Let’s Talk about Calling

 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Romans 11:29 (NKJV)

I remember sitting in the church sanctuary with a group of women.  We had spent the entire weekend together at a church as part of an Emmaus Retreat.  Over the course of the weekend we sang spirit-filled hymns, dug into scripture, cried over testimonies, and prayed in our family groups around the tables.  We shared meals prepared by loving church members and slept on cots in the Sunday school rooms. Now each lady was relating what the weekend had meant to her and what God was calling her to do next.

As each dear sister stood in front of the microphone and shared, I mentally prepared what I would say (as many of us do when we really should be listening!).  Then one sweet gal approached the stage and proclaimed, “I just want to go home and be the best wife and mom I can be.”  All my prepared thoughts were washed away by her sincere calling.  “That’s the call I want!”  I cried, already being the mom of two special young kids.  “Can I please have that calling, too!”

But when my turn came to speak before the understanding faces, I had to share what I had heard Jesus tell me during the weekend.  “I hear Jesus calling me to go to seminary to learn more about Him,” I confessed. But then I went home and asked God if I could have the other mom’s calling.

You know what He showed me? He made me a wife, so I’m obviously called to be a good wife.  He made me a mom, so I’m definitely called to be a loving mom.  But He also has something else He needs me to do.  And so I found a nearby seminary that offered the first course free and took a class on church history.  I loved learning about the Wesley brothers and their mother Susanna who prayed with her apron over her head so she could have quiet time in the midst of her many children.  And as only God can plan it, He also answered my long time prayer for another child and made me a mother again while I was taking this class. He blessed us with our dear son Kevin Jon, reinforcing my calling to be a mom.

And while Kevin was still nursing, God gave me My TEA CUPP Prayers as a way to spend time with Him each morning and be a mom, too. Kevin would wake up at 5 a.m. every morning, my trusty little alarm clock.  As he nursed, I read my Bible.  Soon he was back to sleep and I would tuck him in on the sofa beside me as I wrote in my prayer journal. I continued to take seminary classes at camping conferences where my family also participated, so I didn’t have to be away from our children, eventually receiving certification in camp and retreat ministry.  But I always embraced being a wife and mom, and now I’m a grandma, too!

Romans 11:19 says, “ For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”  I can’t change what God is calling me to do.  He is calling me to invite ladies everywhere to have TEA with Jesus, the King of kings.  He has also stamped upon me “wife,” “mom,” “grandma,” “daughter,” “sister,” “aunt,” “cousin,” “friend,” “beloved.”

Every day as I read my Bible, I ask God what He is calling me to do.  Recent verses He has pointed me to include:

But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. Acts 20:24

who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 2 Corinthians 1:4 (NKJV)

Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong. Let all that you do be done with love. 1 Corinthians 16:13 (NKJV)

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. 1 Corinthians 15:58 (NKJV)

Today’s TEA CUPP:  My dear TEA friend, what is God’s calling for your life?  If you aren’t sure, perhaps ask Jesus each morning, “What will you have me do today?  He will show you bit by bit, how to be a loving wife, mom, neighbor, friend…to pray for a stranger, to bake cookies for a neighbor, to send a card to a loved one, to hug your kids, to honor your husband, to share Jesus…and before you know it, you are living out God’s calling for your life.

I delight to do Your will, O my God,
And Your law is within my heart.  Psalm 40:8 (NKJV)

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10 (NKJV)

Scripture from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson