Learn the art of obedience

My entire world has been wrapped around raising my kids and being with my family this last almost 12 years.

When I had my daughter, every single thing in my life changed. I left my career, I discovered a hobby that would become a new passion, I started writing books, and I started out on this journey of relearning a lot of things that I never thought I knew.

Parenting has been really hard as of late, our a preteen has now discovered talking back, questioning everything, disrespectful tones and bullying her little brothers.

Some thing that I have had to talk a lot about over the last couple of months- is learning how to trust that when me and her father make a decision.  When we make a rule it’s because we want to protect her and she needs to trust us even though she might not understand every detail.

So when we give boundaries like: she can’t be texting on her phone after certain hours, we need to preview everything that she wants to watch or listen to, or if she needs to do her chores and her schoolwork before she gets on the screen-you would think after 12 years of gaining relationship with my daughter that she would just jump at the chance of obeying me.

Literally nothing could be further from the truth. So many tears these last couple months of me praying to God that she wouldn’t learn how to respect and honor our decisions.

Last night, I told my daughter: “Learn the art of obedience- learn that you can trust me no matter what even though you might not understand.”

Mistakes when she’s 11 or 12 are very small, but she needs to learn how to obey and talk through things with us before she goes out into the world where mistakes can be life altering.

Every time that I think through parenting, the Lord reminds me about how he had to pursue relationship constantly with the children of Israel and he had to remind them daily of his love and his boundaries.

And it reminds me of my daily walk with him. He always knows the bigger picture and what is coming down the road. My job is to just listen and obey my good shepherd wherever he leads me.

And the more time I spend with the good Shepherd, the more I’m familiar with his voice and the direction he wants to take me, even though I might not understand. (Read John 10 all about the good Shepherd)

So as I’m taking a walk at 5:30 this morning, I am reminding myself of the art of obedience.

That it’s some thing that I could never truly master in this lifetime, but I am daily striving to remain close to the father, submit my heart to his well and know by faith that he has everything under control.

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Written by Christal Marshall

www.virginiamarketingandmedia.com

www.Instagram.com/virginiamarketingandmedia

We must stay vigilant

Where I’m from in Coastal Virginia, summers are wet and humid- perfect for canoeing and hanging out at the beach.

We love going hiking and hanging out, doing fishing and all sorts of water activities.

However, lots of other things like living in Coastal Virginia too-The pest control industry is a billion business here.

Bugs, fire ants, roaches, spiders-they all love the warm temperatures.

Me and my husband have to stay really vigilant during the summer months-leaving no trace in the home-cleaning out trash cans daily. bleaching all surfaces.

We put borders around our house with pest control spray on a weekly basis.

If any food is left out, the next day and entire ant colony has found it.

I spend hours making sure after each meal the kitchen is spotless. It’s always really embarrassing when a kid opens a cabinet and a moth flies out or they see a family of roaches.

It reminded me of stories in the Bible-where are we as believers have to stay vigilant against the evil schemes of the enemy.

There can’t be a break in our armor-there can’t be an area that we leave open for the enemy-because he will exploit it.

1 Peter 5:8 says; “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”

And Peter would know-he denied Jesus three times, fearing what people would say about him. Then he became infused by the Holy Spirit after Jesus returned to heaven and started spreading the gospel.

He was thrown in jail, faced beatings and met all sorts of people during his travels- that were trapped in multiple lifestyles.

Staying alert and discipline and all things, for me, I know my weakness is being a workaholic-therefore, I stay alert by putting my phone on “do not disturb” for certain hours and discipline myself to go to the gym or take a walk daily and listen to the Bible.

What is your tendency and weakness?

Everybody has one-could be an addiction, could be putting your trust in people, could be the desire to look a certain way or have some thing.

You must find your weakness and learn how to stay vigilant and guard against it.

-Christal Marshall

Work/life balance tips for busy Christian entrepreneurs

Your business can wait

Your family and health can’t

So discipline yourself to put your phone on “Do not disturb” after hours. Have your phone away from your room so you can get rest.

When you’re with your family- take off all notifications and texts on silent.

Take care of your health as an entrepreneur- sleep! Drink water- set timers to eat healthy snacks to keep your energy up!

Do a daily morning walk to get your exercise.

Listen update your social media all before you start the day- that way it’s DONE - don’t scroll - just get in and get out with no distractions.

Set timers while you work so that you can stay focused on the task at hand. -set a timer to check email- set a timer checking DM’s - waste no time!

Everyone only gets 24 hours a day and you can only give so much time to your business! So make it count!