Choosing Your Next Assignment

It’s better to be directionally accurate than to be actually accurate.

I’ve never been one to sit on my hands and wait. In fact, I am convinced the Lord withholds information from me at times because when I get a green light, I GO.

Doubt increases as we sit on an idea.

As long as an idea is in line with the Kingdom of Heaven, and it’s directionally accurate to where our family would like to see ourselves in a few years…we pounce.

Sometimes I wish someone would just tell me what to do next.

Making decisions feels enormous, especially when you’re raising children.

In 5 years, I will have four teenagers in our house. 17, 15, 14, 13. The things I am envisioning as we make our next moves have everything to do with them.

The families we hang around will likely become the people we share grandchildren with.

The stakes feel high – yet I sleep very well at night knowing that God is unmoved by our fear of making a mistake about our next chapter.

He knows the 500 outcomes of any path you could choose.

What if we choose “the wrong assignment”? Yeah. I know.

In spite of heavy decisions, our outcomes are secure.

Free will feels wild to us – but God knows every single path and is prepared to see us through any choice. Our ability to choose doesn’t change God’s sovereignty. Praise be.

It is better to be directionally accurate than to be actually accurate.

7 Important Questions For Your Family To Answer When Planning The Next 5 Years

While you and I don’t know any outcome of the next few years, we do know some things about the future to help me make some solid decisions.

This will help you uncover what is directionally accurate for you and your family this next season.

How is our health, and what plans do we have to maintain or improve it?

What are our educational plans for our children and ourselves?

What are our family dynamics and how can we strengthen our relationships?

What are our financial goals and how can we achieve them?

What are our career goals and how do they align with our family plans?

Where do we want to live, and does our current location support our long-term goals?

What are our emergency plans and how prepared are we for unexpected events?

Walk With God In The Cool Of The Day

When I reset my pedometer each morning, I eagerly hit the pavement in our neighborhood to meet with the Lord to tell Him every detail I am worried about.

“You never have to lay down your peace. I am leading you”, He reassures me.

Of course I ramble on anyway. I’m a verbal processor – He knows my prayers are chatty.

Yet here we are, sweet believers, taking full advantage of what Jesus Christ restored for us; CONVERSATION WITH OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN.

If you don’t miss Him, your bible reading plan is a checklist.

He very much cares about your next season.

About Scottsdale

Last fall, we packed up our family and took a month long trip to Arizona. I wasn’t prepared to get choked up when I saw both mountains AND palm trees.

This is going to sound funny to some, but when you are ready for a new assignment, it kinda feels like pregnancy. You may not know how everything will pan out, but you can feel the baby “kicking” within you from time to time.

Especially when you are near others doing what you want to do.

When we drove down into the valley – the “baby” within me leaped.

We lived in Denver for 7 years and we miss the mountains. We lived in Florida for 4 years and we miss the palm trees.

This place has both. Two of my favorite things in one place. *baby kick*

Our main motivation for that trip was visit a ministry we have partnered with since 2020. We settled in for a month so we could have an opportunity to serve. The kids loved it and made friends immediately.

More boxes checked. *baby kick*

There are two major things I am thinking about as a mother right now:

1) The families and friends we live near for the next 5 will most likely become our son/daughter in laws.

2) We behave according to the environment we live in.

My desire to set our family in a church that is vibrant and healthy – really matters to me. We want deep chats with people who are actively following the Lord. What we experienced there was unlike anything I have ever seen in my life. The weekly mens ministry is BOOMING. I’m talking hundreds of men gathering each week to pray, sing and hear solid bible teaching. *baby kick*

I want our children to witness this.

Who they marry, matters.

As for the environment, I am not talking about the heat. lol. I am talking about business mindset. There are many people in the valley who think of wealth differently than a girl who grew up watching her peers play the lotto and behaving like Grandpa Joe from Willy Wonka.

Scottsdale is loaded with entrepreneurs I’d like to learn from. *baby kick*

There is so much more to this than I can say in a short blog post – but the assignment on my heart involves setting our children up for launching their own families (10 years is going to fly by) and launching/learning business.

I don’t know if we are actually moving there – but we are actively getting our house ready and looking at rentals daily. Summer is the best time to shop in Arizona – everyone flees the desert in the summer. lol.

We don’t have anything else on our radar – either we stay here a bit longer or we yell Geronimo and canon ball into the deep end of the desert pool.

I’m good with either one.

You’re Bowling With Bumpers

When you take children bowling, you don’t expect them to get the turkey (3 strikes in a row).

You expect the ball to land the gutter.

This is why the alley has bumpers. The ball heads toward the gutter, bounces off the railing, getting it right back on track to hit the pins.

This is how life functions for those who love the Lord; our regrettable decisions pivot us back on track to hit the pins.

Any “bad decision” allows you to hit the bumper and redirect. When we get this message in our heart, then decision making becomes lighter and more fun.

He makes the crooked path straight.

This *possible* move is directionally accurate – that is for sure.

Whether or not it is actually accurate?

That I am not sure.

Such is life.