How to Handle Seasons When It Feels Like God is Delaying Your Dreams

WEBVTT

00:00:00.336 --> 00:00:19.268
A closed door means God is trying to protect you from something that you are not ready for, that you're not mature enough for, that you may not even really like, that you think you want but it isn't what you want. And that is the Lord protecting you.

00:00:20.454 --> 00:00:23.099
And your perspective really has to change.

00:00:32.237 --> 00:01:08.882
Hey everybody and welcome to the Family Business with the Alessis podcast. Today it is me, Stephanie Muña, with my husband Chris Muña, and we are super excited to dive into today's topics. We, uh, first of all, we just want to thank you all for watching. We have passed the 1 million views on YouTube and it has been way past it, so let's keep growing to 2 million. I think we need those goals, we need those numbers. But this is a very exciting day. We want to dive into our topic about when things take long to develop, is God still in it?

00:01:09.670 --> 00:01:42.085
And when it comes to this topic, we really want to get the conversation going. So put in the comments what you're thinking. What are you waiting for? What process are you currently in the development for? And we have our own processes, we have our own stories that you would— you're going to hear at the end of this podcast. But if you have anything, please post them in the comments because we love to hear what our audience is going through. What are you processing through so that we could pray about it and also include it in our podcast? But we're going to dive into this.

00:01:42.454 --> 00:01:46.227
Are you ready for When Things Take Long to Develop, Is God Still in It?

00:01:46.275 --> 00:02:31.730
I'm ready. And I know this topic has probably been way over-preached and talked about of God is in the waiting and that whole thing. And we probably have our own experiences up until 36 years old, 29 years old. But there's people that are ahead of us in life that have waited on things that we haven't even got to yet. Yeah. So, well, that's not really what we're talking about. We're trying to figure out, is God in it or am I forcing this door? Yeah. How to know the difference, how to distinguish. Yeah. Whether he's kind of building something in us through this process of waiting, or if I'm creating an Ishmael. Yeah. Because I'm doing it on my own. Like, how to determine that? Yeah.

00:02:33.015 --> 00:03:50.768
Do we even know? Yeah. I think by the end of this podcast, we'll have an answer. Yeah. But yeah, let's get in it. No, and I think that exactly what you said, we can talk about the waiting season and all that, but let's talk about that question Am I pushing these doors open? Am I trying to make something happen that God does not want to happen? And this is such a tough place to be in because we look around— personally for me, this would kind of appear, this thought would appear in multiple capacities. One, with the music world, with me writing songs. That's you currently right now, where you're at in life? Yeah, yeah. Um, with the music world, wanting to see more of a response from that, wanting to see more, uh, open doors from that, more opportunities, and feeling like that hasn't quite come for the, for all the things that I do in the songwriting world. Um, even with sometimes like marriage, it's like, man, other marriages have it, they have it pretty simple. Things come easy for them. Is it harder for, for us? Is it harder for me to have to get through certain things, to agree on certain things? Even with like family matters or whatever it is, it's like, why does it seem like everybody else has an open door?

00:03:51.699 --> 00:04:06.372
Why does everybody else have it so easy? And I'm over here pushing to make this happen, pushing to make that door happen. With the songwriting, it did make me question, is this even like what I'm supposed to be doing?

00:04:06.645 --> 00:04:24.081
Is this even what God wants me to do? And that is where I, I really reached ahead and I'm like, man, I'm sure people are in that same boat where you're trying to make a business happen. You're trying to make, even you're in your single season and you really wanna get married and you question, am I supposed to get married?

