The Unwanted Collar

Today, I woke up and all of my pants were in the washer. Great. So I put on a pair of dress pants, a nice top, and my pearls. The only place I was going, was my grandparents. Oh well, at least I would look nice. 

My 78 year old grandpa had a very different morning from me. He walked outside this morning, discovered that the tree beside his boat shed was dead, and that bothered him. So, he cut it down. Alone. My almost 80 year old grandpa cut that tree down and cut it up. Alone.

I pulled up to my grandparents house and found my grandpa hauling off the first load of brush. Alone. My initial thought was, "good grief, this man is going to kill himself working this hard!" But then I realized, this is my Pa: it's not going to be hard work that eventually kills him. It will be the stillness that eventually takes him. 

He's worked hard his whole life, and when he sees a project as big as a tree that needs to be cut down and chopped up, he just tackles it. Alone. 

So what do I do? I walk in the house, nurse the baby and change the girls' diapers. I take off my pearls and rings. I put on my grandma's sweats, her oldest pair of slip on shoes, and my Pa's coat. I ask if there are any gloves, and Pa finds me a pair. After evicting the stink bugs from the gloves in which they had made their winter home, I put them on, and head outside. 

Pa tosses me a rake and we get to work. We rake sticks and rake sticks and rake sticks. It's freezing outside, and the wind is ridiculous. We separate the big pieces that he's already chainsawed and stack them. Then, we load the brush on a trailer to haul them off. 

It is at this point in our labor that I realize something: this is what is wrong with America today. We don't have people like my Pa around anymore. Nobody wants to do hard work anymore. Nobody wants to tackle hard tasks alone. How many people do you know that are willing to go out and tackle an entire tree - alone?  

I'm freezing to death and using muscles that I haven't used in years, and it's just another day for Pa. He was raised in a time when hard work wasn't valued, it was essential. Let me repeat that: when hard work wasn't valued, it was essential. That would mean that hard work, was just work 

You see, as Americans we've separated the workforce into two misleading categories: white collar and blue collar. I'd like to introduce to you a third category: the unwanted collar. 

There are many jobs in America that we've outsourced because we just don't want them. They're "too hard" or "too dirty." The majority of the unwanted collar workers in America these days are either old-timers with a sense of work ethic, or immigrants. How many white collar or blue collar people do you know that are willing to go out and pick an entire orchard for minimum wage? Or sort chicken parts for minimum wage? Or crawl through sewage for minimum wage? 

We've unknowingly undermined essential work and called it hard work. It's only hard because we don't really want to do it. 

We raked brush for what seemed like forever, and so my thought process brought me to yet another conclusion: we have also, unknowingly, overvalued education. 

One would assume that Americans get paid based on the amount of work they put in to something. However, that isn't the case at all. We go to college for 4 years, get out into the real world, can't get a job, go back to school for 2 more years, return to the work force, and eventually find a suitable job that will provide for our future family's, 3 bedroom, middle-class home. 

Now, those people easily make twice what Jose or Pedro make breaking their backs at the chicken mill. Why? Because they have an education. Sure the college kids worked hard for their education (and not all people are cut out for "the unwanted collar"), but is it fair that we undermine the quality of work that Jose and Pedro provide?

Is it fair to say that we, as a society, have made education so important and degraded "hard work" so much, that we've ruined the system? 

We have GOT to instill a sense of work ethic in our children. We have got to teach them that manual labor, "hard work," is essential. We need to instill a sense of pride in work that is done with your hands. Nobody in our generation knows what it feels like to plow a field or hoe a garden that will fully sustain your family.   

We don't need to degrade those in the unwanted collar class. Our society still has to have those people. They're essential to it. They make it function properly. We push education so hard that kids think it's the only way they'll make it. What we fail to tell them, is that it's okay to have a manual labor job. Some people aren't cut out for desk jobs. Some people are more suited to be in a trade than at a desk all day. We have got to do something about the way we talk about education. 

We've got to start teaching our kids to not only accept, but respect the unwanted collar.

My Mary Kay Dream

Seasons Unit

To build a personal team of God-centered, family-oriented, first-class women who will join me in changing the face and perception of Mary Kay Cosmetics. To promote an image that is young, yet timeless, confident, yet feminine. – My Mary Kay Vision

One day, I’m going to be a Mary Kay Director. I know it. This company was built on the shoulders of the women on the bottom - where we all came from. We strive every day to move up the Ladder of Success, to build our business, to succeed. The beauty of this company is that we have all started from the bottom. We have all started with two things… a starter kit and a dream.

I have decided that the name of my unit will be Seasons. I’m claiming it now, that I will have a unit one day that I will get to name. My entire life I have heard Ecclesiastes 3:1. It’s my mother’s favorite verse:

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:”

There are many ups and downs to this business. There are many seasons of life and there are many seasons of a Mary Kay career. Some seasons will be better than others. There will be highs and lows, but as long as we remember that God is in charge of those changes, we will be okay. As long as we remember that everything has a time and a purpose, we will be okay. We may not know His reasons, but to everything, there is a season.

Preparing for a Session of Powerful Prayer

Preparing for a Session of Powerful Prayer

If you have never participated in a session of powerful prayer over someone, it’s an incredible experience. If you’re nervous about what to say or how to say it, trust God and just have faith. If you’re still a bit nervous, here are some things that I would personally recommend:

Examine yourself. If you know you are going to be praying over someone, first examine your own heart. Are you harboring things in your life that you need to ask forgiveness for? Spend some time praying over yourself first. Find a quiet spot and talk to God. Get in the Word and seek His guidance. Tell Him how you’re feeling. Ask forgiveness for your own sins and ask him to wipe your slate clean. Ask Him to make you a vessel for His almighty power. 

Listen. Talking to God is easy, listening in response to those prayers is hard. Feel it in your spirit. You’ll know what God is leading you to do by paying attention to your gut. If God is wanting you to do something, He’ll bring it up over and over again. You’ll feel led to it. If you feel like you are being led to pray over someone, listen to that call. 

Take it seriously. If you are going to God and asking Him for a miracle, firstly trust in His divine plan. Secondly, understand that He may not answer your exact prayer. He may use the circumstances in another way. You have to be ready to accept that fact. If God doesn’t answer your prayer exactly how YOU want it, it’s because it’s going the way that HE wants it.

Make it important to you. Are you praying for someone just to pray or do you REALLY want healing? Invest in thought and meditation over it. Make it important to you. Make it a priority for you. Be in constant prayer and meditation.

Fast. Fasting is a great way to humble yourself and continuously remind yourself of something. Fasting is Biblical. Jesus himself fasted for 40 days. Do it safely. If you are unfamiliar with fasting, there are all kinds of websites and materials you can read to help you understand how to fast and why you should fast.

Claim it. Sincerely believe in miracles. God works miracles every single day. We, as believers have the power to intercede on behalf of other people. God hears the cries of His people. Believe in your heart that a miracle will happen. Speak it out loud. Speak affirmations about what you are praying about. Claim it in the name of Jesus. 

In the name of Jesus. John 14:13 says: Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. Jesus’ disciples drove out demons with the name of Jesus. You can feel the presence of the Holy Spirit by just speaking His name. 

Rebuke the Devil. Understand that Satan is also a powerful force. He uses his own demons to carry out his will. Rebuke the Devil and he will flee from you! James 4:7 says: Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 

Have courage. When you pray over someone, pray with confidence. God is an almighty God and you are doing His work and being obedient by praying for others. It’s an incredible opportunity to touch someone’s life. Do so with confidence. Have courage, and God will give you the exact words to say to someone in need. 

Laying hands. Laying on of hands is certainly not essential, however, here are some reasons why laying of hands is used. 1) It offers comfort for the person you are praying for. Sometimes it can feel odd just standing or sitting there, placing your hands on someone can make them feel a little more comfortable 2) it displays faith that God can use you to intercede for another. God can work through you, and the physical action of laying on of hands demonstrates that. 3) Laying hands on a specific part of the body can help you visualize exactly what and where you are praying for. If you are praying for a cancer patient, pray over his/her tumors.  

Be specific. If you are asking God for a miracle, don’t just ask for healing. If someone is suffering, pray for the particular ailment. Visualize what would need to take place for healing to take place. Ask God to remove cancer cells from every part of the body. Pray for tumors to be removed and for them to never return again. Pray for specific healing. 

Thank God. Thank God for what He will do through the situation. Thank him no matter what the outcome, because either way, it will play out exactly the way He wants it to. Thank Him for his power and His might. He has the power to do anything He wants. If the miracle you desire doesn’t come to fruition, it’s because He has something else in mind. It’s too big for us to understand. Thank Him for His might, anyways.

I hope this has helped you in some way. Prayer is powerful! If you don’t know what to do when you’re going to pray over someone else, just seek God and He will guide and direct you. 

Being Grateful

Six weeks ago I gave birth to the most beautiful 10lbs 8oz, 22 1/2in baby girl. Look at her... she's perfect.

She's everything I could possibly want in a child. BUT... her delivery was a nightmare. Getting her into this world was the most difficult thing I have ever had to do.

An hour before Caydence decided to enter this world, my epidural decided it wanted to stop working. It just checked out on me. I felt utterly betrayed by that epidural. It had kept me nice and comfortable for the last 12 hours. I was counting on that epidural to keep me calm and pain free during delivery. But it had different plans. They couldn't figure out why it had stopped and Caydence was on her way. That's right, ladies and gentlemen... I gave birth to a ten and a half pound baby... naturally (insert pat on the back). That wouldn't have bothered me so bad if it weren't for the fact that she got stuck, literally. One of her shoulders got stuck behind my pubic bone. Everyone freaked out for one small moment while they dealt with something called shoulder dystocia. I was a hysterical mess. I have the pain tolerance of a chihuahua. I yelp at literally everything. At this point I thought I was dying. I pushed and pushed and pushed and pushed and she wasn't going anywhere. After a significant amount of manipulation, she finally emerged, and I passed out. Literally. I came to with Caleb's face in my face and a baby on my chest. It was the most painful thing on the planet. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. I would rather cut my own foot off with a butter knife than to ever experience that amount of pain ever again. It felt as though every single bone in my body was being broken all at once. I felt like this chicken. 

