I’ve started reading the Book of Judges, because of a book I read recently entitle Ready to Rise by Jo Saxton. I may have mentioned the book in my previous post. It’s a wonderful book and I highly recommend it to women, especially women leaders – whether in the home, in small groups or large organizations – it’s a fabulous resource. When I bought it, I had no idea it was faith-based, so that was a pleasant surprise to me. I read it because I felt compelled to buy it based on the fact that I felt like God was urging me to lead.
Let me be clear on this. I don’t know that God wants me to lead on a large scale. I used to think that and I tried to force things to happen and when things didn’t happen, I got discouraged and gave up, but God has never relented in his urging me to lead.
The thing is though, he seems to be urging me to lead in my family and to lead in small groups. I’m no longer worried about a large following (which is why I deleted my old Instagram account that had nearly 1000 followers, which I know is not huge, but who am I? I’m just somebody’s mother), nor am I worried about who supports the cause, because it’s not MY cause. It’s God’s and God keeps sending me to women in the Bible who led by supporting their families and their own homes.
Which brings me once again to the message I received in my early twenties: Set your house in order and wait on the Will of Heaven.
God has never stopped telling me that.
Recently, with all that’s going on in the world, I began to lose hope. I went to bed early one evening and cried myself to sleep, cussing at God and telling Him about my hopelessness and my anger and my sorrow for all that’s going on. I told Him everything. I wanted to give up on the idea of a ministry (which is what He’s been pressing on my heart for the last year) and I told him I really didn’t want to do it, but if he wants me to, then He better get to showing me what on earth He wants of me, because I was losing hope.
That night, I woke up with Seeds of Hope and Seeds of Change in my mind. I wrote them down. The day before, my mother said she received a message of Seeds of Prayer. That morning, I awoke with a strange sense of peace over me and I realized finally, what I needed to do and that is why Seeds of Hope was started.
What I love most about it is it’s small. It’s a small group of kind-hearted people who want to make a change in the lives of children who are impacted by poverty and/or homelessness. Since it started, we have donated $800 to City Gospel Mission, and we’re set to give 25 nature-inspired kits to local businesses and a church to give out to children, and we have a collection of books and quilts/blankets to give to SAFY, for children in foster care in Kentucky. We are also putting together a free seed exchange so that we can help to increase food diversity in our country.
It’s not much, but it’s something. I’m learning that big change rarely happens suddenly. It happens through small, daily actions and through grassroots movements.
I think this is what God had been trying to tell me all these years, except I was too hard-headed and proud to listen. I wanted to be recognized. I wanted to be noticed. I made it all about me, not Him and because of that, I failed.
What I’m learning about in the Book of Judges was how Deborah and Jael did things on a very personal level to bring freedom to the people. Deborah spoke with Barack and encouraged him through her faith in God’s word, to fight against Sisera and even then, Barack was not willing to do it unless she went with him. Then, it was Jael being underestimated by Sisera himself that she was able to go through her duties as a woman – providing him with drink and rest – that she was able to slay him and thus free Israel. When I think of this, I wonder, what would have happened if either woman decided to go against what she was called to do? What if Deborah spoke publicly to the people herself rather than speaking with her husband privately? Or what if she had blown off God’s voice completely and said nothing? What if Jael had turned Sisero away instead of welcoming him and being a good hostess as women were expected to be then?
God is teaching me that His work is large no matter how small it seems when we’re doing it. Everything we do can be to His glory and therefore very big and important, even if to us it’s just sweeping out the garage and hanging garlic and parsley to dry, as I just finished doing.
I think God is teaching me that family and community are vital in these times and they are two things that have been undermined, while fame and popularity have become the goal. The more followers you have, the more clout you have, the more perceived authority you have and yet we have seen throughout world history that many leaders are not good, nor do they have the best interest of the people in mind. Deborah had discernment and I think we all could use a little more of that. Time to step back, have personal, private conversations and build up our families and our communities.
Because I truly believe that without those things, healing cannot happen in our world. We cannot care about our environment, or our country, or our town, or our own neighborhoods until we care about ourselves. It’s easier to build each other up on a personal level than it is to watch what’s happening in this world and feel so overwhelmed we feel hopeless and helpless.
You can make a difference. One day at a time. One person at a time. That’s all it takes and that’s all it has ever taken. And that’s the only way it is sustainable.
Do you feel a bit uneasy these days? If so, you may be interested in this Bible Reading Schedule that I found recently and plan to follow. If you’d like to join us in our Bible Chat group on Facebook, please visit our Seeds of Hope page in the menu.
  Keep sowing seeds of prayer, hope, and change.
  God’s Work Is Large, No Matter How Small It Seems I've started reading the Book of Judges, because of a book I read recently entitle Ready to Rise…
snowghoul
theartofmadeline
kaledo-art
turnnoffyourmind
titsay
gummygunk
prguitarman
dededos
blakekathryn