I had a great day. I was happy, content, and loved my job. Unfortunately, my day did not end so well.

The previous day I had made a mistake, one that I immediately regretted. I had a brief moment of lack in judgement. I had the best intentions of trying to correct it, but in hindsight, I just made it worse. The consequence of my mistake was the loss of my job.

This was new territory for me. In all my years of working, I had never been let go. I was devastated. I sincerely loved my job and missed it. I went into a deep mental and emotional hole for a few days. The false rumors about why I was fired did not help, and I chose to remain silent and just let them talk. My own self talk had become very negative.

I had come to a fork in the road. I had choices to make. I could believe God’s truth about who I was and who He is, or I could believe the lies Satan was saying about me. I could choose to find comfort in the Lord or find it in worldly things. The biggest thing I knew I needed to do was trust in Him, and allow Him to turn this set back into something good.

How did I do that? Well, it wasn’t easy. I made the conscious choice to seek God. I dove into scripture. I chose study after study and read His word each morning. I would highlight scripture to refer back to when the lies would creep back in to my mind. I prayed. I prayed every time my anxiety peaked and the devil tried to steal my joy as I was choosing the path of Jesus in that fork in the road. I leaned on Christian friends who encouraged me and prayed for me.

I was able to find peace and help by spending time with the Lord. I learned an even bigger lesson in this part of my story. See, my plan was to work at this job for years, at least until my youngest graduated high school. I had it all planned out. How silly of me thinking I have all the control. It is God who has the plan for my life, and He decides what happens. He decided my place was not at that job. So now I am back as a housewife, and waiting to see where He leads me next. Maybe this is where I am supposed to be. My children are busier than ever before and it is nice to be able to focus on that and manage the household. Maybe God has something even better in store for me. I don’t know, but I will continue to trust in Him.

I leave you with this bit of advice. When trouble comes and you are at that fork in the road, choose the road that leads to Jesus. There you will find your peace and comfort to weather the storm.

Living by grace

Misty