What do you want to be when you grow up?

A teacher, astronaut, fashion designer, model, dance teacher, and flight attendant. Those were my answers to that question through my elementary school years. In middle school I stuck with the dance theme and I wanted to be a professional dancer and own a dance school. High School brought about the idea of being a counselor or psychologist. On my college application I declared psychology as my major. (I graduated with a degree in Communications and Sociology.)

The college years came with the thoughts of being a music producer or entertainment management. Then I became "socially aware" and wanted to be Miss America (yes I was a pageant girl) and then become a politician. You know there are so many former Miss America's turned politician out there. The goal was to use my influence to change the world. Though I did not pursue politics, I did the next best thing... I went to work for a non profit agency.

Honestly, the only thing I ever knew for certain was that God had called me to ministry. I didn't know what ministry, but I was willing to try as many as possible to find out. My freshman year of college Dr. Susan Underwood at Carson Newman College (Go Eagles!) assigned a research paper to her English 101 students about their career goals. Since ministry was the only thing I was sure of, that is what I wrote about. I wrote about being a pastor's wife to be exact. My associate pastor's wife was the focus of my research. I further explored ministry by taking an internship with a local church the summer between my junior and senior year. (That was probably the best summer of my life!)

Like I said before, upon graduation I took a job with a non profit and after a few years I went to another non profit. I have considered many other jobs: event planner, graphic design, child care, teaching, acting, and a few more. It never made sense to me that I couldn't put my finger on my ministry and I could never find the "perfect" job for me. Don't get me wrong, I like my job and enjoyed most of the others that I have had, but nothing has ever seemed perfect. I was never making that huge impact on the world that I felt I should be.

Then came December...

The last eight months have brought a lot of things to light for me. I have finally found my niche. As much as I like my current job and enjoy the children's and youth ministries that I am involved in, nothing is a better fit for me than being mom. Don't get me wrong, I am learning a lot as I go. I don't have it all figured out and never will. What I do know is that I am changing the world everyday. Changing the world of one little fella who knows that his Mommy and Daddy love him more than he can imagine. My ministry is my family.

It all became very real to me this weekend when I asked my 15 month old, "Who loves Reese?" Without prompting, his reply was, "God." There is no other job I would rather have!