12: When God Throws You A Curve Ball, It’s Always A Home Run

Working Christian Mom with NJ Rongner

Hey guys! Welcome back to the Working Christian Mom podcast! I’m your host, NJ Rongner.

I have missed you! I want to apologize for going radio silent for so long- my 4th of July week break turned into an entire month of July break.

A few really big things happened in July.. they were good things, big things, scary things, things the Lord surprised us with and honestly, I gave myself permission to be in the moment, savor the blessings and keep my priorities in line. Something had to give and as it turns out, pausing production on the podcast for a month was it.

Because I know you’re curious about what happened, I’ll fill you in. I’ll say this. When God throws you a curveball, it’s always a home run.

If you’re on my email list or part of my community, you know the first big thing, it’s a great story worth telling.

Two years ago, randomly and very much out of the blue, my husband’s commuter car was crushed by a snowplow during a snowstorm. We were parked on the correct side of the street and we could see where he was plowing the road and then our car. It was a 2002 Toyota that still had a good 120,000 miles in her, so we were super bummed. We sought the Lord as we searched for new cars and the answer was always no.

Our marriage needed work and God knew it. He wrecked one of our cars so that Mike and I would learn how to consider one another’s needs, schedules, and desires. When we had two cars, we didn’t need to check in with each other about timing and schedules, we could each just do our thing and see each other back at home for dinner. I didn’t have to ask for help from my local community when it came to soccer pick up and drop off. During our two years without two cars, we both grew as a couple.

I became a master coordinator when it came to schedules, our car and what we could say yes to doing and what we said no to. We rented a car for the few week’s there really was no choice but to, Mike rode his bike to work in 90 degree weather so the kids and I could take day trips, I asked for carpool help and we used Uber.

We stopped putting ourselves first, started defaulting to the other and our marriage is better because of it.

In January 2018, I started feeling the very strong desire to pray for a second car. We prayed as a family, as individuals and asked our close circle to pray too. I told my friend and faith mentor Entrice Rowe (podcast guest #4) that I’d just be so thrilled with a hooptie to get us around town. She immediately rebuked me… “Our God isn’t the God of small things NJ, I’m gonna need you to pray bigger on this one. His streets are MADE OF GOLD and you are asking him for a junk car?!? Nope. As your friend, I can’t let you do that. So stop praying it small.” Side note… you all need a friend like Entrice in your life… someone who isn’t afraid to challenge your faith and encourage you to chase Jesus HARD. I’ll link her episode in the show notes. Or you can go back and find her- she was episode 4.

When Entrice tells me to do something or change something, it is for good reason.

So I prayed bigger… that God would lead us to the right car for our family and within our budget. Something that we could pay for in cash and not have to have a car payment on, that was safe to drive and reliable.

The more I prayed about it, the stronger the feeling I got that this vehicle would be gifted to us. I couldn’t see how it would happen, but I didn’t stop praying or believing. God is in the business of meeting our needs.

And honestly, the way He does it blows my mind. Mike’s grandmother recently passed away after 94 lovely legacy making years on earth. We were very close and saw each other often. Her passing has left a hole in our hearts because her influence was so strong. When we started praying for our next car, Grammie was alive and well. It never even crossed our minds that someday, welcoming her car into our family would be an option. But when the estate settled, we became the owners of a Toyota that still has a good 120,000 miles in her.

The second big thing that happened to me in July is that I resigned from my role at Boss Mom. It was a joy to help Dana Malstaff grow Boss Mom from the beginning. As her community manager, I played a large role in nurturing and growing her Facebook community from 2 to 30,000 and we had great conversations on her podcast, the Boss Mom podcast.

While in my tenure at Boss Mom as the Facebook community manager, I got to witness a lot of really hard and beautiful conversations take place. I saw people find their biz besties and sky rocket their business launches. We talked about getting babies to sleep through the night, how to develop great products that people wanted to pay you for and oh so much more.

One thing that I was so proud of was the way the community listened to different point of views with open ears. And one of my favorite conversations always read about was about how a person’s faith informed the way they handled their business. I’m a Jesus girl, so I know that influences my business decisions. But I LOVED LOVED LOVED hearing people with different faith backgrounds. Those conversations were always some of my favorite to read about… the more I know about someone who is different than me, the more I begin to understand their point of view.

Dana made the decision to make the community attached to her business completely religion free. I was informed in a voxer message that topics of faith, of ANY faith were no longer allowed and she made the announcement in the Boss Mom facebook group. I wasn’t a part of any conversation that shaped her new policy even though I had a pulse on the Facebook community as her community manager. God made it very clear to me that my time had come to a close at Boss Mom. My decision to leave wasn’t just for standing up for my own faith background, but for my sisters of different religions too. I was also standing up for myself, the internal process was…messy. And honestly, that’s a graceful statement.

There wasn’t a long runway with my decision and I knew that it had to be a 100% clean break from Dana and the Boss Mom Community, a place that I adored and loved.

I have learned 4 really big things this month and I want to share them with you.

Prayer is powerful.

Sharing my heart with not only God but with my family and friends so they could also interceed was a game changer. I am 100% going to admit to you that I’m selfish with my prayer requests. If you ask me how you can pray for me, I’m going to tell you how you can pray for me. Speaking of which, gals we need to get better at this. Each Monday in my community, I ask for prayer requests from my people. Here’s what I’ve noticed, we are really good about asking for prayer for everyone but ourselves. Is it because we don’t want to let people into our own lives? Is it because we’re afraid? I don’t have the answer to this. But I know this, we need to get more selfish with our prayer requests. The next time someone asks how they can pray for you, don’t tell them about your family member or friend that needs prayer. Tell them about how YOU need prayer!

God is in the business of meeting our needs.

In the case of our car, there was NO GOOD REASON for a snow plow to hit it in our eyes. At the time, we didn’t understand it. But looking back at it all, we are so glad that it happened. God wants to provide for you because he loves you so much. Seriously. I mean, he sent his own son to this earth to die on the cross for your sins so could be in fellowship with him. He’s the ultimate provider. The more I open my eyes to thank God for the things he’s provided for us, the more provision seems to come. Gratitude and thanksgiving LITERALLY CHANGE everything.

When God throws you a curve ball, you better believe that 100% there is always a home run coming.

Now that I’ve got more time to focus on what God has really called me to do, I’m in creation and catch up mode. Here’s what is coming up from Working Christian Mom.

Back to school workshop: I’m going to run this live master class a few times in August and September and it will focus on getting taking the stress out of back to school season including setting up systems and tools as well as how to set goals for your kid’s new year. Mastermind for Christian Business Owners. A Simple Christmas Experience. This 8 week program will run in October and November and will focus on getting our hearts and homes READY for the December hustle. If you’ve ever felt like a stresscase in December because of #allthethings, this is going to be FOR you. I’ll be teaching this live. Gift guide for Working Christian Moms. I am currently accepting applications for the very first gift guide Working Christian Moms. I can’t wait to curate a list of amazing gift ideas to help you thrive. If you are a business owner who would like to submit your product for the guide, I would love to have you apply. The gift guide episode will publish the week before Thanksgiving and will be promoted on all of my social channels for 6 weeks.

You can learn more about the upcoming programs offered from Working Christian Mom and get on the waitlist by going to www.workingchristianmom.com/programs If you’re binge listening at a later date that isn’t August 2018, still head over to that link. I’ll have new offerings there!