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Show Notes:

There is never a shortage of decisions to be made in regards to your work.

What should I be doing for my career? Should I stop working when I have children? Do I go back to work? And if I do, when should I go back to work? How much should I be working? Should I close down my work? Should I start something new? Should I hire someone? Do I need to fire someone? How do I spend my time this year? How do I spend my time today? The decisions go on and on.

In today's episode, I'm going to encourage you with some tools that you can use when making a big decision in regards to your work. And I'm just gonna be here to remind you that God's got you and He's got your business from beginning to end.

For the full episode, hit play above or read through below.

All right, I'm gonna start by just sharing a quick list of work decisions that I have had to make at some point in the last, I don't know, 10-15 years of my life…

Do I keep my business as a husband and wife photography team, or do I grow it to associate photographers?
Do I hire an intern or not?
What is a healthy amount of weddings to book in a year for me, for my family, and for a profitable business?
Should I launch the Nancy Ray Shop?
Should I start a podcast?
Should I close down the doors of my business? (And you can listen back to episode four to hear all about that story when I did actually close it down.)
Should I create a course? And if so, what should it be about?
What do I do about Instagram? We're still all asking that—what do we do about Instagram?
What do we do about social media marketing and my mental health?
How long do I take off for maternity leave?
How much should I be working as a mom of one and then as a mom of two, and then as a mom of three, and then as a mom of four?
Should I be working at all?
And my most recent big decision was, Do I hire someone new or do I partner with a marketing team to grow my business and keep the limited hours that I wanna be working?

So if you don't know much about me, Hi, I'm Nancy. I'm really glad that you're listening. I ran a photography business called Nancy Ray Photography for 12 years, and I grew that from just me to me and my husband shooting weddings to then an intern and then an employee. And then I decided to grow a team of associate photographers. And I had two associate wedding photographers, a family photographer and three interns throughout the year. My husband and I ran that business. Then at the end of 2019, we closed that down.

And I have since basically just been doing this podcast and selling a few online courses on the side, very different seasons of business in my life. And throughout that time, about I think maybe 6, no, 8 years into my photography business is when I had Milly, my daughter. And then I went on to have a total of four kids: Milly, Lyndon, Beaufort, and Benji. And life changes. My family changed, my work desires changed, the Lord led me in and out of different seasons of work. But here's the thing, I was constantly and I still am constantly having to make decisions about my work, and I don't think that's something that will ever stop because life keeps changing, my family keeps changing, my desires keep changing, and what the Lord desires of me keeps changing.

So there are three podcast episodes I just want to direct your attention to. If you want more of a deep dive on Seasons of Business and how God led me to close down my photography business after 12 really successful, wonderful years. That’s episode four.

I've also done an episode on taking maternity leave. How long, kind of how I prepare for that and what that looks like.

And I've done some episodes on growing a team and taking time off social media. So I know I hit on a bunch of those things in my list of decisions, and I'll be sure to leave links to those episodes below. Here's the deal. Decisions never stop. And I believe that we are to keep taking those decisions before the Lord again and again in regards to our work specifically because I think God cares deeply about the work that we're doing, and I think that he blesses us when we take those decisions before him.

There's a verse that I read this year that I have held onto so tightly, and I'm gonna quote it a lot in this episode because my secret hope, my not so secret hope, is that you would leave this episode with it memorized because it has just been such a blessing to me.

If you don't get anything else out of this episode, I hope you just take this verse and hold tight to it. It's Colossians 2:3, and it says,

“In him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, all of them, all of them in Him in Jesus, are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

And that pertains to you, and that pertains to every single decision that you are making in your life and in your business. So a couple of points of encouragement, and then I'm gonna share a tool that I really love to use when I'm making big decisions. Okay?

First, I just wanna encourage you to keep in step with the Holy Spirit.

Galatians 5:16 literally says, keep in step with the Holy Spirit. Walk with him. Trust him to speak to you. If you are his son or daughter, he knows you. He knows the season of life that you are in. He knows your family and he knows the work of your hands. He put the gifts that you have inside of you and it delights him to lead you, and it delights his heart.

