Portrait of a Happy Woman

Yup, HAPPY!

I am HAPPY to report that I got a job offer!  Because this is a public blog I am keeping the details private here but I can say that this new opportunity is with an established organization that is making exciting headway into the Texas market.  I am so HAPPY to be taking on a job that has an innovative edge to it and will be an interesting challenge for me!  Also, I can't wear jeans to this job, so I am HAPPY that I am going to take my wardrobe up a notch!

I am HAPPY to report that Katie received a job offer too!  Again, keeping things private.  But she is HAPPY :)

We are both HAPPY that we will be living in Austin by next week.  I am sure mom and dad are HAPPY to hear that too ;P

Most of you reading this know me well.  So I hope it's okay if I wear my heart on my sleeve for just a minute...

The Marsh "happy place"

I would be remiss if I didn't let everyone reading my Texas "story" know that all of this is from God.  God has been so good to me.  Even though I grew up in a christian home and was raised with those values - it wasn't until I found yoga (yep, yoga) and a certain amazing bible study group (SIC represent!) that I understood God on such a deeper, more meaningful, level.  

Joyce Meyer says that you really begin to change your life when you start praying to God's face and stop praying to his hand.  I heard this the other week and the idea stopped me in my tracks because, even though I respect God and my heart is in the right place when I talk to him, I know I was 90% of the time praying to his hand.  Now, when I pray, I make a conscious effort to be sure I am looking in the right direction.  It has made such a difference for me.

Just a quick testimony and example - before we went to Austin last week to begin our job hunt I consciously didn't pray to God's "hand" for a good work opportunity, a good boss, good pay, good coworkers, etc.  Instead, I prayed to God's "face" that the job he wanted for me would land right in my lap so that I would know it was his will for my life and not my own.  So I went to Austin and yeah, I did the diligent thing and uploaded my application to company after company.  But I didn't hear a peep from potential employers!

Why isn't anyone calling me back?!?!?!?  

Then I met up with a friend here in Austin after a long day of job hunting to relax and she casually mentioned that she had openings on her team.  I was set up with a phone interview the next day with her HR dept, and then I accepted a fantastic job offer at my in person interview the following week!  Y'all - that is exciting!  That is God - not Becky - providing for me every step of the way.

Cherry on top?  A really nice guy I've been talking to here in TX texted me after I accepted my offer and set a date to take me country dancing!  (Yes, I pray to God's face about all that stuff too :)

I might be getting ahead of myself but I look at a day like that and I see how God has placed person after person, opportunity after opportunity, and blessing after blessing in my life each day that I make it a point to seek him first.  It is not luck.  God is more - and wants to be more - active in our lives than we can possibly know.   Nothing is wasted.  And God wants a living relationship with all of us.  He wants to bless all of us but we've got to be willing to accept those blessings.  I know for a long time I was trapped in an emotional room of mirrors where I would wrap myself up in a blanket of self pity while sucking down a Big Gulp full of artificially sweetened unhappiness.  I couldn't hear or see God in my life because I was so wrapped up in my own selfishness.  Again, thanks to yoga and my bible study...I've been able to start taking that room of mirrors down!

I know this is weird and difficult for a lot of you to read.  And I thank you for loving me enough to read it and like me anyway.  I know how it all sounds!  But it is my truest truth...and I have I have to give thanks where thanks are due.  :)

Some of you LOVE that I am writing about this kind of thing and I thank you for loving me enough to read it too, lol :)

Things won't always be this picture perfect.  I'm grown up enough to know that life has its ups and downs.  But it is good to take time out and share when God has been good to you.  It is my wish for everyone reading this that you are experiencing what I've described in your own lives.

A year ago I thought "Okay, I guess I'll work a couple more years at my old job, maybe find a company closer to home so I won't have such a long commute, and then I'll find a way to comfortably sit back and watch life go on.  Because life just is not happening for me."

Instead I am in TEXAS, with an exciting new job opportunity, a new city to explore, new friendships to engage, going to BETH MOORE'S church!!!!!!!!!

Beth Moore church!!!

...annnnnd a cute texan is asking if I have a good pair of cowboy boots so he can take me country dancing.  :):)  Do I  have cowboy boots?  Ha!  Ohhhhhh boy....!

Y'all ... God is GOOD and he leaves no woman behind.  Here's a clip of my guru Beth Moore giving a talk at OUR (!!!!) church here in Houston if you are interested in understanding where all of this change in me is coming from:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9hq9min4vM

Much love and thanks for reading,
Beck

Jeremiah 29:11

The Message (MSG)

^10-11 This is God’s Word on the subject: “... I’ll show up and take care of you as I promised and bring you back home. I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.