00:04:24.548 --> 00:05:33.923
Am I supposed to be the one that just stays single forever and just like, you know, travel the world and, and search and serve my church? Is that supposed to be my life? Well, a lot of times, like you said, it can cause you to reflect on yourself, which is not a bad thing. You probably should do that to a certain degree. But how much as Christians should we be, instead of being like, what's wrong with me? Maybe be like, God, what are you working out in me? Like, what am I missing from you? What have I not heard from you yet? You know, because you're right, maybe you're a business owner that you're hustling, you are trying to grow that. And you look at all your competitors or your friends that have businesses and they're just taking off. Yeah. And you can look at them and be like, God, your hand is in their business. What about mine? Or like you said, maybe you're single and you've seen your friends getting married and you're now in your 30s and you're like, did God forget about me? Yeah. You know, it's something that is like universal. Yeah. Everybody is in a waiting season. Yeah. So How should our response be to get us through that? Yeah, because God's going to get us through it.

00:05:35.802 --> 00:05:43.014
I have never heard of somebody, or we don't read in the Bible, of an occasion where God literally forgot about somebody indefinitely.

00:05:43.254 --> 00:05:46.819
Like, your harvest will come. Yeah, yeah.

00:05:47.141 --> 00:06:15.071
It's just how do we respond during that? And I think the difference between The typical waiting season, what we're talking about is not necessarily a waiting season. It's how do we respond in this developing season? Because I'm doing everything I need to be doing. I'm, I'm sowing the seeds that everybody else is sowing, but why am I not getting the, the results that everybody else is getting?

00:06:15.904 --> 00:06:30.766
And that's a tricky place to be in because you can lead to burnout and exhaustion. Or just wondering, okay, then what am I producing? What am I doing this for? What am I developing all of this for if I'm not seeing my dreams come true?

00:06:31.634 --> 00:06:42.134
And I will say it is a very good place to be in as an adult now that I'm on the other side of it, where some dreams kind of die and new dreams are born.

00:06:42.487 --> 00:06:53.177
I think that God uses those seasons where you're developing and nothing is really being produced to cause you to question, do I even want this dream?

00:06:53.884 --> 00:07:01.264
Is it— do I— am I actually ready for this harvest to come my way, or do I need some more time to develop?

00:07:02.050 --> 00:07:35.622
Because I've talked to you about this before with the music world, a harvest means traveling. If I am a successful singer-songwriter, that means I have to be gone on Sundays. I have to be writing with, with people every single week. It fills up my schedule, and it, it means I have to get on a plane and travel. I have two babies at home. I have you. I have a church that I really love serving at on a weekly basis. I don't think I'm ready to travel. I don't think I'm ready to leave and to, to do that yet.

00:07:35.670 --> 00:08:39.769
I'm not, I'm not in that place. And maybe that time will come, but if the Lord is saying, hey, Steph, keep developing, but I'm going to bring the results later, If God is saying that, I've now grown to be okay with it. Because in the middle of all this developing, the Lord brought my dreams into alignment with his will, where probably 2 years ago my dreams were very out of alignment with his will. I wanted it now. I wanted that. I wanted exactly that career, that, uh, type of song, that type of branding, whatever it is. I wanted to be that type of songwriter on my time. And all of that seasons of developing finally got me to this point where I said, you know what? I don't want to do it in my power anymore. I don't want to do it in my strength. I want to do it in God's power, and I want to do it in his timing, because I don't think I'm going to like the result of what I pushed for anyways. You know what I mean? Yeah.

00:08:40.058 --> 00:08:46.581
You know, when it comes to the question, is God still in it because it's taking so long to develop?

00:08:47.849 --> 00:09:02.339
We were discussing Easter, and we're singing this song for Easter called Seasons by Hillsong, where it talks about that line that says, you could have saved us in a second, but instead you sent a child.

00:09:03.572 --> 00:09:41.938
Where God could have redeemed all of this by sending Jesus as a warrior who came into Jerusalem and knocked everything down and took over and conquered and became the king of the world. But he didn't. He sent him as a child, and then it took 30 years before he even started his ministry. So God takes his time, and then he takes more time even after that. So yeah, if things take a long time, God is always in it. He doesn't work within our timeline. He doesn't work within our expectations.

