What if you allowed the Lord to take over, for Him to define who you are? It is so easy to get overwhelmed with stress, frustrations, and even letting go of God without realizing that only He can give you peace.

show notes:

In this episode, Heidi speaks with Sarai Meador, an entrepreneur and Christian mom who’s also homeschooling her special needs girls. Sarai opens up about her testimony, which is about relearning how to trust God and walk in the path of righteousness.

Listen in to learn about the miracles of trusting in whom God says you are and letting his pursuing fire change you.

“It’s God that comes in and He does the intervening, it’s what He says that goes.” ~Sarai Meador

Top Takeaways:

• Allowing God to heal your feelings of frustrations and failure with His grace and guidance.
• How to detox the lives of your family by changing their environment and letting God lead.
• The importance of trusting God to pursue the hearts and minds of your children wherever they have chosen to be.

What you will learn:

• [4:19] Sarai talks about her role as a mom and how God has transformed her family during these extraordinary times.
• [7:30] When Sarai got called by God to homeschooling.
• [10:15] She explains how frustrated and stressed she was when she first started homeschooling and how God changed that.
• [17:30] How homeschooling transformed the lives of her girls from chaos and exhaustion to peaceful and relaxed.
• [20:30] Sarai narrates her life’s testimony walking with God, falling off the path, and relearning to walk with God again.
• [32:10] She describes her entrepreneurial journey and the things she’s involved with, working from home.
• [38:15] Why this is a season for mind-shifting, wisdom, and building.

Relevant Links:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarai.a.meador/

Detailed Transcript:

Speaker 1:

All right, here we go. Yay. I love having God’s beloved daughters on my show because he works in amazing ways and crosses our paths as we need each other. Sarai and I first met through our mutual friend and fitness and nutrition coach, Robyn Wright. If you haven’t listened to episode number 3 on food and fitness freedom, and also episodes number 9 and 10 on inner healing, you want to go back and listen to those. If you’ve already listened to them, you’ve discovered the superstar that our friend and coach Robyn is as a mom and founder of faithfully living fit. And so Sarai and I have known each other through this process of working with Robyn, we’ve known each other for about a year and a half through that journey of restoration. And I knew I just had to have her on the show to share her story, her faith journey, her path, and parenting her precious daughters, homeschooling and all the things. So welcome, Sarai!

Speaker 2:

Yay. Yay everybody.

Speaker 1:

So we’re just going to kind of let Holy spirit come into this space. We’re just two mamas having a conversation about life and faith and all the fun things. Sarai, if you wouldn’t mind, tell us a little bit about you, what lights you up, what your hobbies are, how you spend your free time. I know you’re busy with your littles, but just tell us about you.

Speaker 2:

Let’s see I’m cut from a different cloth I like to say, but actually parenting and bringing the girls home and homeschooling has really brought me – it’s slowed me down a lot actually. And I don’t mean that in a bad way. It’s actually good. When you can slow down and stop and smell the roses and really enjoy other things around you instead of constantly going, going, going, you know, but what life looks like now as opposed to even 10 years ago, it’s just so drastically different. But what lights me up right now where we are is my family. I’ve learned to treasure it in a whole new way in a whole new light because my role has expanded. I feel like because when you bring your kids home and they’re looking to you for literally everything, it’s like, you don’t have school anymore, you don’t have the teachers, you don’t have the aides.

It’s just mom in the house. And so as that role has expanded in my home. It really lights me up just to be around my family and to see them learning and to see them growing and maturing. And just to see them have fun and light up, lights me up. But also it’s the gospel. It’s just what God is doing in the earth, especially right now in a time where people feel things are looking crazy hopeless. There’s so much darkness in that place. And I’m just lit up about what God is doing, what his plans are and that he’s so present here. And it really is the gospel that just lights me up and the power of it and how it transforms others and how it’s transforming my family. So that’s how I feel about life.

