$50 I earned babysitting just days after setting my goal to earn $100 in the month of September
You may have heard - I have been building a private speech-language therapy practice. It's been a long, sometimes beautiful, sometimes exhilarating, sometimes incredibly frustrating ride so far and it's far from over.
I took the first few months away from my school job to really focus on letting my mind and body recover. It had been a painful, hard year as lupus, allergies, overwhelm and unacknowledged grief surged like the proverbial beach ball of emotions after being held underwater for too long. I was exhausted.
I also recognized how incredibly, exquisitely blessed I was (am) to be in a position to leave my job without intense financial repercussions.
As I started to feel like I had found a daily rhythm and care routine that helped my body be well, I also started to feel enormous pressure to "make money" (I do realize this was all from the stories in my head. But it was still there). Davis assured me we would be fine and make it work, and I wanted in my heart of hearts to trust God, trust the process, trust the future, and trust in good things to come, but I find myself, as I think many of us do, a little irrational about money fears sometimes.
One weekend I was doing my weekly planning session and decided, pretty out of the blue (an inspired goal if you ask me) to make a goal to earn $100 in the month of September. Just for fun. As a break from the mental load of building a practice.
I didn't have really a way to make money (no clients on the horizon yet) but I thought $100 sounded like a doable challenge, for starting at $0. So I wrote it down and started thinking through options.
The next week, a friend asked me to watch her grandkids while the family went out for a special occasion. I was happy to spend some time babysitting. It had been a long time since I'd had the experience, and, to be clear, I expected that I was doing this as a favor to my friend.
After a fun evening with the grandkids, the family came back and handed me $50 for my time. That was half of my goal! It honestly stopped me in my tracks a bit. Maybe I could piece this $100 goal together!
I sold a set of scrubbies the next week and also had another inspired idea to sign up for DoorDash as an independent contractor.
Suddenly, I was making money! Within the first week of starting DoorDash I had passed my goal of $100. It was only two weeks (or less) since I had made my $100 goal.
Woah.
The feeling I got about it reminded me of an experience Davis and I had a few years ago while reading about the resurrected Jesus calling His disciples from the boat (John 21):
1 After these things Jesus ashewed himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias; and on this wise shewed he himself.
2 There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of aZebedee, and two other of his disciples.
3 Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately; and that night they caught nothing.
4 But when the morning was now come, Jesus astood on the shore: but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus.
5 Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No.
6 And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes.
7 Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher’s coat unto him, (for he was naked,) and did cast himself into the sea.
8 And the other disciples came in a little ship; (for they were not far from land, but as it were two hundred cubits,) dragging the net with fishes.
9 As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread.
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/nt/john/21?lang=eng&id=15#p15
As Davis and I talked about the chapter, we had the realization that it wasn't about the fish. Jesus knew what He wanted the disciples to learn and do. I thought it interesting that instead of calling them to the shore immediately, He first instructed them and provided more fish than they could carry. As they dragged the net with fishes to the shore, "they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread".
Jesus had fish. But He still gave them more fish than they could carry.
This story is so beautiful and has so many layers. There are probably also some cultural aspects I don't quite understand. But one message is clear - it isn't about the fish. If I want fish, Jesus the Christ, Creator, God, and King has fish. But He also has more. And He's watching out for us. And He is asking us to trust Him and follow Him.
I'm betting that if it's not about the fish, it's not about the money either. Not only did I more than 4x my money goal in September, I also gained my first private client in my practice.
There is something more here than what I can see.
Yeah, this is a different road than I imagined. Many times over. But it is a road. And this little goal of mine turned into an experience of God showing me that He knows what this road holds and is still here, inviting me to trust and follow.
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