When God Won’t Let You Be Great - Encouragement for Today - September 6, 2019

Peace and perspective from God's timeless truths. [View this email in your browser]( Encouragement for Today --------------------------------------------------------------- September 6, 2019 When God Won’t Let You Be Great [CHRYSTAL EVANS HURST]( [ Listen to this devotion]( “Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He had mercy on you.” [Mark 5:19]( (NASB) It wasn’t hard at first. My husband and I both felt confident that leaving my job was the right thing for me to do. When we married, we both had taxing careers. Our work demands made it difficult to see each other with any consistency. Once we threw kids into the mix, keeping up with both of our schedules and building the family we wanted just wasn’t happening. We decided one of us needed to release our job. I actually didn’t mind being the one to do so. I had imagined for some time what it would be like to be a stay-at-home mom — to be accessible and available to my kids, keep my home in order, and have time to serve my church and community. I probably should say, I fantasized about what my role as full-time homemaker would look like. And when I finally found myself with no paying job to do outside of my home, I had mixed feelings. My transition to being a stay-at-home mom was challenging. I missed my job. I missed the title, the paycheck, the adult conversation. I didn’t realize how much value was tied to my career, but when I made the decision to relinquish my work life for a season, that value-connection became painfully clear. I tried to approach my job at home with a level of professionalism, but the never-ending dishes, constant dirty diapers, and perpetual meal-planning just didn’t seem as glamorous as my job outside the home had been. Yet I knew I’d clearly heard from the Lord about this particular season in my family’s life. Although I longed to be engaged in activities that felt “important” and “notable,” I also wanted to be obedient. And the greatest thing for me to do at that time was to serve well in the place I’d been planted. In [Mark 5]( Jesus cured a demon-possessed man. Out of gratitude, he begged to go with Him. Jesus had a great public ministry, teaching multitudes and performing miracles. But instead of allowing the healed man to join Him, Jesus told him to go home and tell others about the great change in his life because of Jesus’ miraculous intervention: “Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He had mercy on you” ([Mark 5:19](. I wonder … Did the once-demon-possessed man feel like what Jesus asked him to do was “small and unimportant” compared to his desire to stay with Jesus and partake in his public ministry? [Continue reading...]( [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( [Read about Salem Web Network]( | [Subscription Preferences]( | [Unsubscribe]( --------------------------------------------------------------- © 2019 Salem Web Network. All rights reserved. 111 Virginia Street, Suite 500, Richmond, VA 23219. This email is never sent unsolicited. You are receiving this email because your email address, {EMAIL}, is signed up to receive newsletters, updates, and special offers from Encouragement for Today. [Link](