God sometimes asks us to do things that seem crazy big and beyond our scope of “ableness” (and let’s be real, willingness!).
Things like:
- Starting a business
- Creating a ministry
- International adoption
What happens when we faithfully jump in with both feet? Jessica Honegger, founder of Noonday Collections, joins us on So Here’s the Thing to discuss her journey of listening to the prompting God put on her heart. From adoption, to job creation, to everyday willingness to see Jesus in the big and small, Jessica’s journey will inspire you. If you have a passion and you don’t know where to begin, listening to this podcast is it!
You will gain some practical tips on:
- How and who to ask for help
- When to know God is saying go for it
- Bringing your entire family along for the journey
- Being real with yourself, your purpose and the demands of raising your family
GIVEAWAY
You have a passion for a reason! What small change can you make to make a big difference in somebody else’s life whether it be buying from micro businesses, Operation Christmas Child, or living out the purpose God is calling you to? Leave a comment below for a chance to win one pair of these gorgeous ear rings from Noonday!
If you would like to see more of the Noonday Collection, just click on the picture here. You’ll find out more about the mission of Noonday, their artisans, how you can help and purchase Noonday Collection pieces that make a statement.
To become a Noonday Collection Ambassador visit the website here and find out more.
Something that we could each do each day is pray that God would bring the abandoned and lonely across our paths and that we would see the opportunities and have the courage to reach out. A few years ago I took a cue from an Andy Stanley podcast and started praying for boldness. Around that same time I also started praying that God would cross my path with the lonely. God began answering both of those prayers in life-changing ways. The first (and still the biggest) relationship that birthed out of that was deciding to adopt a special needs child after hearing his story from a friend that visited his orphanage on an overseas mission trip. Just one month after that decision (with the adoption process underway) my son befriended a sweet woman at a nearby nursing home after singing there with his class. She had never been married or had children so at 80 years she was alone. We took the awkward step of going back to see her a second time and that has led to a 2 1/2 year friendship that we all cherish. She brags to all her friends about “her kids” when my children are visiting. It’s precious. The third relationship that has bloomed from those prayers is with a woman (and now her new husband) who came into our lives just months after she was released from incarceration. She had lost everything including her children. We have had the awesome blessing of walking alongside her and watching her life be restored. We prayerfully chose to give her a second chance when not many others would and The Lord continues to work through her life every day. These relationships are gold to me and I believe they are all a result of praying for the abandoned and expecting to find them! I encourage and challenge others to pray the same!
We have a goal to help with operations at orphanages around the world. Right now we work with one in Mexico and look forward to God leading us to more!
Love the earrings and love to support micro business!
We do the shoe boxes at Christmas time and each of my 3 kids picks an Angel Tree child of the same age to buy clothing and a toy for.
I just received a necklace I ordered from Noonday.
I absolutely love the work that Noonday is doing and would love a chance to win a pair of their earrings! I always get compliments when I wear my Noonday and it’s a great opportunity to advocate for the company and their mission.
I need to remember how important my work at home is and how the things I do here have a huge impact.
I just finished Interrupter by Jen Hatmaker and I’m trying to figure out what I’m supposed to do with all that information! I’m still a work in progress….
Be present with my children now – they will grow and be gone before I know it!
I love how she helps us focus on what we can do for others. With my kids older, I need to make it more clear to then that my actions are outward focused.
We do Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes every year. We save things throughout the year, and start putting them together in September. Our church is also starting Service Worship, when everyone in our church chooses a service project (I think there are about 10 projects to choose from) to do during the selected Sunday. There are opportunities for young and old(er). 🙂
As someone who really doesn’t have extra money to give and extra time to spare I have found that giving as simple compliment is the best way to make an impact in people’s lives.
SUCH an inspiration! God has called me to homeschool my children. And through that I’m able to inspire them to grow hearts of a servant. My boys have started something called Bricks Build Up Kids. They collect pre-loved Legos, assemble “Creation Cans” full of legos and donate them to various organizations that work with children in need. At only 6 and 9 years old this is quite an under taking. We are working on our first batch of cans. The boys hope to donate them to our local police department for calls involving children by Christmas!
We send items to a Haitian orphanage. After listening to this podcast, I am wondering if they have items to sell. Maybe we could do some Christmas shopping through them and help their families. Thanks for the idea.
I loved this! The Noonday premise is amazing and inspiring. The whole family being a part is great. We sponsor Compassion children and as a family we worked to package food to go to areas in need. We recently moved to a very rural area and finding ways to serve locally have been difficult. Perhaps I need to start small and just reach out to those next door.
I’ve been tasked with leading our local youth group. As one of their high school teachers, I welcome the opportunity to interact with the kids on a deeper level-but also struggle I with the amount of time I am investing. This discussion was a great reminder to me that kingdom work is never a waste of my time.
God has called me to minister to those women at my church that are on the fringe (not involved, not connected). For the past 3 years I’ve led both a summer and a fall Bible study where I have personally invited those women to join. It has been a time of rich sharing and I’ve seen women start to connect to each other and to God.
I find this story so inspiring. The big picture of it all (Noonday) just blows me away. Brilliant! Women want to help in a tangible way since that is how we operate, and how perfect is all ties together to help each other!
One thing I can try this week… Just reaching out to the neighbors around me. We all live such separate lives and making those connections might be a small step toward change.
Gorgeous earrings! Huge fan of OCC.
Thank you for the wonderful podcasts. Every week is right on point. Especially this week. I am married with 2 kids. I have been wanting to start a business, but have been struggling with how to be a “good” mom and entrepreneur. This helped me realize it needs to be us not me, this is for our family.
I LOVE this podcast! It encourages be to do the things that God wants even if I’m not that comfortable with it. It really relates to me as a MOPS mom to the theme, “Be You, Bravely.” Recently, my family and I began the journey to foster/adopt. Just today we finished our final walkthrough and now are open. Although scary, we have a peace knowing that this is what God wants us to do with our lives right now.
I’m wanting to trim back the programming (including church promgramming) in our lives to make way for time to reach out to the people around us.
My kids and I put together several OCC shoeboxes every year, and this fall, we are helping make quilts and fleece blankets with our church to send to disaster survivors overseas.
As a family, we don’t give tangible gifts to each other for Christmas. We give gifts on each other’s behalf to Jesus and usually buy from the World Vision catalog or give to other humanitarian causes.
I struggle knowing when God is saying “go for it!” Thank you for the encouragement!
This podcast is incredibly timely for me. I just started my own business as an independent consultant for Usborne Books and More. I felt like God was giving me the ‘go ahead’ but now its completely stalled. Thanks for the encouraging podcast!!
Yesterday my 4 year old asked me to play “hunting” with him even though I had things to do. I chose to give him my time.good choice
I can’t wait to listen to thi episode! I’m still 3 or 4 behind, though, so it will have to wait.
I can make it a purpose to run my business with integrity and use the opportunities I find to allow it to minister to others and lift up the name of Christ. I’m not just here to make money.
I loved that she says it’s what WE do. Her kids are invested. They know this is their lifestyle. Their purpose. Easy …well not easy but just “what we do.”