00:09:42.820 --> 00:09:55.769
He breaks all those barriers. He breaks all those boundaries, and he does it on his time. Thank God he does. And he's, he's, he's never far. Like, I think of the story of the Israelites when they were enslaved in Egypt.

00:09:56.317 --> 00:10:14.341
400 years. Yeah, that's —like 5 generations or more of a whole people that all they knew was enslavement. Very easy for them to be like, God forgot about us. Like that God that we read about, about Abraham and all that stuff, he's gone.

00:10:14.404 --> 00:10:24.408
He's not with us anymore. And it's not. He had a plan. And yeah, we read it in retrospect and we're like, no, God had a plan. It was only 400 years.

00:10:25.226 --> 00:10:28.775
400 years is like 2 times the age of America.

00:10:29.000 --> 00:10:39.325
Yeah, it's crazy for sure. But he's, he's, he's working it out. And a lot of times he's— or all the time— he's more interested in how we're developing. Yeah.

00:10:39.934 --> 00:10:43.418
Than the end result of what we want. For sure.

00:10:44.046 --> 00:11:21.120
So where do you think you had your season of development? Where did that happen for you? I mean, it's always, it's continual. It's continual. Probably the biggest one that is in my adult life was, you know, waiting to meet you. I met you when I was 30 years old. And that's a long time. I know there's people in there that are still single and they're in their 30s and it's a drag. It's hard, especially when you feel like you are ready and maybe you are ready. Yeah. But maybe the person that God has for you is not quite ready. And he's still working out the chess pieces to where your spouse will come.

00:11:21.361 --> 00:11:34.225
Yeah. But I think as Christians, we should be always in a season of harvest, not for everything in our life, but we should always be producing fruit in a sense.

00:11:34.514 --> 00:12:06.860
Yeah. And if you find yourself like, hey, there's— I'm like in this black hole where nothing is happening in my life. Then I kind of— I can question, okay, what seeds have you sown in other things? Or are you so singularly focused on your future spouse that you have forgotten to sow seeds or invest in your education or your friends or just experiences or your travel or your family that you do have, you know, your cousins or your parents or your siblings?

00:12:08.418 --> 00:12:23.682
We should always be in a season of harvest. Yeah. Yeah. In some capacity, in some way as Christians. Yeah. Because, I mean, that's what we're, we're here to, to sow and reap. Yeah. That's a principle. It's not just on one thing that we want.

00:12:23.988 --> 00:12:26.732
Yeah. So I'm the harvest that you reaped.

00:12:27.744 --> 00:12:31.386
That would probably be my, my biggest adult life harvest.

00:12:31.515 --> 00:12:42.399
Yeah. Now let's continue. I'm growing a business on the side. You know, and I see little harvest, but I'm pursuing it and growing it and trying to— I don't— I believe it's not where it's going to end.

00:12:42.527 --> 00:13:01.783
It's still a work in progress, you know, even in our kids. Like, we're every day we are sowing seeds, trying to raise them up. Yeah. How? And that's a huge development process. Yeah. And probably one we won't see the harvest of that until 20 years from now. And talk about hoping that God is in it.

00:13:02.537 --> 00:13:19.653
Yeah. Like, am I doing this right? Am I actually raising them to love God and are we going to in 16 years, you know, see something different? It's like, no, God, I refuse. My children are going to love the Lord. They're going to serve the Lord. If any of them think they're going to run away from this, then I— this is— this— that's not happening.

00:13:19.767 --> 00:13:30.730
That is not one of the options. Yeah, but I'm a big believer of just taking action. Yeah. And taking those steps, but being sensitive to see about doors closed.

00:13:31.067 --> 00:13:34.594
Yeah. If there's no closed doors and in my mind, then that's a door open.

00:13:35.219 --> 00:13:49.421
And I'm going to keep walking through that door until I run into a closed door. So I'm a big action person. So that's just kind of like how I do things. No, for sure.

