Get your Ph.D.

“I have an MBA”.  It’s a statement that I’ve carried with me as a badge of honor and the most defining moment in my life.  I always thought that it would put me in an august group at a higher level than where I had been.  I believed it would give me financial security and a position of importance, busting through the ‘Glass Ceiling’ that people always put in front of women.  My plan was to then get a Ph.D. and gain a Tenured Professorship at a University, making it impossible to ever have to worry about a job ever again.  I had no doubts that I would get there in time.  You see, I believed that education was the key to being financially stable and comfortable—and that was most important to me.  At the same time, I believed in God and trusted that He had my best interests at heart.  I wanted to live within God’s will and that always seemed to go against the side of me that wanted to do well and be a success.  I saw that His way was the only way—though sometimes that meant doing things that people didn’t understand.

When God takes things away, says no, or places you in unfamiliar territory, you have to fight the feeling that you’re being punished or that you have no value.  That’s never His reason.  Think about how you discipline your children—if you don’t have children, think of when you were disciplined for a specific reason.  A good parent provides learning experiences in the form of consequences.  There are things that a child chooses to do that can cause either positive or negative results.  In those times, it is the parents’ job to help the child understand the results of their behavior and teach them to do right.  Not only will God use the things that we do to teach and train us, He will also take situations in which we had no control to strengthen us and give us the ability to withstand what’s to come.  Thankfully, He knows our entire journey and will guide us, if we let Him.

God’s intent has always been for me to minister to others.  I’ve always fought it, thinking I wasn’t “good” enough.  I thought that since there were so many others out there, how would I be able to make any kind of difference—and would anyone respect and believe in my ability?  I instead put my efforts into being a good worker, striving to make my way up the career ladder—though I never really had a career in mind, which I’ve recently discovered is because it really wasn’t to be my lot and that ministry was…

...So my statement and educational level has now changed.  I have a Ph.D.:  Patiencehumility.Devotion.  God has blessed me to endure this journey of education by training me to have Patience to understand that when I walk through the valley, though I might not know where I’m going, God knows, and that MUST be enough; humility to not feel bad about my lack or inability to obtain the things that I feel I deserve and not beat myself up, but recognize that God is more important than my wants; and Devotion to the God I serve—no matter what happens (or doesn’t happen) to me, that I believe God and know that He’s got me.

Oh, don’t get me wrong—I’m human and get down every once in a while, but I always come back to my reality and education, which never fail me.

Get your Ph.D.  You’ll never be the same.

ONWARD

#Gettherighteducation

#Ph.D.