t stand her pain.

I had thought of getting a newborn kitten from a shelter for her – the more newborn, the better, so that she could bond with him/her. This was a shot in the dark obtaining a kitten so tiny, but I prayed and asked God that if it was His will for Georgia to get another kitten, to please make it happen as her pain was just far too much. In the interim I had contacted 2 animal shelters that rescue abandoned kittens and cats and asked them to keep a lookout for me. I was told that I was asking for a miracle because to find a kitten at such a young age is impossible. I just knew that if God was willing I would have a kitten for Georgia.

Four days later the cat shelter called me – they had found an abandoned 2 week old kitten! I rushed over there and he was the most teeny tiny little mo you ever saw! I called him simply, Teeny, because I couldn’t get over how tiny he was and would always greet him with a “Hello my little teeny tiny mo!” The name Teeny, suffice it to say, stuck.
As soon as I took him home Georgia grabbed him by his little head and pulled him to her to give him a bath! It was the most precious sight I had ever witnessed! Those two are inseparable and her heart healed. Thank You to Jesus Who is ever so kind-hearted! I was so thankful to Him and thanked Him many times over for this special blessing.

Which brings me to my point. I was so paranoid now that the Doctor delivered the bad news, that I was trying to find out what I had done incorrectly to warrant this problem. Then toxoplasmosis hit me! I thought maybe I had gotten that due to a new kitten in the house. I wanted to throw up at the thought! This thought tormented me that I got down on my knees and pleaded with God for mercy and whether this is what actually happened. Did I cause unintentional harm on my unborn child trying to help my cat? But it was God’s will was it not? I asked for a kitten only if it was His will.

The next morning, swollen feet and all, I was getting ready to go grocery shopping with my mom. I was about to brush my teeth and the Holy Spirit said “Go read 1 Tim 4: 4-5”. I thought “Huh? Nah…I’m hearing things”. I grabbed the toothbrush…” Go read 1 Tim 4: 4-5!” Again I thought my mind was just running overtime. I got dressed and was about to walk out my bedroom door when the voice was so persistent “Go read 1 Tim 4: 4-5!!” This time I could not ignore it. When I turned to the verse I burst into tears at what I found:

“…for every creature of God is good and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the Word of God and prayer”

Yes, this passage was actually referring to people worrying about eating food that is sacrificed to idols. For example, when I was visiting in Taiwan, I knew to pray over all my food and thank God for it, because even though they usually bless their food to their gods, everything comes from our God Almighty who created Heaven and earth. When we pray over our food, it is sanctified.

However, God knew to show me this verse because it fit in so perfectly with what I was worrying over. He knew I would know what He meant. I had firstly asked His will for a new kitten, and was so thankful to Him when receiving this little kitten that he was set apart from causing me any harm.

The most important lesson I learned from this was seeking God’s will. If I had gotten a kitten without His permission, something may have well gone wrong! But once you are in His will, you are blessed. You can conquer mountains!