When you ask him for his leadership, it's like a good dad, like a kid saying, dad, can you help me with this thing that I don't see clearly? I don't understand. I wanna do the right thing. Wouldn't that just bless a dad's heart for a kid to say that to a dad? It's the same thing with the Lord. So just keep in step with the Holy Spirit.

Try to spend time in his presence knowing that as you do every single day, if you just worship him, if you get in his word, if you talk to him, he will speak to you. He is leading you. So keep in step with the Holy Spirit. Also, just wanna acknowledge that work is seasonal. It's seasonal it, it doesn't,

it's not. I feel like we're taught as a kid, like, okay, you go to college, you choose your major, and then you're supposed to work in that career the rest of your life. I'm a firm believer that the opposite is true. Work is seasonal. The sooner we figure that out, the better. It's a good thing to pivot and change when that's what life requires of you,

or if that's how God is leading you. It's good to start things and it's good to end things. Trust him in that. I did another podcast episode on your calling versus Your Assignment, and I'll just tell you the summary of that right now. I'll also leave it as a link in the show notes. But the summary of that is that your calling is to walk with the Lord.

Your calling is to be submitted to Jesus and to follow him. That's your calling. Your assignment will change throughout your life. Your assignment is based on the work that God wants you to do in the season that you're in. So if you wanna go listen to that episode, do it if you wanna deep dive. But that's pretty much the whole thing.

In summary, your calling is to keep your eyes on Jesus. Your assignment will change, and it's good that it changes. Lastly, I love this verse. It just is a comfort to me honestly, because sometimes I feel like when I go to the Lord, I'm like, Lord, can you help me with this? I need help with this.

Can. Can you guide me in this? Sometimes I can start to feel like, is this even important enough? Is this even a big deal enough? Am I a bother? And then I read first Peter five, seven, and it says, cast your cares on the Lord because he cares for you. Scripture actually tells us to do that. Tell him about your cares,

your worries, your decisions, your anxieties. Cast all of that on him. Let him take that because we weren't meant to carry it. We're meant to give it to him and allow him to lead us. So my simple encouragement is just to talk to him. If you're facing a big decision, especially in your work, talk to him. It matters deeply to you and your heart.

I know that because my decisions have always mattered deeply to me. I think about them a lot. It affects me emotionally when I'm trying to make an a big decision. But the Lord says, just cast your cares on him in the amplified version. So beautiful. It says, casting all your cares, all your anxieties, all your worries and all your concerns once and for all on him,

for he cares about you with deepest affection and watches over you very carefully. I'm just gonna pause right there because I feel like that is so beautiful. Somebody needed to hear that mostly I, me, I needed to hear that. So if you're facing a big decision in your work and you need some direction, I'm gonna share with you this tool that's called a five point Discernment Tool,

and it's from C 12 s resources. I will link it. I did not come up with it, but my husband works for an incredible organization called C 12. And it's all about building great businesses for a greater purpose, meaning building a great business that's profitable and successful for a greater purpose, doing kingdom work for the glory of God. So these are the five points that you can kind of walk through in your own life.

If you're trying to make a big decision and you want God's leadership on it and you're not sure you can check it against these five things. Number one, God's written word. What does God's word say about it? What does God's word say about how you're handling it? Do you have peace about it? God's word is the only book that we can fully trust because it's the inherent word of God,

and it's so important to stay in scripture and know what God's word is saying about work, about how you're supposed to handle yourself about all areas of life. So be in the Word and make sure that your decision is in alignment with the word of God. Number two, circumstances. Your circumstances in your life are very important. When you're trying to make a decision.

