Have you ever watched a movie and there was a MAJOR plot twist? You pretty much had the storyline figured out, and BAM completely blindsided by the turn of events. It’s shocking. You typically say something like, “Well, I didn’t see that coming”. Have you ever had this happen in life? You are minding your own business, going about your day, week, month, year, and you guessed it…PLOT TWIST. I would like to share a recent “life” plot twist Jer and I have experienced that WE DID NOT SEE COMING.
I woke up early this morning and was thinking of several times the Lord threw me for a loop. I was minding my own business, “thinking” I knew what was about to go down, and HELLO, change of direction. Nowhere on the radar. The first one that stands out to me was after my first year of college. I was attending college full-time and working in the Housewares department of Macy’s. I loved my job and my manager. I was doing good in school. I was teaching a 3rd grade Sunday School class at church. Life was good. We had this group come to our church from Illinois to serve one Sunday. Our youth pastor took us out to eat with them the night before. They were speaking for the Sunday morning service. I got to church early to prepare for my Sunday School class and saw them in the sanctuary praying. Interesting. I had to leave after my Sunday School class because it was my Sunday to work. I didn’t even hear them speak.
I came back that evening for the Sunday evening service and found a little brochure all about their ministry in Illinois. Something inside me longed to go there. To sum it all up, within a few weeks, I applied and was accepted into the program. I remember hearing two ladies in our church talking one day about me going. Neither of them believed I would go through with it. This girl from a small town in Alabama would never move 1000-plus miles away from her family. That lit a fire under me to FOR SURE go through with it. Those two years in Illinois were life-changing. Not only did I make friends that I am STILL close with to this day, but I also met Jeremiah there. I get a little choked up and tears fill my eyes when I think how differently my life could have looked had I not listened to that pulling to make a move. Blessings upon blessings.
I have had a few other hair-brained ideas along the way. I enrolled in nursing school. What’s so crazy about that? Well, I tended to pass out at the site of blood OR even entering a hospital. I’m not kidding. I also opened a scrapbook store right in the middle of nursing school. What the heck? If you have been through nursing school, you understand this is insanity. Did I also mention I had two little kids at the time? Both journeys led to amazing life lessons and friends that I am still connected to, to this day. There were many hard moments along the way, but I can look back and see how they were used to shape me and Jer.
The situations above were somewhat in my control. As I said, I had an idea, and I acted on it. What happens when a life plot twist is beyond your control? Take the scrapbook store AND the nursing years. To give you the cliff notes version, we opened a second store, and it did NOT do good. Our first store always did great, but we decided to close the second location. When it was time to renew our lease on our original store, because we had recently closed the other location, our landlord did not want to renew. I was shocked. I remember right where I was standing when I got the email. It knocked the breath out of me. Not only were they not renewing, but we also had to be out in a few short weeks. It led us down an interesting path, and when it was all said and done, we ended up losing our house, car, and a whole lot of pride. It was the best-worst year of our lives. In the moment it was scary, but man, I have never felt closer to the Lord. Beauty truly came from the ashes. It molded us into who we are today.
My nursing degree sure did come in handy during this season. The Lord blessed us financially through this career for the next four years, but I knew this wasn’t going to be my forever job. By year three I was getting burnt out and frustrated by a lot of happenings revolving around work. We were in the middle of a respect and honor series at church, and I had this wild idea to send a “respectful” email to our supervisor asking if she could shadow me for a shift so she could see some concerns from the nurses. Ummmm, that did not go as I expected. I quickly got an in-person meeting, but it ended with saying I would be temporarily suspended, which ended with me taking off my badge and walking out. While my email was honoring and respectful, I can’t say I acted that way on the way out. Yikes. Lord, forgive me. Bottom line. WOAH BOY that was a life plot twist. We were closing on a house the next week, and let’s just say, that did not happen.
I look back to those seasons and see such beauty. I am grateful for them.
What came next? Selling essential oils. I can promise you that I did not see that one coming. Matter of fact, it’s the least likely thing I would have ever done. EVER. I was so anti-network marketing. GROSS. It was so icky to me. Very long story short, the Lord blew my mind with the adventure He took us on. It was DIVINE PROVIDENCE. Oh, we worked hard and had a great team, but it was Supernatural what took place. Our organization brought in over 1.8 billion dollars in the 9 years we were there, and the Lord blessed us financially beyond my wildest dreams. It was a great season, and we made some dear friends. We also learned some huge life lessons along the way. A couple of years ago I was feeling very strongly that we needed to part ways and we made a huge life decision. We left the company. We left the paycheck. Sadly, many friendships were never the same. Because this was my first rodeo with leaving a multi-million dollar a year paycheck, I logically thought I needed to quickly find a “replacement” job. I did some research and began a new journey.
