Episode 81: 3 Steps for Discovering God’s Purpose in Your Life Outside of Teaching

Full Episode Transcription:

(00:07):
You guys, it is so good to be back. I know y’all have not had a break in podcast episode, but if you didn’t know, I had my baby boy back in February and I spent a lot of time prior having him recording and working way ahead on podcast episodes so that y’all wouldn’t miss out. And now I’m finally back sitting down recording after having him. So it feels like I’ve been gone a while, but y’all, haven’t noticed. So it’s just exciting for me to be back here, cuz I love recording these for y’all. Today’s episode, I just want to really connect with you and let you know that I know how you’re feeling. I know you’re wondering what God’s purpose is for you outside of teaching, and you’re really wondering if you should pursue this dream on your heart. It can be scary to be feeling called somewhere else.

(01:49):
That’s completely different than, you know, our original plan for ourselves. But it’s about following God’s plan for us. And if he’s put this dream on your heart, he didn’t put it there for no reason. He knows exactly what you’re wanting and he has a plan already mapped out for you. So if you’re feeling this call to quit teaching, really all you have to do is take that first step and have faith in him to provide the next step. You’re not gonna know the whole game plan. We’re not meant to know the whole game plan because if we did know where we were gonna end up, we still probably wouldn’t take that first step because we’d be terrified of how much we have to grow to get to our end goal. So take that first step and have faith and trust in him.

(02:38):
I have a verse for you I wanna read. It’s Psalm 37: “Trust in your God. Do good with faith, and you’ll live securely. Find your happiness in God, for God longs to give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to God and God will act for you making your path clear and your integrity shine like the sun. In silence and stillness, wait upon God and he will raise you up and will support your way. Though you may stumble, you will not fall, for God hold your hand. And those at peace with God will have a secure future.” That is such a beautiful promise from God that he’s got our back. We really don’t have to worry. We just have to trust in him. And if you’re trying to figure out what your purpose is, I wanna help you with that. So I have three steps for you that we’re gonna cover today to discover what your God-given purpose is outside of teaching.

(03:44):
Number one, ask your friends. Ask those who are really close to you. You do wanna be a little bit discerning on who you ask, make it your very closest friends, somebody who is a spiritual mentor to you. Maybe your parents, maybe someone a little bit older than you, who is where you wanna be. Ask them what is so special about me? What gifts or talents do I have. The people around you see where your strengths are, where you might not necessarily see them. You might think that everybody has these strengths and they don’t. And so if you can pull that out of the people who’ve been observing you, they’re gonna help you figure out what your purpose is outside of teaching. They’re gonna help you identify your strengths and this can be so incredibly helpful for pointing you in the right direction.

(04:44):
Okay? The second step is to confirm with God, ’cause you don’t wanna just take humans’ words at face value. You wanna confirm that what they’re saying is true and that’s really where God is calling you to. So first thing I’m gonna tell you to do is pray. Ask him to show you your gifts. Ask him for confirmation of what your friends, family, mentors have told. Ask for signs that you’re on the right track. This is something I really love doing. When you do this, try to pick a sign that you wouldn’t see every day, but that also is not like impossible. Like don’t ask to see a kangaroo hopping down the street. It’s probably not gonna happen. But I just have two examples for you of how this has helped me. I was asking for clarity on if this is what I was supposed to be doing, helping y’all and I’ve always loved foxes, but I’ve never seen them in real life.

(05:38):
So I was like, God, show me a fox. I don’t care how it happens. Just show me a fox. So I know this is where I’m supposed to be. And y’all know I live full time in an RV. We live out in the middle of cornfield. Our campground is in the middle of nowhere. And so I was driving one day and a fox started across the road and I was like, “Hmm, okay, God.” And then another time dealing with that imposter syndrome again, is this what it’s supposed to be doing? You’ll know this for yourself. We have these bouts of like feeling confident in ourselves and then also still questioning. So you’re gonna go through this pretty consistently, but just remember everybody deals with that imposter syndrome. So the second time I was dealing with this, I asked for God to show me a caterpillar.

(06:26):
And it was not a season where caterpillars would really be out. Well, I take my daughter to the gym about three days a week and I drop her off at the childcare while I go work out well. I walked into the childcare and I’m going to sign her in and sitting right next to the sign-in sheet is like a little caterpillar thing that the kids had made with torn up pieces of paper. So it doesn’t have to be the real thing. Even just seeing that printed out caterpillar showed me that God was listening to me and he heard me and he was telling me that I was on the right track. And so keep your eye out for the unexpected ways of seeing the signs you’re asking for. You know, it might be like a screen saver that pops up on your computer.

(07:12):
It might be a dream that you had where the sign is in there. Just keep your mind open. And you know, if you don’t see that sign, maybe God’s just asking you to wait. Sometimes we just have to be patient and know that God wants us to trust on him. And maybe he’s asking us to build our patience for a reason. And so just wait, just continue praying. And eventually he’s going to answer you. I promise.

(07:43):
All right. Number three is to believe in yourself. I want you to know that you have the ability to pursue your dreams. Even if they seem scary. It’s so easy to get trapped in the fear of the big giant picture of, I don’t freaking know where I’m gonna end up, but we’re – there’s that quote that says, you know, it’s how do we eat an entire elephant? It’s one bite at a time. We’re not gonna shove the whole elephant in our mouth. And I probably butchered that quote, but y’all know what I mean. So you just gotta take those small steps and you have to trust that you either have the ability already to do what you need to do, or God’s gonna help you figure it out. That’s what he’s here for. He’s here to guide us to where he wants us to go. He has a plan for us. That plan was set before we were born. And all we have to do is follow in his footsteps. All right.

(08:53):
Y’all so to recap are three steps to discover what your God-given purposes outside of teaching are to ask your friends, family, and mentors. What’s so special about me. What gifts or talents do I have? Number two is to confirm with God, pray, ask him to show you your gifts, ask him for a sign that you’re on the right track. And number three is to believe in yourself and just know that you have the ability to pursue your dreams. I hope that you found this episode helpful in starting to figure out where you’re supposed to be outside of teaching. This is an ongoing process, but it’s something that you can start today. And I encourage you to take that step in faith. And if this episode helped you in any way, or if any of the other episodes have helped you, I would be so incredibly grateful if you would go and leave a review of the show. Reviews are what shows apple podcasts or Spotify that this show matters. And they’ll make sure that more moms and teachers like you are seeing this because so many people still don’t know that this world of virtual assistance exists. And that there’s something that will meet their dreams of quitting teaching and working from home. And so I just wanna get this message out to more moms and teachers like you and reviews on the show are the fastest way to help us do that. I love reading them. All you have to do is go search Ditch the Classroom, click on our show, scroll down, click the five stars. If you want, you can write a review, just a couple sentences. That would bless me even more. I absolutely love reading them and that’s just an even better review that Apple and Spotify and everybody, they like the written reviews the best. So it would just bless me so much. All right ya’ll. I love you so much. Let me know what you’re wanting to hear on the show and we will see you next week.