Caydence had to have an immediate x-ray to see if her collar bone was broken. Her entire body was bruised up, but other than that, she was absolutely perfect. 

The pain during her delivery has scarred me for life. I still have nightmares about it. Nightmares about my body being ripped in half. They plague me. Caleb jokingly tells me I have PTSD. I wake up in a cold sweat and make sure Caydence is still in her bassinet. It was horrific for me. But like I said... I'm a weenie. 

I talk about my delivery like it nearly killed me. I talk about the pain of childbirth like it was the worst thing in the world... but the other day a thought occurred to me that hit me like a ton of bricks... what if I had never been able to have children?

What if I had never been able to have children at all? Millions of couples around this world struggle with infertility and here I am complaining about childbirth. Do you know the number of women who literally would hack off their own feet for the opportunity to give birth? Millions. 

How ungrateful and selfish am I!? God gave me the gift of reproduction. He allowed me to procreate and he gave me the honor of raising children. I can not imagine not getting to do that. I have felt a human move inside me and I have been entrusted to keep that human alive. What an absolute privilege I have been given! Not only was I allowed to create life from nothing, but I have given birth to those two lives that were created. Do you know how many women who have had miscarriages that would have loved to experience such a traumatic delivery? Millions. 

Millions of women every year cry themselves to sleep over miscarried babies or infertility. Here I am humbled by something that is far greater than me. Shame on me for taking something so serious for granted. 

"Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!" Psalm 127:3-4

Is there something in your life today that you are taking for granted? 

Are you complaining about things that you really shouldn't be complaining about? Are you complaining about a job when you have a job, when there are people all over this country that are struggling to provide for their families? 

Are you complaining about your spouse when you've actually got a loving and caring husband/wife? 

Are you complaining about your small house, when you've got a roof over your head?

There is always someone out there who has it worse. There will always be someone who wishes they had what you've been given. There will always be discontentment in your life if you fail to see the good that is already there. 

"Do all things without grumbling or complaining." Philippians 2:14

"Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." 1 Thessalonians 5:18

I encourage you to think before complaining. Be grateful for what you have. 

Behind the Blog

My whole life, I've heard my mother quote Ecclesiastes 3:1. I heard it so much that I honestly never even gave any thought to it. It wasn't until I was a sophomore in college that I finally understood what it meant. You see, I've lived a fairly sheltered life. Up until my sophomore year of college, I had never really lost anyone close to me. I got a call very early one morning - a friend had taken his own life. It shook me to my very core. I couldn't believe what I had heard. I called my mom that morning to seek her wisdom. The words that came through the phone were words I had heard for the last 20 years, "To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under the heavens." For the first time, I understood what that meant. Life, as I would soon find out, is rough. It's hard and unnerving. It's terrifying. Thankfully for us, nothing here on earth lasts forever.

Seasons come and go, but we don't really give them much thought. We welcome fall after a brutal summer, after fall we get completely beside ourselves over Christmas, and then it's a waiting game until Spring. Spring - where everything comes back to life and the sun shines for longer than just a handful of hours. It's the turning of the seasons, the passing of time, that we need to take away from Ecclesiastes 3:1.

"To everything there is a season...": We don't know why God puts horrible things in our lives, but he does promise us this... it will pass. Winter is miserable. It's grey, cold, and dreary. The only good thing about winter is that it is immediately chased by spring. There's hope on the other side. In life, things are going to be horrible, you're going to be miserable, stuff is going to be really stinking hard, but it won't last forever. It's not meant for us to understand these things, but we can take comfort in the fact that, "this too shall pass."

"... a time for every purpose under the heavens.": God's timing is perfect. It's really hard for us to trust him and wrap our minds around that fact. He doesn't give an explanation as to why he does most things. It seems that God has a way of doing things we don't understand quite a bit. That's on purpose. If we were to know God in and out, would we still need him? He has a time for everything he does, and a purpose behind it. Sometimes we'll never actually see the outcome of that purpose - and that's the hardest part. We try to look for God's purpose behind terrible things that happen,  but frankly, we're too human to see it. God has had a perfect plan set in motion since he made this place. We might not ever understand his timing or his purpose, but if we trust him, he'll bring us out on the other side. You might be battered and worn. You might be exhausted and confused. You might doubt your very salvation, but we MUST have faith to believe that it's all in God's hands. His plans are so beyond us that we'll never be able to understand him.

We have to give the seasons of our lives over to God. We have to give those periods of time that we don't understand to him. We're not strong enough to understand all he has planned for us. Fall is just beginning, you might be in for a rough ride through this winter, but take hope, spring will be here before you know it. God promises us that.

We may not ever know his reasons, but to everything there is a season.