Seek Joy Not Guilt

Happy Friday, Friends!

I hope and trust this post finds you all having a great day as a glorious new day begins to dawn in my Sweet Home Alabama! This new day right here is sure to be a good one...I can feel it! :)

We have another special guest writing this weeks Happy Friday! I have the privilege of serving with Barbie Terry vocationally. She is a remarkable woman, wife, mother, leader, and friend. She has a real passion for working Mom's and encouraging them to embrace all they were created to be. Like all of us, her passion is born from struggle, challenge, and ultimately, perseverance. I have no doubt you will enjoy her inspirational message. :)

Please don't hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything I can do for you or your family. I will always help you any way I can. You can reach me at kevin@whatwillyourinfluencebe.com. 

Have a great day, a wonderful weekend, cherish your precious families, enjoy this day, and please stay well! :)

Kev

When I was given the opportunity to write this week’s Happy Friday, I was honored. I thought a lot about the message I wanted to share which is Seek Joy Not Guilt. I hope that by sharing my story, I can help you see that there is nothing wrong with prioritizing what’s most important and you deserve to seek joy. I learned last week that the word seek in one form or another is used 309 times in the Bible. What we seek, we often find. We should constantly seek joy but too many times we allow time, worry, society, others and even ourselves to steal our joy and replace it with guilt, however, can often overcome this by knowing our priorities.  The most prevalent time this has happened to me is with the internal battle between being a good mother and having a career. The truth is, I was never that kid that wanted a big wedding and a house full of kids. I did however, dream of a college degree, a career and a husband that would support me. Knowing this dream, I’ve been immensely blessed more than I deserve, but for so long, I felt guilty for what I wanted. Looking back, it’s pretty clear that God started working on my heart when he put Eli in my life. This kid had me driving 3 hours one way for an hour-long t-ball game or a school event just to turn around and drive back- but there was guilt. Instead of finding joy in that moment, I found myself wondering if I were being selfish for hanging onto my career too tightly. Afterall, I was exhausted and my job was the only thing keeping me on the road. The truth is, the travel isn’t what I felt guilty about; I felt guilty because I was constantly checking e-mails at games and was constantly checking the clock at work. I was never 100% present anywhere. Four years later God opened the door for me to move closer to home with an even better career opportunity. There was joy and wedding bells and then Avery and long hours at work...and guilt. Even without the commute, I was never fully present. I wish I could blame this on someone else, but the truth is, I love my job. I sincerely with all of my heart love what I do. I get lost in my work just as others get lost in a good book or movie and that’s not something I deserve to feel guilty about, in fact, it’s something that should bring joy.  But there was often guilt because I had the lines blurred when it came to priorities. I didn’t know where each priority stopped and the next started, which caused guilt. There are people that I’ve crossed paths with that I would like to be angry with for judging me for trying to juggle Muffins with Mom and work but in reality, they had the same drive and passion for a career as I do, our priorities just didn’t align. On the other hand, God has also placed people in my life that helped me see that being fully present in both worlds is something we all deserve to be unapologetic about, and in my opinion, is critical in order to have peace. So, if you are like me and have made the choice to be a working mother give yourself some grace. Know up front that some days at the office will end at 1:00 in the afternoon because your family needs you but also know that inevitably some workdays will end late into the evening and someone else may get the honor of bedtime that night, and that is ok because you know in your heart that you have aligned your priorities and planned your time and you aren’t missing the big stuff. I promise you, when you start being 100% present unapologetically, you don’t feel guilty or torn and that is a joy that we all deserve. From the bottom of my heart, I challenge each of you to be fully present in your day wherever you may be, take in all of the memories, never let your priorities get out of order and seek joy in each moment because the years pass so quickly when looking into little eyes.