I am starting 2018 in yet another season of my life! A new season, but an intimate and amazing season with God! A Godly season!
I will be 48 this year, happily married for 27 years. (We had our ups and downs in the past few years.) We have two kids, my son of 26, he is studying for a CA, married and we are blessed with a lovely daughter-in-law and a granddaughter, who is the apple of my eye. And then my beautiful daughter, studying design and will be 20 this year. I am so blessed to have them in my life, their love and support throughout the years and for them playing such a huge part of my new season today!
I had a good life growing up, wonderful and loving parents. I lost my father at the age of 22, which had an impact on all our lives. I got married the year before this and had my son a few months after my father died. I finished my degree the same year, started working soon thereafter for a few years and then we moved a few times. Personally we faced a lot of challenges financially and with sickness in our family. But we got through the hardships and survived only with God’s grace every time!
At the age of 31, I started my own business. Through the years in business, I experienced a few ups and downs, I made a lot of mistakes and wrong decisions. I always was a Christian, but I know today that if I had a living and an intimate relationship with Jesus, I would have made different choices and handled a lot of situations and challenges differently.
I got involved with a business women organisation in 2012, and did not realise how this will impact my life in the years to come. I started at branch level in leadership and in 2014 I was elected in the national leadership. This became my life, my passion and my purpose. For 3 years with still being an entrepreneur and working in my own businesses, the challenges just became more and more. Being away from home and my business a lot, burning midnight oil 7 days a week, I neglected myself, my business and my family.
I started last year burnt out! But too proud and with pressure from all sides, the economical challenges at that stage, financially, my business and my family, I just carried on, pressing on, had to get everything in place again and to level of success I was used to and planned for myself. With difficult economic times in our country, I realised that I had to diversify and expand my services. This also just added to the pressure, stresses and my then already burnt out self! I then, still struggled with unfinished business from the previous year, took on new business, had a lot of unforeseen challenges, but I needed to perform and get over the hill that was in front of me
The situation just piled up, and I got to a place where I was so depressed and totally burnt out, that all I could see was a big black hole that I was just falling and falling deeper and deeper into. Too proud to seek help, I got to a place where I was standing alone, against a wall, with no outcome or plan.
I know now, that this was exactly the place God wanted me to be, stripped from everything that was once important in my life, to get to a place where He was the most important in my life!
I know that the journey he took me on, with the decisions I took in my life, the right and wrong ones that he had a perfect plan for me all along. He used every opportunity I took on, all the hardships, all the successes in my life, to prepare me and to humble me for His purpose and for His will!
He waited until I was ready to say: “God, here I am! I surrender, from now I will only listen to You and will be focused on You and what You have in store for me!” I will serve Him and His Kingdom for the rest of my life, I will rejoice in everything that He will put in front of me, I will be content and happy to be His daughter!
From now on, in business and in life, I will take every step with Him, and I know that He will take me to places that I never could dream to be possible in my life!
There is no greater love as the love that He has for me and also for you! He blessed me with a NEW season in my life, with new plans and new expectations! I am looking forward to His plan and His journey with my life!