Life update :)

Hey guys. So as most of you already know, my life has been full of amazing blessings lately. I graduated from college and obtained my BSN, RN. I purchased a condo and recently moved into it to live full-time about two and a half weeks ago. I got a job working at an amazing facility with awesome coworkers I started in July. God has blessed my life in more ways than I ever could've imagined. The one thing I have realized in this season I am currently in is that I'm having a hard time finding balance. What do I mean by that you ask? I am having a hard time finding a balance between work (especially as a new grad nurse), taking care of a home, taking care of my own mental health, and my walk with God. It's definitely been weighing on my heart heavy and I know there are multiple people who have noticed it as well and mentioned it to me. A lot of people have been asking about the blog. A lot of people have been noticing not as many posts from myself on my Facebook page. And those people are right. I haven't written a blog since July. I haven't been posting much on my social media. I am in this season of life where it's been all about transitions and I've allowed myself to get so stressed out over all these things in life, I haven't been fulfilling my one true purpose in life. What is that purpose you ask? To prioritize my walk with God, to grow closer to God, to further my relationship with God, and to spread the Gospel to all those who are in need. I have been allowing my work life to take priority over my furthering of the kingdom of God. I know I am not the only one who has allowed this to happen in their life. You might be reading this today and think, I feel the same exact way, and thought I was the only one who was experiencing this. We are human. I am not saying that it is okay to prioritize your life over your walk with God, but I am saying that we all fall short sometimes and stumble. This season of life I am in has been beautiful. It's been a lot of learning. It's been a lot of stress. It's been a lot of change. But there is one thing throughout this whole process that has remained constant and that is MY GOD. My God is the rock I can rest upon. The constant, never failing, never leaving assurance I have in this life. I have spent the last couple of months of my life focusing on the wrong things. I am sure a lot of others have been there before as well and some might be there currently. You see, yes I love being a nurse. It's my passion in life. I believe it's my calling in life from God. But NOTHING will ever be more rewarding than boldly sharing my faith with those who need it. I am on a mission to find a work-life balance that makes God the priority and I am willing to put in the extra time and effort to assure that it gets done. I am on a mission to use the job that God has blessed me with to spread the Gospel to those who need to hear it. Proverbs 16:3 states, "Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established". I am going to start committing my work to the Lord. I am going to start using the blessings God has given me and use them for His glory and to spread the Word of God to those around me. Not only am I going to make it a mission to find a work-life balance, but I am also going to change my view on work and what the purpose of work truly is according to His word. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving (Colossians 3:23-24). You see, no matter what you do for a living or what you considered your job or work, you need to realize that you are not working for human masters, but you are working for the Lord. This means that no matter if you work from home, work for a company in an office building, work with the public, whatever your job may be, you need to have that mindset that you are working to serve God, not another human. That also means you need to be mindful of your attitude at work. I can speak for almost everyone when I say that sometimes you have days at work where you feel like NOTHING is going right and it's just problem after problem. The day drags on feels never-ending. You want nothing more than to just scream at anyone who talks to you and want to go into the bathroom and cry. If you've never had a day like that, is your job hiring? I'm interested. Just kidding, but those days are hard. It's hard to produce a smile on your face on days like those. We as Christians are called to be a reflection of who Christ is, and we are called to be the light in the darkness of this world we live in, even at work, even on those long horrible days. You see, the Devil is ALWAYS working. Working to cause grief and upset in our lives. Working to get us to have a bad day. Working to take us far away from God. The Devil will do whatever he has to bring us down. We have two choices when we have a bad day at work, allow the rest of our day to be crumby and let the negativity to spread to those around us, or remain positive and allow God's light to shine through us so that people see that even though the circumstances at work may not be the best, there is a God I serve that is bigger than those circumstances and I am still going to glorify Him in the middle of the mess. I encourage you if you are having a hard time finding work-life balance and allowing yourself to be a disciple in your workplace, to first use your job to further the Kingdom of Heaven. Use the job God has blessed you with for His glory and His glory alone. Secondly, I encourage you to change your outlook on work. We are not working to serve other humans, we are working to serve God, meaning we should be putting our whole heart into the work God has blessed us with. I pray as this week starts out, you all look at work differently if you have a job that causes high stress or that you are just tired of. I pray that you look at work as a blessing from God. I pray you to use work to be a witness to the goodness of our Heavenly Father. Starting today, I am going to change my outlook on work and use it to glorify MY God who has blessed my life so abundantly in the past couple of months. A couple of months back I wrote a blog called "What is your priority?" and I talked about how we all would probably answer that question quite differently. If you asked me a month ago my answer wouldn't have been what it needed to be. My answer should always be "Jesus and furthering His Kingdom". I am going to start living a life with that being my ONE AND ONLY priority. I know this blog is kinda long. I missed you guys. Love each and every one of you who has been holding me accountable and asking where I've been. I'm back and ready to bring on the fire!! Be expecting more blogs to come :)