Calling the Called {Guest Post: Darby from Life With the Hawleys}

  Happy Sunday, everyone! I am so delighted that the lovely Darby from Life with the Hawleys is sharing a very special post with us today! Here's Darby...

Hi everyone!  I’m Darby from Life with the Hawleys!  First of all, I can’t forget my manners: I’ve got to thank Crystal for having me.  I’m not only thrilled to be visiting Homemaker in Heels, but completely honored.  I would not consider my life “together” or “complete”, but more like a work-in-progress.  Just for some background about me: I am definitely a nerd, who loves to learn, teach, and drink coffee :-)  I’ve been married to the man of my dreams for almost 5 years now, & he keeps me smiling everyday.  I really believe that I fall more in love with him everyday.  Today I wanted to share with you about my career calling.  

I firmly believe that my life is a gift from God, & I want to use what I’ve been given to honor Him.  I am not perfect at this & I have made some HUGE (not to mention, embarrassing) mistakes, but I can’t change the past.  I can only move forward, learning from my mistakes.  So how did I decide what I was going to be when I “grew up”? 

All of my decisions, are based on prayer.  The more I come to God in conversation, the more I am in tune with what He wants for me to hear.  I am in prayer constantly about the little things & the big things in life.  When I was applying to undergraduate school I prayed about which school & major was best for me.  I ended up attending RMC with a major in Religious Studies & a minor in Education.  God placed people in my path while I was at RMC & I ended up switching & graduating with a major in Biopsychology.  That is a HUGE switch LOL!  I continued on that path throughout grad school, receiving my Masters and Doctorate in Behavioral Neuroscience.  Through all of these chapters in my life prayer has been the common denominator; I must keep the conversation between me and God going so that I know what the next step is that He wants me to take.

Each next step has not always been easy or even something that I completely understood.  For example: Why would God want me to switch my major from Religious Studies?! Why would God want me to enroll in such a competitive graduate program when He knows I’m an anxious person?! Why would God want me to go through such a challenging graduate experience half-way across the country without my family for support?!  This is where patience and trust comes into play.  I had to choose faith in Him for what was to happen next.  So even though I might not have understood it at the time, I knew that one day I would be able to look back & see why His way was better than anything I could have ever planned for myself.

What I wanted at the end of high school was different in college, & completely opposite in graduate school.  But now that I am getting ready to start my new faculty position in the fall, it all makes perfect sense.  I will be the newest faculty member at a Christian university starting in the fall.  This position is a combination of everything I have been studying for the past 10 years; it’s perfect for me because I still get religion, education, & neuroscience.  Do you know how challenging it is to find a scientist with faith?!?!  Almost impossible!  Most scientist are atheists, so to fill a science position at a Christian university presents multiple challenges, but not for me.  Because I have faith I see God’s glory in science, & God has been training me for this position for decades.  I could have never seen the availability of this opportunity 10 years ago, but now looking back, I can see that my life was a puzzle waiting for each piece to click into place.  I admit though, this process did take some time, so through prayer I asked begged for patience, and I trusted His will.

Something I had to continually repeat to myself, was that God does not make accidents, and there is no such thing as serendipity or coincidence.  NO SUCH THING!  God has a plan for my life and it is GOOD!  I had to relinquish what control I thought I had on my life, & give all of my concerns to him.  This is very frustrating if you’re a control freak like me, but also very liberating.  Through letting go & letting God work, I found my calling.  My calling is way better than anything I could have ever planned.  Praise the Lord!  I not only found my perfect career, but I also found my husband.

My best advice for someone looking for their calling is to pray & have patience, trusting in the Father’s will for your life.  It is so GOOD, so no need to worry!  He has everything under control, so continue to work hard & value each day & relationship as a gift!  Thank you Crystal for letting me take over your blog today!!

image sources

Thank you so much for sharing such an inspiring post with us today, Darby! I hope you will all stop by Darby's blog, Life With the Hawleys! You will absolutely adore it! I know I do!

Happy Sunday! Hope you all have a blessed day!