00:13:50.366 --> 00:15:02.261
And the truth is, again, it's not waiting because the waiting season is, okay, I've done everything I can. Now I just have to sit around and wait for God to come through. It's those seasons where you are going on the dates, you are doing the dating apps, you are trying to grow the business, you are making the cold calls and nothing comes through. So in a way, it's not that nothing has come up yet. You actually feel like you have some shut doors in your way where you are getting the red light. I know how that feels, where it's like, what is going on? I just keep getting a red light. I can't get a green light like everybody else does. And you do look around and wonder, how did they get their green light? How did they get their open door? How did it happen so easily for them? And I learned two things. Number one, you have no idea the sacrifices those people made to get their green light. And sometimes you don't even want to go through what they went through to get— No, you don't. And they're continuing to make those sacrifices. We were having a conversation with somebody the other day. You know, they love their job. Is it what they would want? No.

00:15:02.663 --> 00:15:17.645
But they get a wonderful paycheck out of it where their wife can stay home, they can, they can take care of their kids. And we realize, hey, that's kind of adulthood. If you want big success, it's going to come with big sacrifice, especially with the city that we live in.

00:15:18.544 --> 00:17:33.810
And you don't want to ever judge, or you don't ever want to compare yourself to other people that have it easy because you don't know how easy they actually have it. So that's one thing. And then number two, closed doors say so much more than open doors, cuz open doors mean run, go do it, do what you wanna do. You wanna grow that business, you wanna marry that person, you wanna go and achieve that goal and you have a green light, then go do it. You know exactly what you got to do. Make it happen. A closed door means God is trying to protect you from something that you are not ready for, that you're not mature enough for, that you may not even really like, that you think you want but it isn't what you want. And that is the Lord protecting you. and your perspective really has to change. I would get so defeated when I would get a closed door, and I would become so disappointed because that, for me, just deflated all of my, my excitement when I got a red light, when I got the closed door. Now that a little bit of time has passed and God has revealed what those closed doors meant Now, when I get a red light, I am so grateful that the Lord has said no to something because that means he's protecting me. And that's a perfect example of what we're talking about, like how God is developing in us certain things that can only come through closed doors and disappointments and nos and rejections. You know, you've sent out emails and tried to call other writers to write with you. And you've gotten flat out nos. Yeah. You know, that has produced in you perseverance. Yeah. And just like a hardening. And I'm going to trust in God even more in this because I have nobody else to, to pray to and talk to and trust in if it's not God. If God doesn't make this happen, there is no way that I can make it happen. Yeah. You know, that's the end result. That's what God wants to produce in us. Yeah.

00:17:34.452 --> 00:17:41.278
No, and my mom always said, if you're gonna push doors open, then be careful because you might make a few Ishmaels along the way.

00:17:42.242 --> 00:18:06.295
That if God has given you that promise that he will make something happen in your life, let the Lord do it in his own time and in his own way. Because if you start to push to make it happen, you might end up with a result that you're stuck with forever that wasn't what you really wanted, and it's more of a burden than it is a blessing. So I wanna change the tone a little bit and I wanna ask you something because we've been married for 5 years.

00:18:07.209 --> 00:19:20.771
It has not been perfect, but it's also been really great. We've learned so much about each other and we can happily say we love marriage. Even if times get tense, we love marriage and we have a wonderful time. Um, marriage though did take, for you and I, it was, it required a lot of developing, a lot of hard conversations, a lot of arguments, a lot of late night talks, all of that, a lot of asking people for advice. Did you ever have a moment where you wondered, man, this is much harder than I expected? Like the developing of marriage, the development of like a unity in marriage, the leaving and cleaving, the becoming one. The becoming aligned, because that requires developing. And did you ever wonder, this is taking a little bit longer than I expected? And then what did you learn throughout that developing? I don't know if I ever questioned, like, this is a lot harder than I thought, or this is taking longer. But I did question, when is this just going to, like, flow? When is this just going to be easy? When is this just going to, like, happen. Yeah.

