Why You Should Persist in the Uncomfortable

“I love being a housewife and mother,” I said to my husband. This declaration came in the midst of a long, hot day of blanching and cutting sweet corn off the cob.

Even after 9 hours and 40 quarts, I remained committed to my statement. I still do.

I love mothering. I love cooking and baking for my clan—making special candies and cakes for those I care about so deeply. I love the entire. domestic. thing (sorry, except dusting and cleaning bathrooms—detest both). 

Left up to me, I’d sit in my cozy little house, gardening, baking and serving until my hair turns gray and my mind forgetful (wait, am I already there ?). 

Yet two years ago I gave into a niggling call to write, publicly, online. I write with the intention of reaching beyond the four walls of this house with encouragement and hope. 

Moving Beyond the Comfortable

My heart is still at home, but my calling is beginning to expand my influence to places I’ve never been—touching people I’ve never met. God seems to be preparing me for something to come, something after my children are grown, something for another season. 

But I’m not sure I want it. Words often come hard and exposing them to strangers brings risk. It is much easier to avoid change. To remain in the comfortable—a place where I know I can succeed. 

Reaching more than a short distance beyond my walls makes me nervous. I know what the role of housewife and mother look like. I enjoy the familiar, the welcome cadence of daily family life. The joy of serving in my church home. The security of knowing the people and places in my community.

Overall, it’s been a good life (not without struggles however), and I feel very blessed to have been given these many years to pour into my special people. 

I’ve needed the time to grow in wisdom, the hard events to grow in faith, and the love to grow in confidence. 

But there comes a time when growth stagnates if not properly fertilized…. when nourishment in the form of change is needed (notice, I didn’t say wanted). 

Embrace the Uncomfortable

Maybe your current comfortable is a day at the office or ministering on a mission field or speaking from a pulpit. Whatever that comfortable looks like for you, don’t be surprised when God begins whispering words of change in your ear. And don’t be fearful. 

• Because change produces growth.
• Because where God calls, He equips.

And both are beautiful.  

Every season prepares us for the next. Just like spring rains bring needed moisture for summer growth and the fall harvest provides food for the winter, so does each life season bring us the necessary ingredients to thrive in the next.

Every season prepares us for the next. Click To Tweet

I don’t plan on giving up loving on my family through baking and housekeeping anytime soon, but I am moving toward the change being ushered in. Don’t be afraid to do the same, however, scary (or crazy) it may appear. 

Trust that through the uncomfortable, the Lord is preparing you for more Kingdom work. 

Trust that through the uncomfortable, the Lord is preparing you for more Kingdom work. Click To Tweet

Embrace the beauty of that change. 

“But forget all that—it is nothing compared to what I am going to do. For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.” (Isaiah 43:18-19)

Reflections: Are you shying away from something uncomfortable? What might the result be if you embrace it? 

By His grace ≈

Julie

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