Moving Mountains...

Okay, before I continue, let me just acknowledge that I am the world's worst blogger... I post once a month at best and read all of your blogs the same way... Late at night I will click over and scroll down your blogs until I get to the last one I read and sit there and read them in order until I catch up. This is a crazy method and means I feel way too "stalker-ish"to comment except on the latest post or two... Yes, I am nuts... Especially since I still consider myself a blogger! 

Anyhow... I was asked to speak on the Mary & Martha Leader call this past week and usually if I do that I will do a training or share some tips or something really business related but that is not what the Lord put on my heart... Since it is literally the first thing I have written in forever I thought I'd share it here too... 

(Disclaimer: I changed the ending slightly since it didn't really pertain to a wider audience the Mary & Martha Leaders, but keep in mind as you read this that is who I was writing it toward. Hopefully you get something out of it too.)

I have struggled for two weeks now to know what to share with you today. It sounds easy… Share your big picture… But which “big picture” did I want to share, and was what I wanted to share, what the Lord wanted me to share? Every time I sat down to write I would have such a hard time focusing I would give up and when I would come back later and see what I wrote it was clear I was on the wrong track every time. 

Why was I so distracted and had so little focus you ask? Well 15 days ago I gave up all processed sugar. I did it because I finally believed I could… My exact thought was “if I put even 25% of the focus I put into my business into feeling better and getting healthy I can’t lose” so I quietly chose what I thought would have the biggest impact on my health but also what I knew would be one of the hardest steps because if I could succeed in that area, then the rest would seem easier. Well, It has been horrible, and amazing… Horrible because I realize how physically and mentally dependent I was on sugar but amazing because each day I literally have dozens of successes… Each time I say no to a craving I prove to myself that something I have believed for over twenty years now is wrong. I prove to myself that I DO have the “will power” to succeed and conquer my health and food issues. Instead of telling myself that everyone in my family is over weight and that this is just my lot in life, day by day, hour by hour I could see that there might be a light at the end of this tunnel and I just might be healthier one day.

That is what the Lord kept leading me back to… Who do YOU believe you are? In Jeremiah 1:5 it says “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” I don’t believe I was appointed a prophet of nations but I do believe the Lord knew me from before the womb and it doesn’t matter what this world has told me about who I am. This world will fill us full of lies about ourselves. But the Lord truly knows who I am and he made me in his own image, a special part of the body with unique gifts to serve the body and through that service, to serve him.

When I came to Mary & Martha I believed a lot of things. Over the years I have tried several direct sales companies and would experience success for awhile but never could really get things going and one to two years in (or less) the business would fizzle and I would be done. I believed I didn’t have what it takes to succeed in direct sales. Also, when I signed up for Mary & Martha nobody in Maine was selling it so I believed that since there were so few believers here (fewer per capita then anywhere else in the US) there must not be a market for Mary & Martha here. Imagine my surprise when I host my first real party and out of fifteen people there eight book parties and two decide to join that night. In the next few days two more ladies joined. I got a call from Lanette telling me that if I had another $300 in sales that month I would promote. I had just joined… Is this really happening? At that moment a belief barrier in my life fell. But I have to admit I still had my doubts… When I spoke to Amy Mullins the first time and she asked what I was doing to get so many bookings and I shared my mug incentive and she thought it was such a good idea she asked me to share it on a national call. Me!!! Maybe, just maybe I am good at this job. The more confidence I gained in my ability to do this job the more belief barriers fell. I set goals, prayed about them and achieved them, time after time. Each small failure was a learning experience that led to greater successes. At national conference I broke through a belief barrier I had about sponsoring and since July of last year I have personally sponsored or aided in the sponsoring of over 20 team members. Imagine in nine months going from believing you can’t do something to successfully doing it over 20 times! 

Even though I now had a growing team, I still doubted my ability to truly lead them. We all get along great but was I making an impact? I had my doubts… Then CARE forwarded me this email they received from a team member in response to the aspiring leader boot camp. It’s short so I will read it to you: 

Hi Care Team!!

My name is Kristen E******n and I would like to be in this boot camp because I want to learn how to make the most out of this business. I have an amazing leader- Rebecca Dorobis, who has really inspired me and I was able to sign my first consultant just outside of my great start period (I unfortunately didn’t earn any of my great starts but I have been working really hard since!)

Rebecca has been an amazing wealth of knowledge and I know that with her support and the right paths and opportunities, I too can grow my business. I need to learn as much as I can from anyone willing to share their knowledge so that I can be successful in this business. I believe this is an opportunity that I can not afford to pass up!

Thank you for all that you do!
Kristen

There is was, in black and white, from a new team member… Someone who barely knows me so she had no motivation of friendship to flatter me. In fact, when I told her how touched I was to read her note she told me she didn’t think I was ever going to see it, but she is glad I did, because since Mary & Martha and I have come into her life she feels so much more confident and loves being part of our team.

We as believers put our faith, our belief in Jesus. We trust him for our salvation. We believe in God the father and we trust in his creation and his promises, and we believe in the Holy Spirit, and his ability to move us, inspire us and be the still small voice we hear in the darkness but do we believe in ourselves? After all we were created, he knew us before we were knit in the womb, he called us to Mary & Martha. You are not a leader here by accident. In proverbs 31 where it describes the excellent woman so many of the passages perfectly describe us Mary & Martha leaders. Which leads me back to my belief that I didn’t have the will power to give up sugar. I don’t, but through the Lord I do, and even though there are times the cravings make me nuts, I can turn to prayer and succeed for another hour, another day, another week and hopefully soon I can say another month. Mark 11: 23 & 24 says “Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” 

Dear Sisters, I ask you, what belief mountain do you need to move today? Lets not keep them to ourselves, lets share them, lets pray for each other, we can conquer these mountains together with the help of the Lord. Let’s be real with each other and knock so many of these belief barriers down there is an audible sound from them falling. 

Thank you for listening,