If you were around for those days, you may remember how that played out. YIKES. It was probably the hardest two years of my life. While I had zero regrets about leaving the company, I did not like the manner I left. I have replayed that a million times over in my head. Don’t worry, I walk in freedom now, but the point is, it was a hard couple of years. Beautiful things came over the last two years though. In those two years, our family grew by four. Four grandbabies. Probably the best season of my life. The women and a couple of men that began a journey with us at the new company, well, beautiful friendships were birthed. In the summer of 2022, I came home from a long-distance walk Jer and I did through the English Countryside, and I decided to take a major step back from network marketing. I wanted to fully embrace the beauty of slow and soak in the season of life we were in with our family. While it was one of the hardest seasons of my life, there was such beauty found in it.
This leads me to our next “life” plot twist.
For the last few months, Jer and I have been working on two different business endeavors. Both had zero to do with network marketing. We both were creating and developing products for two different storefronts and while it’s on pause for a month or two, we will be launching both businesses in 2024. That’s the goal anyway. We are passionate about both product lines. We were in the middle of development and having the time of our lives, when, INSERT MASSIVE PLOT TWIST. We had lunch with a friend, which led to business talk, which led to me trying some products, which then led to me saying, THERE IS NO WAY FOR THE RECORD I WILL EVER DO A NETWORK MARKETING BUSINESS AGAIN. (said in all caps.) The moment the words came out of my mouth, which I’ve said countless times, it stopped me in my tracks. It kind of made me sad. I also knew to never say never. I believe it’s when I realized something new could be on the horizon.
I went home and began using a few products, then a few more, then a few more. It only took a day for me to be feeling like a new person. I kid you not. It was wild. I began having idea after idea. I had my handy-dandy notebook on hand and began writing them all down. They were coming as fast as I could write them. It was freaking me out. I went from trying the products to FALLING HEAD OVER HILLS IN LOVE with the products. It was taking everything inside me not to shout it from the rooftops. I began to devour videos and educational materials. I wanted to understand how they worked. My mind was blown. It encompassed all Jer and I have been focusing on for the last two years in our health goals. I began to see the numbers we track daily begin to change for the better. The data was matching how I was feeling. I wanted to help others get this in their lives.
Last month I contacted the company I was with for the last two years and told them I wanted to resign. I wanted to leave differently than I did at my previous company. I am pleased to say I now can officially discuss all that we are stepping into in this next season of our lives. If we are friends or family, or I personally connected you to Modere, we can chat, but if I met you through Modere, I am not allowed to help you on this new journey until December 2024. Again, I want zero drama. This is a drama-free zone.
Everything we do is out of fear or love. I am stepping into this new season out of deep love. The deep love of a product. The deep love of the vision of the company. The deep love of the culture that has been created at a corporate level. It’s funny, Jer and I have been saying this a lot over the last two years. Everything we do is out of fear or love. It helps me process so many situations I encounter. It’s very fitting that the company name means “LOVE”.
AMARE.
I am so thankful for the last two years. The Lord has restored my soul. I have discovered the beauty of slow. I have a new vision. I am refreshed and revived. I am ready to step into this new season with confidence and boldness. Not because of who I am, but because I know WHOSE I am, and the work He’s done in me over the last two years.
I want to walk this out with YOU. I’m going to close this writing here because it’s getting rather lengthy, but if you want to hear about my love for these products and my vision for this new journey, you can check it out in this post, Step into a Healthy and Happy You in 2024. I can’t wait to share all the details. The past year the Lord has been laying a framework out that I wanted to walk people through. I could never figure out for the life of me why I didn’t feel released to pull the trigger on it. It’s because He was FIRST, having me fully walk through it before I could walk others through it. Second, because I am confident, He had it planned out for this moment, for such a time as this. I will spell it all out for you in the post I just linked above. I not only have a passion for the products I will be sharing, but I also have a passion for the ways we can utilize these products along with some courses to walk out a healthy and happy YOU in 2024.
Before we part ways, my prayer is you thought of a plot twist or two in your own life as I was sharing mine. I pray you see beauty, even if there are ashes. I firmly believe when we keep our eyes on our Heavenly Father, He will work all things together for the good. That’s just how He rolls. Okay, if you are up for it, go check out that other post. We have a lot more to discuss.
