Our Easter yesterday definitely didn’t go “as planned.” I was having a hard time waking up from hardly getting any sleep that night and my husband ended up getting sick, so needless to say we stayed home all day when our plans were to go to Church and the Easter Egg hunt after service. We didn’t do a whole lot around the house, either, because we were just kind of “blah.” We did get in some Skype time in the evening with our families, though! I could have easily sat on the computer all day and even answered business e-mails, post business info, networking, etc., but I didn’t. Why? Remember my post about my Day of Rest? Yes, it’s that important to me. Even though I wasn’t really capable of doing a whole lot physically with the family yesterday (and my husband more so wasn’t able to) I wasn’t going to break my commitment. It really got me thinking about something, though. It’s an “unpopular” decision. Some business owners may not even understand – or even think I’m crazy for taking an entire day of rest to reflect on God and family. As you can read in my post about it, I struggled with it for a long time, too!
This is not my only unpopular decision when it comes to business. In fact, I probably have more than a few! I’ve been living in this area about 5 months now and often feel like the “odd man out” or “unpopular” because it’s also the season for Relay for Life. I don’t support Relay for Life because of my pro-life beliefs. People think I “don’t get it.” The truth is we lived with it for while because my husband had cancer twice. People need help, and the big organizations are NOT that helpful – if at all. I’ll save all of that for another time, but basically if you TRULY have a heart for supporting someone going through cancer help them directly! Don’t give your money to the big organizations to turn around and use it for their overhead and supporting things that you may not believe in! There is a great article here that is wonderfully written on the subject! Again, I’m sure I will touch on it at some point as well!
So why make unpopular decisions – particularly if I know they’re unpopular? What if the top business person in the world told me I really should do business on Sundays and support any organization that is popular in this area so my business “looks good?” I still wouldn’t do it. You see, I know where my riches are – in Heaven. Of course, I don’t want to be unsuccessful in business, but ultimately God is my guide. I feel those unpopular things are exactly what He wants me to do – commit an entire day to Him and my family and stand up against organizations that are in contrary to what He teaches us. To sum it up in one word – TRUST. I trust that by following His guide I WILL be successful and our needs will always be met. I will pass down these VALUES to our children, which is an awesome inheritance! Am I saying by making these unpopular decisions I won’t be financially rewarded? Not at all! Again, I trust that God will reward me for being faithful to His Will! Ultimately, though, if I absolutely had to decide between earthly riches and Heavenly riches I would most definitely choose Heavenly riches! God, though, is gracious in that he doesn’t make us choose just one or the other. I feel MORE confident in my success here when I’m following Him closely! I encourage you, though, to focus on where you’re expending your efforts. Are you focusing them on the riches that you can’t take with you or the riches you’ll inherit in Heaven? What legacy are you leaving to your children – work really hard and spend most of your time in business and representing things that are contrary to your faith or that you truly trusted God in your journey? I’m ready to continue to step out and say “I trust God,” even though I know it’s unpopular, because I know we’ll be rewarded!
I don’t work on Sundays either!
You have to do what you feel God is calling you to do. I don’t agree with your thoughts on the relay for life, but we each have to follow God’s promptings. Blessings to you and your family!
Thank-you. I definitely don’t always expect everyone to agree. Most of what I didn’t mention was the reason behind the pro-life beliefs because I intended to post it another time, so I suppose it did sound like I simply don’t support them because they refused to offer us help when my husband was extremely ill from his cancer treatment. I am not bitter that no cancer organization or military organization agreed to help us while my husband was ill because God was my strength, and He got us through that very hard time. Ultimately, the MAIN reason I don’t support them is my pro-life beliefs:
Some of the reasons I don’t support American Cancer Society/Relay for Life:
1. Support for human embryonic stem cell research
2. Grant funding at facilities known prominently for human embryonic stem cell research
3. Grant funding for morally questionable research
4. Grant funding to Planned Parenthood
5. Referrals to Planned Parenthood as a health information/education resource
6. Donations to the Lance Armstrong LiveStrong Global Cancer Campaign (see entry for LiveStrong)
7. Failure to acknowledge the link between previously induced abortion and risk for breast cancer
Information from http://www.all.org/charities
Again, though, these are the reasons I feel the way I do and feel God has called me to raise awareness to this and the blessing that is life. But God made us all different and unique with different gifts, talents, and even views and beliefs – if we were all the same life would be boring! 🙂 Thank-you for visiting my site and commenting! 🙂 Blessings!
I agree with this wholeheartedly! 🙂 I have been so bad about taking a day of rest but I have felt pulled to it for a long time. And I understand your point on donating to causes. I would rather give the family a gift card or money than give the money to an organization which won’t help those in need. Medical bills are ridiculous, and many families are unprepared for the cost of life-threatening issues and treatment. My mom had breast cancer when I was a teen and we never even got an “I’m sorry for your struggle” from any of the organizations that claim to care. You know what helped us? Family and friends giving her rides to the hospital, giving me rides to youth group, etc. People bringing us food. People helping with bills. That was our blessing, and we appreciated it so much.
Most definitely! Plus as long as you’re supporting a family directly you’re not supporting any “hidden agendas.” I can guarantee any money or help a family gets is extremely appreciated! We, at one point, had to just ask people for money for gas to my husband’s treatment, and our friends and family pooled together and just blessed us, and I can guarantee it was both appreciated and went solely to helping with expenses during that time!