00:19:22.250 --> 00:20:15.765
And yeah, I think we're still working that out. But did you have a perspective shift that kind of helped you? Did learn to finally flow? Because we flow now. I feel like we've reached a really good flow. 5 years, something clicked in us where it's like, okay, I accept you for who you are. I know who you are. I really like who you are. But was there a perspective change that you had to make? I don't think there was, like, this one moment that I can turn to. I think it was just a series of moments and arguments that we got over, and then we would look back and be like, wow, we grew from that, or how dumb was that? Like, a bunch of those to get us to where I am now. But I can't really pin it on one singular moment. Yeah.

00:20:15.845 --> 00:22:10.976
So what are some of them? What are some of the moments? I don't know. I'm just trying to find a solid answer. I think one of the big ones was being on the same team. Mm-hmm. Making sure that— or just realizing, okay, I can't just pull in my direction and her in her direction and expect us to come out on the same team on the, like, after. Yeah. Like, how do we figure out to where we are supporting each other and, you know, showing a unified front and really feeling like, hey, you are my helper, you are my teammate, I am your teammate, like, for real. Because I think in the beginning it's, it's like so superficial. Yeah. But then as soon as, like, the roots weren't there, but as soon as there's an actual obstacle that would challenge that, we would just fall apart. Yeah. And we would go in our own directions. Yeah. And it revealed that we're not really on the same team. Yeah. And it wasn't until we hit a, like, a, I guess, a confrontation or an argument that really revealed our true hearts when it came to the whole teamwork thing. Yeah, yeah. That we would look back on and be like, that was pretty bad. Like, yeah, we shouldn't be talking like that, or we— our mindsets are really off. Yeah. You know, we had the maturity after 5 years to realize it. Yeah. And I think it's because we saw our sin and how ugly it was. Yeah. And then it kind of caused us to be like, okay, we need to continually work on this. It's never going to be perfect, but we can't just be lackadaisical about being on the same team. We always have to be reminding ourselves and each other about that. Yeah.

00:22:12.644 --> 00:22:22.946
I like how you mentioned, you know, there were moments where we wondered, when is this going to start being easy? And when is this going to start feeling like, okay, we've relaxed, we know each other.

00:22:23.477 --> 00:22:35.117
And I feel like we finally reached that point when we accepted each other for who we were and we didn't hold this responsibility to change each other.

00:22:35.695 --> 00:22:57.834
Like, I really— maybe this is what women have to do and not what men have to do. It's such a different process for men and women. But I know for me as a wife, I had to just let you be who you were and not be my husband's keeper and not be the one that's always like, okay, don't say it like that, Chris.

00:22:58.411 --> 00:23:09.789
Don't do this. No, stop. And just let you be. Let you— and not just let you be, but actually accept who you are and be proud of who you are.

00:23:10.608 --> 00:23:51.528
Because I do see a lot of couples take each other for granted. And the gifts that their spouse have, all of their friends— all of their friends, sorry, all of their friends and all of their family appreciate those gifts sometimes more than the spouse do. And like, for example, you are, um, somebody who you do like to stay home and have a dinner at the table. You don't want to go out every single night. You like to have the kids in bed by a certain hour. You, you like to be home. You are the homebody. I can be out every single night, like literally every single night I can go out.

00:23:52.428 --> 00:24:29.878
And I remember thinking, well, gosh, you, you— I would see your side of things in such a negative view until a couple years ago I realized, wait a minute, what he's doing is establishing. He doesn't hold me down, he establishes me. He gives us roots, he gives us a, a rhythm, he gives us a life to be proud of. And I— what clicked is when I noticed that people would appreciate that in you more than I would, and I would find— I would resent it more.

00:24:30.906 --> 00:24:41.746
And when I finally saw, wait a minute, God partnered me with this person for a reason. He blessed me with this person. He blessed me with their gifts. He blessed me with their strengths.

