Hooray for a new year! It’s 2014 now and I am excited about what God has in store this year. There have already been some big changes in my life and I love the freshness of it all. I wanted to write a quick update post about what’s going on in my life, and where I see things going in this next year.
In December, I finished my torturous statistics class, which was a huge relief. I passed with an A, a satisfying ending to four months of hard work. This was also the last college class I’ll be taking for possibly a long time. I am two classes away from earning my Associates degree in Liberal Studies, but those two classes will probably have to wait. I have other plans for the next four months, and after that it will be summer, which means a very limited class selection for online students such as myself. Since I’m hoping that Cory and I will become pregnant soon, we will hopefully have a baby next fall! If that’s the case, I won’t be taking any classes in the fall, and it might be several years before I have enough time or the inclination to continue my education. Eventually I do plan on completing my Associates degree, but at the moment I have no plans to go further than that.
But back to the present. My plans for the next four months are related to a new dream that I haven’t told many people about yet. Back in October, I felt a call from God to pursue a career in life coaching. What is life coaching, you ask? One simple definition is “enabling others to get from where they are now, to where they want to be.” A life coach helps clients to define their ideal selves and lives, set goals for reaching those ideals, and work through the process of achieving those goals. Secular life coaching focuses on what a client wants for him or herself, and it can be very effective for helping people live more satisfying lives. For me, though, it was clear that I needed to pursue a career in the field of Christian life coaching. Essentially, Christian life coaches enable clients to step into the lives that God planned for them.
This week, I started a course that will train and prepare me for a career as a Christian life coach. I’m going to be doing a lot of work learning how to coach and completing my requirements for the course. In May, I will graduate and be equipped to begin practicing as a life coach. Later, I can submit my portfolio to be awarded the title of Certified Professional Christian Life Coach (CPCLC) and apply for my Associate Certified Coach (ACC) credential from the International Coach Federation (ICF). It’s a lot of acronyms, I know. But the point is, I’m starting an exciting journey to become a professional and accredited life coach, and I’m eager to learn and see what’s in store!
I’m still planning to be a stay at home mom when the time comes (hopefully soon!), but now I will also be able to work at home when I have time. Christian life coaching is, for many people, more than just a job or a way to make money—though it certainly can be a high-paying career. For many, it’s also a ministry, a calling that God gives them to use their lives to help others live abundantly. I feel that calling myself. I want to become a life coach because I believe it is one of God’s purposes for my life. It has given me a renewed sense of meaningfulness in my life, knowing that I can do more for God before, during, and after I fulfill my other major calling to raise children and be a stay at home mom.
Aside from beginning my life coach training, there are also some other changes happening in my life, both big and small. One of the small changes is that I switched up my look with a new haircut—something that I always enjoy doing. I’d been growing my hair out for quite some time, and finally decided to cut it short again. My sweet husband gives me tons of compliments and says he likes it either way, long or short—lucky me!
A bigger and much more important change is a recent decision that my husband and I made to switch churches. We have often been outspoken and passionate about the church that we were attending for the past year, and for good reason. We think it’s a great church and it’s doing a lot of amazing things for the Kingdom of God. That being said, it’s a young church with a small congregation, and we have recently begun to feel a lack of belonging, due to the fact that there are not many other people of our age or in our life stage there. That, combined with a gut feeling that something just wasn’t clicking anymore, had led us to search for another church. After a lot of prayer, we found a church that seems like a great fit for us, and God confirmed that we should make the move. I am both excited and somewhat nervous to join this new church community; it’s always a bit scary to be the “new kid,” but I trust that God will bring me into some awesome new friendships at this church.
For the year ahead, I have a few goals. First, the biggest goal that my husband and I share, is to have a baby! That is our hearts’ desire, and we feel hopeful that God will bless us with a child in 2014. Second, I want to become a life coach, as I’ve already shared. Third, I want to continue to mature spiritually by maintaining a strong prayer life and reading my Bible regularly, as well as finding an awesome Biblical community that will help me grow.
For the blog, I’d like to start posting more frequently, and I’m considering adding a few new topics to my repertoire. Particularly, I’m thinking of adding a “book review” category to the blog to share my love of reading with the world. I’d also like to make more use of the many categories already on the blog, which have very few or no posts in them, including Parenting, Caring for the Planet, Health, Frugal Living, and For Women Only. I have a lot of thoughts and interests in these areas, and I’d like to share them. My vision for I Do… Now What? is for it to be a blog, not just about marriage or God, but about many areas of interest that all fit into my life, which I live with God at the center. We’ll see how far that vision takes me this year!
So there you have it, a summary of my life right now and my vision for the year ahead. I hope your new year has started off well, and I pray for blessings in your life in the many months (and years) ahead. Thanks for reading, and Happy New Year!