A Leap of Faith without Really Understanding
About 2 years ago in the fall Al and I earnestly sought the Lords direction concerning our income, wanting to obey His calling. Specifically, we were seeking direction about building a website for Al’s chainsaw wood carvings. We needed a reliable way to get his work out into the public and make sales.
Our motivation was for Al to be at home with our family, using his talents and doing something he enjoyed for work.
I have done the drag and drop and WordPress sort of websites and understood it wasn’t what we needed. At least I did not have the knowledge of how to build them out sufficiently.
After much prayer I felt led to buy a course of how to build a retail store. Furthermore I felt the Lords direction was that I should simply follow the outline given, not trying to build a store for Al. It really did not make sense, because a website for Al was the whole reason we were moving forward. We moved ahead trusting the Lords leading.
Later I learned that this particular course that I purchased has been the number one voted course for building retail stores on the Shopify for a platform. God does all things well.
The Grit
The process of building a store and doing the necessary research was much more intense than I had imagined. A lot more work went into it than what it appeared on the surface.
Besides slowly building a store somewhere in the clouds of the internet, I was trying to balance home life, writing a book, and teach the children. To say the least, there were plenty of challenges.
I struggled with understanding many concepts of linking the website with all the proper apps, Google, and other technical challenges.
I have learned to ask good ‘ole Google a LOT of questions and watched my fair share of YouTube videos to figure out how to do things.
Sometimes I never did understand clearly what I was doing – but I clicked through enough buttons that it began to work. God was in the details so many times.
There have been learning curves about SEO, the liquid theme, Google advertising, and writing product descriptions.
Sitting at the supper table as a family my mind would not be present as I tried to think through my latest technical difficulty that was giving me a glitch in the system.
It was not unusual for me to pray for clarity – to ask the Lord to help me see what I was missing. So often He made it simple for me.
The fear of contacting suppliers had to be overcome. Setbacks of suppliers closing their business and other suppliers that did not provide pictures and information for their products added to the challenge of building my retail store.
I think it all boils down to learning a business. I found that building this business takes some sweat, tears, and a whole lot of prayer.
Fruit
Finally, at the end of July 2019, I got my first sale! What a day of rejoicing! A bit of fruit for all the many hours of labor.
Sales trickled in. More because I needed to do more work and learn the how-tos than because the training was lacking. I have also learned that a website is never DONE. There are always things to optimize, build, and improve.
There have been exciting moments in this journey when the Lord opened doors and made things possible. Like one supplier who gave me a flat no when I asked to sell his products. A few months later a connection in another company opened the door and I am able to sell for that company after all.
This past summer the Lord has increased sales to the point that Al was able to come home to work here. And we are loving having him around the house and in our lives more.
God Knows
We are so thankful that I did not attempt to build a website for Al’s business first – I had too much to learn, and definitely needed the course to learn what I have. I think if I had attempted Al’s first, it would have failed miserably. God’s direction, even when it doesn’t make sense is so worth following.
So again we stand in awe of God. We seek His face in our lives and He is so faithful to give us direction – when we started this journey of faith it certainly did not line up to our understanding.
But He KNEW.
Rewards
We are now enjoying the rewards. Waking up to a sale is a reminder every time of how God has brought us a blessing. It is like a gift of His provision.
Having Al in and out of the house on a daily basis is wonderful. A few times we have had the fun of dropping what we are doing and run off to do something fun as a family.
The children are all confused on what day of the week it is – Saturdays used to be the days that Daddy was home – now 7 days of the week we have that privilege. It is wonderful.
Just so you don’t think Al is sitting in his easy chair, his current project has been to hand dig under the cabin so that there is enough room to wiggle around and insulate it better. He is currently feeling a bit like a mole. Then there is a door to replace, and garden to get ready for spring… and the list goes on, just to get some much-needed maintenance done. Of course, the carvings are calling his name too…
This journey has been a time in life where we followed the Lord with a lot of hopes and dreams, yet not understanding why he took us down this particular path to get there. It has also taken longer than we imagined – yet his blessings have been bigger than our thoughts were.
Do you need to take a step of faith into the unknown?
Walking by faith does not mean we understand, and you may not even know where you will end up. But the rewards of a relationship with God and obedience to Him are so worth the step!
~Sheila