00:24:42.387 --> 00:24:49.339
Then that's when I, I started to be very grateful for the man that you were and grateful for your gifts and grateful for your personality.

00:24:50.159 --> 00:25:33.105
And that's when I— it wasn't just, okay, I leave you to God. It actually was like a graduation from that of You know what? God gave you to me, and I'm now really thankful for what God has given me. Where now that is what made me finally relax. Because when you said, no, let's go home, I didn't see it as a, oh, he, of course he always wants to go home. It's no, yeah, we need to go home. I need to go home and make a dinner. I wanna go home and I want, I wanna chill. I wanna get in bed early. We're gonna be well rested. We'll, we will enjoy our life, our night more if we go home. And my perspective changed completely. And I would even encourage others that feel the same way in their marriage, where you're wondering, when is this?

00:25:33.184 --> 00:25:50.578
When is the dust going to settle? When are we going to finally feel like we're in a rhythm or we're in a normal life, or like we can live side by side with joy? I think it all comes down to perspective change. Because are you— sorry.

00:25:51.396 --> 00:25:58.510
But last thing, are you making— are you looking at your spouse like your greatest hindrance or like your greatest blessing?

00:25:59.167 --> 00:26:18.173
And if you can change your perspective in that way, then it will allow you to see they help guide me, they help ground me. We work together to strengthen each other. So just looking at it as, okay, God gave me my spouse and he did it for a reason, which means I'm not perfect. Yeah.

00:26:18.414 --> 00:26:37.315
And I think it takes a couple of years in marriage to kind of let go of how I do things or how I saw things done in my parents, you know, because it's really the only guide we have until we get married. And to be like, okay, there's another way. Yeah. And it doesn't mean it's the wrong way.

00:26:38.067 --> 00:27:11.122
So how is my perspective? And if I believe that God brought you to me or me to you, then that means your way is valid. And I can't just write it off and be like, no, we're never going out. Or you only get one night a week to go out. Like, that's not right. That's not correct. Yeah. Yeah. There are things that you do that in the beginning would irk. Guys, you don't know how many times we'd show up to church on Sunday morning and our kids would not have shoes, you know, because she left them in the house. Or that happened twice. Or once. That only happened once.

00:27:11.378 --> 00:27:59.477
But things like that that now I look at it, I'm like, All right. No shoes. Like, it's going to be an interesting day. I know. That was stupid. No, but in the beginning, those are things that I'm like, how can, how can she forget their lunch? How could she forget their shoes? I never forgot their lunch. I'm just making a point. Like, now I look at that and I'm like, that's my wife. And I love that. And it just means we're going to have a different day than, than expected, or she's going to have to wash their feet. At the end of the day, or, you know, we'll order in or order lunch in instead of, you know, packing lunch or different things like that, that they're— I don't look at them as such negative things. I just look at them as that's us. Yeah. You know, and you bring a certain fun to our life. Yeah.

00:27:59.766 --> 00:28:33.136
That if it was my way and everything was orderly and, and maybe it would be a little bit more boring. You know, so those things about you that in the beginning would kind of irk me, I have to just look at them differently. Like, my wife has a creative mind. Yeah. You know, and yeah, she forgets some things, but she brings a lot of things to the table that I don't or I can't or I'm not naturally good at. And without you, life would be boring. Yeah. You know, sure, it would be orderly, but it would be boring. Oh, come on, babe. I'm not that bad. I do pretty good now.

00:28:33.217 --> 00:28:36.365
I'm not saying you're bad. I'm saying that you bring a lot of fun. Yeah.

00:28:36.847 --> 00:28:51.500
To life. And looking back at those stories now is like, that was funny. Yeah. Our kids were on a Sunday morning. No shoes. That was ridiculous. Yeah. Um, and that was just, you, we do have to admit that was just a miscommunication on both of our ends.

