Do you work to live or live to work? Those questions sound the same but they have very significant differences. Do you work to live? Does your job check the boxes of paying your bills, providing for your basic wants and needs and is your lifestyle dependent on its income? Do you view your job as just that… a job that is comprised of work and fills on average 8 hours of your day, all the while waiting for the remaining hours to start? Or, are you in the camp of the other question, do you live to work?

In the grand scheme of life, your job is just a simple thing. It can change, it can grow in responsibilities and accolades or it can disappear from your life completely by losing it or moving on. Your home is a simple thing, while I am all about creating a home in your house, the actual building can be destroyed in a flood or a fire or lost in a financial crisis. The biggest truth you can take away from this verse today is to leave the simple ways behind: Not necessarily quitting your job or selling your house, but leaving the worry and focus on those things driving your happiness behind and BEGIN TO LIVE.

The self help, personal development industry generated $9.9 Billion in revenue in 2018 and one of the most rising professions in 2018 was the role of being a personal or business coach. The average U.S. coach makes $62,000 a year. The total U.S. self improvement market grew by 4.6% since 2011. With all of these resources available to us and so many of them consumed wouldn’t you expect the growth to stop or slow down somewhere along the way? Wouldn’t a strong return on investment in these programs, books, webinars, coaching services… indicate the kind of growth where we finally “Get it” without having to keep purchasing it? Is it a scam? Something meant as a teaser to make you have to keep going in search of the actual answer? Or is the problem that we hear or read but we aren’t really listening or digesting the words?

Proverbs 7

Takes us back to the message of guarding ourselves from temptation in where our heart wanders, but these verses speak to the behavior of a promiscuous woman. I think as women we can garnish two pieces of wisdom from this passage, one is that a man can be just as luring and tempting so we are not exempt from going astray, and two… we do not want to be the promiscuous woman even if that is not our intent.

I want to talk about your actual job, the one you are paid to do that has a boss you report to and an organizational structure you may or may not be hoping to climb. And I want to dive into integrity in that workplace. Whether you chose to work or have to work to make ends meet, when you accept to do a job in exchange for a paycheck, you have an obligation to that company to fulfill at a minimum, the responsibilities on your job description… for nothing more than the pay they agreed to.

I wanted to tee up today’s verses by talking about the choice to love and the faith to trust that God has our marriages in his hands. But I also wanted to mention free will and choice because it will lighten what you read today. I also think its important to mention that while this passage is written from a father to a son and addresses the role of the man avoiding promiscuous women, ladies we are not exempt from the warning nor are we responsible for the man who fails the command to stay faithful.

Today’s reading in Proverbs comes from Chapter 5 and it’s a reminder that the Bible is not just some antiquated historical account rather, a guidebook relevant to us today. .

The Bible says that we will draw people in by our words and our testimonies and I will be the first to admit, not all the words that pass through my lips are in fact holy in nature. There are definitely times when my co-workers, my friends, my acquaintances and even my church folk have heard a little cussing come forth from these lips. It is usually intended to add an emphasis of humor to the conversation or out of deep frustration or aggravation. And there are very few occasions, less than what I can count on my hands… where my kids have bore witness as well.

I am human, I sin just like the rest of them and allowing people to see our sin sometimes can make us more relatable. But if we start to celebrate the sin that separates us from holiness, how are we living much different than our life before we met Jesus?

Let's look to the Proverbs for wisdom on guarding our hearts because from the heart the mouth speaks. 

If you find yourself in this place of indecision or feeling the pressure of the right choice for that next big thing in your career or education... try to get alone with your thoughts, check in with your soul and define your motivations. Consult the one's you love but don't let their opinion bear all the weight and give some deep thought to these questions: What is the life you are working towards and does this decision set you on that path to carry you towards that or further from it? Then just leap! Do it ... or don't do it, but trust in God along the way.

Proverbs Chapter 3 as part of the Daily Nourishment Challenge from This One's for the Working Mama: Permission to live with your soul on fire. 

Are you the people pleaser? Or are you the one who speaks up too quick, expresses the frustration at your work or home even when the timing may not be right or the delivery may be abrasive? Are you not sure when it is appropriate to speak up? Have you ever prayed for wisdom and discernment for these situations? No decision is too big or too small to seek out the wisdom that is right there for the taking. What does this wisdom look like? It might be a stirring in your soul, an urging in your heart, words read in the Bible, wise counsel from a mentor or a thought that keeps circulating in your mind and will not quiet or go away. Finish strong today, read the remaining verses in Proverbs chapter 2 and see what wisdom is laying there for you to uncover.

A high five for hanging in there…

 As a working mom, you may long to read that your kids will not be in therapy because you go off to work. Maybe your soul needs to hear that one other working mama struggles to keep it all together and chases an idea of perfection that is not her own. Sometimes you might retreat to your closet, your car or under your covers and cry tears of exhaustion and frustration because this job is tough.

Katie Alexander has been there as a working mama with a nine to five job, a commute and boss. She is the transparent, vulnerable friend we long to meet for coffee because she is not going to exhaust you with stories about her “perfect” life. Instead she is going to tell you how God’s Word gave her the permission to embrace the working mama role with her soul on fire.

Katie will guide you as you:

• Restore your home to the sanctuary it needs to be
• Embrace the freedom found in the Bible to approach your job with gratitude rather than guilt
• Identify what sets your soul on fire and make more room for that
• Weed through the lies about how you should work, parent and live to build a new foundation
• Bring God into the strategic plan for your work and finances to reset your career path

This One’s for the Working Mama is a guide to understanding the freedom you have in Christ to write your own manual for how you will do this job.