Look around you, look at the people in your life, their needs, your circumstances are there to kind of test and guide and even constrain our paths. And that's helpful to know as we're making these big decisions to stop and take a look around and say, okay, is there a lot of time and ability to do this? A lot of financial resources to take this big risk is,

is it not like what's constraining me and what, what are my circumstances telling me right now is a wise choice. The third point is God's indwelling spirit. The Holy Spirit is so real, y'all, I can't even tell you. So, so many times there have been moments where I have needed to make a decision and there have been certain things I've wanted to do or that other people have told me to do,

and I've just had to be like, oh no, I like, I just can't because I feel God's spirit inside me like directing me in a different way. And sometimes the Holy Spirit leads me so strongly in a certain direction. It's, I know that it would be wrong of me not to do that thing. That's when I love how clear it is.

I'm like, no, it would be wrong of me not to do this thing. I felt that way when I started Nancy Ray Photography. I was so passionate about it, and every, every other door was closed in my life. It was like it would be wrong of me not to try this. I felt that way when I got married to Will.

It was like, I, I know this is God's will. It would be, it feels so right and God is so in this relationship, it would be wrong of me to not marry him. Like it's one of those sure things and, and God gives us that peace inside of us. It doesn't always happen that clearly. Believe me, there are plenty of times where I spend literally months,

sometimes years praying about a decision. And so it doesn't always happen that way, but he's faithful. He will answer. He will continue to give clear direction to our thoughts. He'll give impressions to our hearts and our minds. You just got a sense like how is the Holy Spirit directing you in that moment? The fourth thing is, wise counsel, ask people around you who are wise mentors.

Maybe they're, they're younger than you, but they're spiritually very mature, maybe even more mature than you. Maybe they're someone who have a, has a lot of experience in that area. Get wise counsel from other people. This is a very biblical proverbs. Talks a lot about surrounding yourself with wise counsel. So what? What do those people say in regards to the situation or the decision that you are facing?

And the last thing, two way communication with the Lord. So prayer is the last checkpoint of this five point discernment tool that you can look at. And I love that it says two-way communication. It's not just praying to like, have you spent time praying to God? It's talking to God often about it and then also pausing to listen to him in prayer.

It's the expectation that this communication is gonna go two ways. So when you are having this quiet set apart times of praying about that specifically, what are you hearing from the Lord? So if you're facing a big decision, check it against these five things. God's written word, your circumstances, God's indwelling, spirit wise counsel, and two-way communication. Our work is full of decisions.

It's not gonna stop. Big decisions, hard decisions, small decisions, clear decisions, unclear decisions. It's just life. Our work is not separate from our emotions and who we are, especially when we care deeply about it. It's not separate from our spiritual life either. Our faith in the Lord, in our relationship with Him should be fueling and bolstering everything we do,

especially our work. So I just wanna encourage you, keep going, keep deciding with your head held high. I'm reminded of that verse, I will lift my eyes and look to the hills. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. And to me, that posture of a lifted chin is confidence.

And you can decide in confidence and in rest knowing that God's wisdom is at your fingertips. It's an actual promise. James one five says, if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God who gives generously to all without finding any fault, and it will be given to him. Another one of my favorite verses, if I ask for it, he will give it according to scripture,

it's gonna be done. So keep asking, God is for you. He is for your business. He will not leave you in the dark when you're making decisions and in him are hidden. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in him are hidden. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in him are hidden. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. My favorite books on the subject are The Seasons of God by Richard Blackaby. I did an interview with him a while ago and it was so powerful, it’s still one of my top favorite interviews I've ever done.

Also, The Next Right Thing by Emily P. Freeman, which is all about making decisions, and she has a lovely podcast as well. So I wanted to share those with you. I'm gonna add them to my Cornerstore, which is my Amazon affiliate store as well. Actually, I'm pretty sure both books are already in there. So thank you so much for listening. If you're making a big decision, know that you're not alone. We are all doing it, and it's just good to know that God is at our backs and he is with us. So thank you so much for listening to Episode 186 of Work and Play with Nancy Ray.

I'm going to close with words from Richard Blackaby in his book, The Seasons of God.

“For with God, there's always another role to undertake a fresh assignment and another task that will call upon everything we've experienced and learned thus far. God has never finished with us. He may, however, be finished with our current role. If so, we must be prepared to take on the next assignment that inevitably comes.”

Thanks for listening, and I'll catch you next time.

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