00:28:52.096 --> 00:29:20.930
We could have said, I have the shoes. No, you don't think so. You still think it's my fault. Yeah. Okay, then we're going to talk about that in our next— in our next one. Podcast. I don't want to talk about it. Gender roles. Would you say that I am the joy of your life? Oh, yeah, for sure. Can you state that? I did. I did. Just verbatim would be nice. You are the joy of my life. That's nice. You want to say anything else? No. What else are we going to talk about?

00:29:21.653 --> 00:29:29.357
Well, to reel it back. Marriage, uh, needed a lot of development. But again, like, it's crazy.

00:29:29.519 --> 00:29:33.226
God is so wise in how he uses those developing seasons.

00:29:34.349 --> 00:29:38.040
He uses them to change us, and he's not going to change.

00:29:38.651 --> 00:29:46.066
He's been developing humans since the beginning of the time— of time. He knows, he knows what we need. He knows what we need to adjust.

00:29:46.273 --> 00:29:53.875
And, um, you know, I always see it as like The ocean is never going to, never going to change. The ocean is the ocean.

00:29:54.132 --> 00:30:00.925
When a storm comes, the storm's going to be awful. When it's a beautiful day, it's going to be the most beautiful thing you've ever seen.

00:30:01.583 --> 00:30:12.624
And the ocean is unpredictable, but it does whatever it wants. Us as sailors, if you have a boat and you are a sailor, you have to adjust your sails.

00:30:13.361 --> 00:30:16.469
You have to prepare for those changes. You have to prepare for those storms.

00:30:17.288 --> 00:30:31.561
And that's kind of how I see our relationship with the Lord whenever we're going through these developing seasons. God is going to do whatever he wants to do. He's going to tell you no because he knows. He is going to give you a green light because that's what he chose.

00:30:32.059 --> 00:31:09.211
The Bible says he chooses to— he chooses mercy to whom he decides mercy, and he chooses justice to those who need justice. I butchered that, but whatever. He's gonna choose. He is the all-wise one. He operates in his sovereignty, and he never turns that off. That is who he is. So if that is who we're working with, I have to adjust. I have to adjust how I view my dreams. I have to adjust how I view my marriage. It is really up to me. And there will be times where it's like, okay, Lord, I've been faithful to you.

00:31:09.820 --> 00:31:17.241
I've been sowing the seeds you've told me to sow. I have been the wife you've needed me to be. So Lord, come through.

00:31:17.898 --> 00:31:21.073
I've done my part. I'm trusting that you will do yours.

00:31:21.746 --> 00:31:36.219
But he uses those developing seasons to make us such a better person. And thank God he does, because Lord knows we all need to be a little better. We need to be a little bit more patient. We need to be more kind to our spouses and more grateful for what God gives us.

00:31:36.955 --> 00:31:43.108
The key though is not to take things into your own hands when you are in that place. Yeah. Nothing happening.

00:31:43.541 --> 00:31:58.057
Yeah. Like I always think of that Bible verse of how God brings the early and the latter rains. Yeah. So when the seed was sown in the ground, it rained and they would, they would plan it out according to the time of the year and stuff. And then it would be dry, especially in the Middle East.

00:31:58.201 --> 00:32:23.767
Yeah. And then right before harvest, there would be another rain. Yeah. And that would cause everything to, I guess, be ready for harvest. Yeah. And that's our life. We're going to see a season of rain, of plenty, and then it's going to be dry, and then bam, another season of harvest and plenty. And that's just how God operates through all time in the Bible. That's the example we see how he operates time and time again.

00:32:24.761 --> 00:33:05.124
And it's the same in our lives. We can't expect anything different. We have to be okay with it, like you're saying. And we have to know All right, God is in it. If I am following his commands, if I'm obedient to what he's saying, if I'm, you know, plugged into a church and have a good relationship with the Lord, then I'm in his perfect will. Yeah, just means it's going to take time. Time. And last thing, you know, something that I learned this past year during the Christmas time, we were having so many conversations with our family about ministry stuff, and people probably see it, but working with your family in ministry is hard.

