Women of Reverence welcomes Mandi Arnold as a guest blogger.
Mandi is a single mom of two gorgeous adopted girls. Having being in the corporate world for 25 years, I took the leap to start my own business 3 years ago, and have loved the entrepreneurial journey!
I wear 2 hats in my business, doing corporate interior decorating and overseeing a Conference Centre in Durban.
My FB page for my company Workflow - https://www.facebook.com/workflow.enrichingspaces/ And for The Station https://www.facebook.com/thestationurbaneventspace/ Or www.thestation.org.za
I would describe myself as a creative, storytelling girly girl with a love for all things pretty.
As I sit down to write this, we find ourselves in the centre of a storm that is howling all around us, and around all the nations of the world. The vision boards we prepared for 2020 lie somewhere under a pile, and all the catch words we had for our year have been mislaid as we have collectively all been blindsided by a storm we did not see coming. Now that we have put on our lifejackets, bunkered down with our family, watched and listened to a flood of voices and opinions and statistics and tried to find our balance, most of us are a little shell-shocked if we’re honest - much like deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming truck. We’ve scrambled for our Bibles, devotions, podcasts, online Church services & Zoom homegroup meetings to find our peace; to find God in the storm and to navigate our way through the wind and waves until we reach land again. And today maybe, like me, you are a businesswoman – self-employed or in the corporate arena; a business owner, an entrepreneur, a working gal. My encouragement today is for you. What does this global pandemic mean for your business? What will become of your future income? How the heck are we going to pay our bills and keep working? All these questions swirl in our heads as we navigate our new normal and what this will mean in a business context. I’d like to encourage you with a few truths that I have held onto over this time. As a single self-employed mom of 2 gorgeous young girls, I have had to wrestle to find truth and peace as my anchor or else I know I would be at risk of being swept away by fear and anxiety. This is what I’m learning, hope it resonates and encourages you too : • I keep seeing in my mind’s eye a picture of Jesus on the water in front of me with the storm swirling all around and He keeps telling me, quite sternly sometimes to keep my eyes forward and up and only on Him as I walk on the water towards Him. “Look at Me” I keep hearing Him say. Ladies, it’s a daily choice not to look at the hectic waves or to take our eyes off Him for a second. Just keep looking at Him and walking forward. • God’s plans to prosper you in business has not changed. The corona virus did not take Him by surprise and have Him scrambling for Plan B for 2020. He is perfectly in control and perfectly working all things together for our ultimate good – whether it feels like it or not. I am reminded of Genesis 50:20 in the story of Joseph, which is pertinent for us now. “You (COVID-19) intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so that I could save the lives of many people.” Ladies, the vision that God has for your business and your work is larger than you have for it. At this end of this storm, your business will be better and stronger and it will impact more lives than it did before the storm. If you believe that, you’ll be excited and full of faith, knowing that this will work out for the long term good of your business. This feels to me also like a restart button has been pressed. When systems are not responding, processes are slow, impaired and faulty, we hit CTRL, ALT, DEL and we restart. This is the chance to restart; shut down what isn’t working;, speed up your processes and re-open better! Let’s use this time to re-imagine, re-shape our dreams, align our businesses with the changed world, shut down what is slow and unfruitful and get ready to restart with momentum!! I have absolutely no doubt that many new business opportunities are going to be created through this pandemic, and the creative God of the universe is poised to download creative, unique amazing ideas and business opportunities to meet these needs. We need to stay agile and flexible to adapt our work and change lanes if necessary – if our current plan doesn’t work, let’s change the plan, but never the goal, which is for our businesses to be a tool to bring His Kingdom to a fallen world.
Friends, our economy is going to be better at the end of this; I am convinced this is going to be the catalyst to fix what has been broken for a long time and to really jumpstart the economy for us all. Keep looking at Him until the storm passes – and it will – and on the other side we will be shaped and prepared and poised to lay hold of the inheritance that awaits our businesses. And its going to be an inheritance that saves you, and the livelihoods of many, many people.
Hold your lines, and hold onto this beautiful promise from Colossians 1:3-5 The Message translation : “The lines of purpose in your lives never grow slack, tightly tied as they are to your future in heaven, kept taught by hope.”
Much Love
Mandi