We’ve been home for a week from our annual family venture to the Oregon coast. Our vacation was wonderful. As we drove home, I reflected on the changes since our last trip to the coast. Last year when we returned home, I learned a new meaning to the word “pivot”. I had always thought about it in basketball terms (keeping one foot in place to prevent a traveling penalty). I had never thought of pivoting in terms of life changes, and I had no idea what changes were coming. After all, how do you change or turn in real life while keeping one foot anchored in your current situation?
The simple answer is that you can’t. A life or career pivot requires movement in a new direction that builds on past experiences or the development of new skills and talents. Pivots are not usually gentle U-turns but drastic changes because of a specific event. Ultimately, a pivot is a change of life pace and focus that approaches the present and future with a new perspective. Sometimes our life pivots are by choice, and sometimes those changes are the result of changes around us.
COVID-19 has been a catalyst for a lot of changes in our lives and our world. The negative impacts have been discussed ad naseum in social media and many have been completely overwhelmed. But there have been some very positive changes in our lives over the past year including a slower-paced life, time to embrace life and family values, and a better understanding of what is important. We’ve learned to be creative to spend time together, to worship together, and to provide for our families. We have learned to live with less.
So, how do we take the unwelcome changes thrust upon us and use them to successfully pivot into a new life or career? We choose to PUSH through the obstacles, INVEST in ourselves, VALUE what aligns with our faith and family life, OPEN ourselves to new experiences and paths, and TRANSITION with grace.
PUSH through the obstacles.
Stop listening to those in your life that tell you what you can’t do and what isn’t possible. Grab onto the promises in the Word that tell you “all things work together to those who love God” (Romans 8:28). Allow God to lead you through, around and over whatever roadblocks stand between you and His calling/purpose for your life.
Choose to look forward with an eye towards possibilities rather than obstacles. Look for new opportunities based on what you love. Do you enjoy writing, creating art, decorating your home, gardening, organizing people or events? Take a moment to reflect on your pastimes, interests, and hobbies. Consider how they could become a cottage industry that allows you to put faith and family first while generating an income and savings that will create the life to which you are called.
INVEST in yourself!
As women, we tend to put everyone else’s needs and wants before our own. Being called to “love [others] as ourselves” (Matthew 22:39), does not mean leaving behind our own needs, wants, and callings.
After being laid off last year, I felt a definite leading to actively pursue the possibilities through “My Heart 4 Home.” Initially, I saw only this blog and spent time to redesign it to make it more inviting. As I wrote posts and struggled to find inspiration that you wanted to read and hear, I discovered there had to be more. And there is.
Investing in myself has meant spending resources of time and money to pursue a new outlook for my artistic bent. I am learning Surface Pattern Design to create income and develop tools to equip you to love and express your heart for your home. Keep watching for developments as I learn, create, and market home goods as part of the My Heart 4 Home brand.
VALUE what aligns with your faith and family.
Putting value on your faith and family requires a pivot in priorities. The shift requires a reflection on how you have lived out those values in the past and a determination to make needed changes. I understand that if you are involved in ministry as an act of your faith there will be time demands and occasional conflict with family plans. However, if you are consistently sacrificing time with those God has placed in your home and family to raise and mentor, what value message are you sending? I don’t believe that God calls us into a ministry within the church or community that is in direct opposition to what He has instructed us in His Word regarding being spouses and parents.
Value equals time and resources spent for a specific purpose. As I have been away from my blog for a time, I have searched my heart and the Word to determine its value as both a ministry and an outlet for His provision and gifts. I understand that my time away has reflected a lack of value for my readers and I ask for your forgiveness and grace as I align my heart with God’s calling. God gives each of us 24 hours in a day to be stewards of our bodies, minds, hearts, souls, relationships, and callings. As I find the balance that God asks of me, I encourage you to seek Him to find the values and priorities to which He is calling you.
OPEN yourself to something new.
New experiences scare me. I don’t like to pivot or change. If I can experience something new in the privacy of my own home so there is no audience to my success or failure, I am more open to it. However, I am sending the wrong message to those around me by doing so. I am saying that we need to hide our fears and failures, and only let the world see our success and growth. Teaching the principle of “try, try again” or “you are only a failure if you don’t get up after falling down” requires transparency and vulnerability. Our children and grandchildren need to see us try despite our fears, sometimes fall in our efforts, and get up to try again so they will know how to do it in their own lives.
This past weekend, my granddaughters (again) asked to be taught to sew. I had purchased a book about stitching for children and we started on the first freeform stitch—the backstitch. We put muslin in embroidery hoops, threaded our needles, and started. For the girls, I had made a row of dots so they would know where to put their needles through the fabric. Though a few stitches had to be torn out and redone, they completed the row of stitches in a nice straight line. They continued to practice more rows of stitches and took their hoops home with them to practice some more. Along with them, I stitched a row (without dots) so we were working together. Needing to rip out a few of my stitches because they were crooked and uneven let them see that we all need to work and “try, try again” to develop and maintain our skills.
Sewing with my granddaughters is a simple example. However, they also know that I have begun to create designs for fabrics and are watching for my successes. They are my biggest cheerleaders as they go through the samples of fabric and request clothes or accessories to be made from them. I hope to see their grandma learn something new and embark on a new challenge will set an example that they will follow through the days of their lives. We are never too old to learn or start anew.
TRANSITION with grace
I would like to say that I have gracefully transitioned into this new vocational calling, but this pivot did not come without tears and resistance. I like the familiar and knowing where the next dollar is coming from. But that was not God’s plan for this point in my life. Being unemployed and facing interviews gave me anxiety, but God reminded me that He is faithful to me.
“The Lord’s acts of mercy indeed do not end, for His compassions do not fail. They are new every morning: Great is Your faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:22-23 NASB)
Learning a new skill and trade filled me with self-doubt and criticism, but God gives me grace that is more than sufficient to allow myself to grow and progress.
But he has said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you [My lovingkindness and mercy are more than enough—always available—regardless of the situation]; for [My] power is being perfected [and is completed and shows itself most effectively] in [your] weakness.’ Therefore, I will all the more gladly boast in my weakness, so that the power of Christ [may completely enfold me and] may dwell in me.” (2 Corinthians 12:9 AMP)
I do not embark on this new path alone. God goes before me, walks beside me, and uses my past, not to condemn me but, as instruction for redemption and change.
Do you find yourself in need of a pivot or being forced to make an unplanned pivot? Don’t try to do it alone. Ask God to go with you and direct your steps through the transitions. Petition Him for cheerleaders in your family, church, and community that will encourage and pray for you. Allow His grace to give you peace as you walk in new ways.
I speak from experience that God will not leave you if you open yourself to a new direction that He points you towards. He provided His grace, comfort, and peace to us when we lost our home and had to downsize. He provided for us and opened a door that we knew nothing about. “I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging for bread” (Psalm 37:25). We are not special but have chosen to live according to His calling and we have felt his faithful provision.
Thank you for letting me share my heart for home and family with you!