00:33:05.846 --> 00:33:27.280
It is hard. I don't think it's the hardest thing out there. People probably have it much harder because thank God we're a family, we could be honest with each other and transparent. But there are days where we would reach ahead and wonder, when is this going to when are we gonna figure it out? Like, when is it gonna feel like we know what we're doing?

00:33:28.181 --> 00:33:43.028
And this past Christmas time, we ran into a head with some things. I'll just be honest, it was my brother and I. We had like just really come to this point of like, we gotta figure something out because we don't know what we're doing.

00:33:43.847 --> 00:33:57.221
And I was asking my parents, I was asking other people, for a solution. How do I work this stuff out with my brother? How do I work with my brother? How do I make this happen? And you know what everybody's responses were?

00:33:57.990 --> 00:34:50.505
Steph, we don't know. We don't know. That this is life. This is doing ministry with your family that is transitioning and that's growing and that's going into the next season. And I did get this image of like The Lord gave us a massive boulder, and it is a huge rock boulder, and he gave us a hammer and a nail, and I will be spending the rest of my life chiseling and chiseling and chiseling, and I don't think I'm ever going to quite have it figured out. I'll have a few things figured out with ministry. I'll learn a lot, and the Lord's going to teach me a lot, But I don't think I'm ever going to become an expert at what we're doing because this is so much bigger than myself. This is so much bigger than my family.

00:34:51.019 --> 00:35:55.923
God's always going to change things on us, and I just have to be in the position of I'm going to be developing till the, till the day I die. I'm going to be developing with my siblings, with you, with my kids, with my life, with my church, with ministry, all the time. And life is that, and I better get comfortable being, just being uncomfortable. I have to find comfort in the discomfort because, and I have to find a rhythm in the developing because this development process, it can last for another 10, 15 years. And that's just life, and there's nothing wrong with it. In fact, this is exactly how God ordered it. Well, just being comfortable in relying and trusting on God, because as soon as we have it figured out, what do we need God for? Yeah. And he knows that. You're right. You're exactly right. So like you're saying, what are we doing in the midst of it? Are we still seeking him? Are we praying early in the morning? Are we doing those things? And we do it more when we need him more. That's just the reality of humanity. Yeah.

00:35:56.452 --> 00:36:30.494
Yeah, that's good. Well, I love that. I think that you and I, we're in that season right now. And I have learned to fall in love with the developing season because we've seen some really good fruit from the developing. And the fact that we get the opportunity to develop more in our marriage and each other means that we're gonna have more fruit at the end of this. So I'm very excited for that. And I hope that our listeners, you can make that perspective change too, that this isn't a— it's gonna refine us, but it's not something that we've been burdened with.

00:36:30.927 --> 00:37:40.672
It's an opportunity that we've been blessed with to be in the developing, to become more like the Lord, to be more aligned with him and aligned with each other, and to find more peace with each other. The developing season is good, and there's joy in it. So I hope that this blessed you. You want to say anything else? No, no, that's good. I hope that this blessed you today. Again, my name is Stephanie, and this is my husband Chris, and we just had a wonderful conversation where we shared about God in the developing season. And we pray that this blessed you. Please put in the comments if you enjoyed this conversation and what are some things that you are currently developing in your life. We got honest with each other, so get honest with us in the comments. Thanks so much for listening today and welcome— or thank you so much for listening today and thanks for tuning in to The Family Business with the Alessis. Hold on, let me do that one So thank you so much for tuning in today, and let's see you again for The Family Business with the Alessis. Thanks so much for joining The Family Business today. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to follow or subscribe, share with a friend, and leave us a review.

00:37:41.420 --> 00:37:47.268
We appreciate your support and can't wait to have you join us next time, because family is everybody's business.