To The Girl Who's Questioning Her Calling

This past weekend was full of several proud sister moments for me. My little sister Danielle graduated from high school, which was a moment, she informed everyone, that she’d been waiting for since kindergarten. As I sat in the crowd on Saturday, I couldn’t help but be excited for her as she closed this chapter of her life and began moving towards her next season. And while I was definitely beaming whenever she walked across the stage to receive her diploma, or when she delivered her speech from the podium, I was even more proud for a different reason. 

Danielle has decided that she is not going to go to college, but instead pursue a job as a nanny. Danielle’s ultimate goal is to be a godly wife and mom, and she believes working as a nanny is a great way to prepare her to accomplish that goal. While my family and I have been totally supportive of her decision, not everyone in her life has had the same outlook. There have been plenty of people who have tried to convince her to change her mind, and have tried to discourage her from pursuing a somewhat unconventional path in a time where everyone seems to go to college. 

But regardless of what people have said or how they have reacted to her decision, I have been so proud of Danielle for how she has stood firm in what she feels like the Lord is leading her to do. Without even realizing it, Danielle has set such a strong, confident, and admirable example to me of what it looks like to follow your calling no matter what. And I think we would all be wise to follow her example in our own lives. 

I do realize that it’s not always easy to follow the calling God has given you. Maybe you feel like your calling isn’t practical and that it’s too farfetched. Maybe you feel like you're not as equipped as you could be to pursue your calling. Or maybe you think you just don’t have enough time with everything else you have going on. If any of those hesitations are going through your mind, let me ask you a question. Do you want to get to the end of your life and realize you never pursued the calling God gave you because you were afraid, worried, and insecure? Or even worse, do you want to realize you didn’t go after your calling because someone else talked you out of it? 

I think it’s super important that we ask ourselves these questions when we’re hesitant about doing something we feel like God is leading us to do. If you’re really honest with yourself, you know deep down if God is pulling you in a certain direction. I’m a firm believer that our Heavenly Father is anything but subtle when He’s trying to get our attention. And I think as followers of Jesus, we should be consistently making an effort to pay attention to what God is trying to do in our lives. 

One of my favorite authors, Lysa TerKeurst, says it this way:

“It’s easy to talk ourselves out of thinking we’ve heard from God. I think we’ll pretty much use any excuse to convince ourselves it’s not His voice so we don’t need to act…but sometimes God calls us to do something big that we can’t do in our own strength - either it’s beyond our ability or beyond our natural human desire. It’s not something we can strategize and manipulate into being in and of ourselves. It can only happen through God’s divine intervention. Don’t look at your inabilities and dwell in insecurities. Look at the Almighty God. See this call as your opportunity to watch Him work in you and through you.” 

I love how she challenges us to not look at our own inabilities and insecurities, but rather to look at our Heavenly Father. If He is calling us to do something, whether it makes sense from our perspective or not, we can be confident that He is going to be with us every step of the way. 

It can be so tempting to try to rationalize our doubt and hesitation when it comes to pursuing our calling. I’ve watched my little sister fight that temptation for months now as she has been questioned, and sometimes even criticized, for following the calling God has put on her life. I’ve seen her get frustrated. I’ve seen her deal with doubt. I’ve even seen her cry a couple times when she was wondering if she was doing the right thing. But no matter what kind of adversity she faced, she always emerged full of strength, boldness, and confidence in moving down the path meant just for her. 

I think we can all learn something from Danielle. Sure, the road to pursue your calling might not always be easy or popular or widely-accepted, but at the end of the day, the only One you have to answer to is your Heavenly Father. He is the One you will give an account of your life to, and He is the one you should be aiming to honor with the life and the purpose He has given you. So, with that in mind, my prayer for you today is that you will ask Him to give you the courage and the boldness to take your next step towards wherever He is leading you. Whether it means becoming a stay-at-home mom, changing your career path, transferring schools, or something else entirely, the calling God has given you is unique to you. And if you humble yourself and seek that calling and that purpose from Him, He will give you all the bravery, confidence, and peace you need to move forward.