What’s lighting me up. And as far as hobbies, you guys, I have never been much of a bookworm. I really haven’t. I’ve read things if I, if I had to, if it was assigned to me. And of course, like, you know, I read the Bible in different studies and such, but ever since this whole pandemic thing, I have just started picking up books. And I just can’t like, I’m going one after the other, especially with entrepreneurship coming into the mix you know. There are some things that I need to learn and just glean from and bring into the business. So I’m picking up a lot of books and if time and money were not an issue at all right now, we would probably be traveling all the time. We love to go visit family. We love to go see people. And when it’s just me and my husband, we love to go to the mountains and we love to hike. So that’s us, that’s me for the most part.

Speaker 1:

That’s awesome. I love it. We went to the mountains, we went to Colorado and they’re beautiful. I can’t say I would want to live there all the time, but I definitely am with you as far as exploring new places. And it just sounds like God has you in this peaceful, almost like, I don’t want to say rebuilding the foundations, but just being in his presence and soaking that up. And I know you love worship music just as much as I do. And just seeing people’s hearts on fire, you know, that’s something that, Oh my gosh, it’s a flame that we don’t even want to control just completely take over. That’s so amazing. And you mentioned homeschooling, how long have you been homeschooling?

Speaker 2:

Let’s see, we just got through 2020. It’s been like just over a year. We’re going into our second season. Yeah. We’re going into our second season of homeschooling. Actually. God called me to bring my girls home that September before all of the stuff with C-v-d happened. So I had no idea. Of course I didn’t have any idea C-v-d or pandemic was coming, but that was the time that the Lord spoke to me and told me to bring them home. And if I can go into this now and not mess up the interview, I was against it. I was just like, I can’t, I cannot see myself doing that. There’s no way, like, I’m going to be the one that goes out every day, go on the job, make money, come home, get my kids off the bus. That’s me. I don’t homeschool. But that is what he led us to do right before all the C-v-d stuff happened. So yeah. It’s been a wild ride.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. I have something I want to add to that just from our experience, because it sounds very similar. Okay. So that was before September, 2019. Right. So how do you feel about it now?

Speaker 2:

Well, I feel better about it. How far can we go into this?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, absolutely. Other mommas need to hear this, like Holy Spirit has the right to just come in and take over. So obviously we’re going here for a reason. Others, moms, I think, need to hear this because some people know my story. We have two sets of girls. Our older girls who are 17 and 15 now, and homeschooling was on my heart way back when they first started school. But I was like, nope, not going to do it. Don’t even know where to start. It wasn’t as common. I didn’t have my circle of a friends that I have now. It was just completely crazy. But then fast-forward to Eleanor, who’s now seven, and it was three years ago now that God did the same thing for us. We had her in a Christian school and she was doing okay. But a lot of it was unpacking the drama of the day and it was, it was an okay situation and God actually was just like, you can go either way and whatever way you go it’s going to be okay. But it was almost like giving me permission to lean into the unknown and just trust homeschooling was the path for us. And, oh man, we just have not regretted it at all. We see completely different fruit in our seven year old than we do our 17 and 15 year olds who, you know, they’re awesome. But just, from a worldly standpoint, just completely different. And I feel like he was preparing us for what was coming ahead as far as in 2020.

Speaker 2:

He is so, so amazing. And thank you for just putting emphasis on that, about the Holy Spirit, just coming in and doing his thing. I really appreciate that. I appreciate that about you. And I appreciate that because that’s just how I am, that’s how I carry out life anyway. We’re just going to be open all day. We’re just going to be open. Right? So anyway, you guys, I was terrible. So bad. So bad at homeschool when I first started. And of course there’s that initial kind of excitement and it’s because of the unknown. And that’s part of my personality. I love trying and diving in and doing new things. I love the unknown. It’s just like, my mind is on the possibility of something. It’s just like, what could this be? What could this turn into? It could be this, this and this. And you know, I could just, I’m more of a visionary type person.

So it’s like the sky, not even the sky, the sky is just the beginning. Everything else, you know, it’s limitless. Right? So I had this initial excitement and then we came home and I’m picking out curriculum and we started to go into it. I’m like, I don’t, I don’t understand this. And of course the girls are just looking at me like, what are we doing? And I just know that they’re thinking like, what have you done? And I’m like, look, I know, I know. I don’t know what I’m doing. We don’t really know what we’re doing right now, but it’s going to be okay, it’s going to be fine. And it was just awful because I think people always have this preconceived thing in their mind. There’s this standard that’s already in your mind that you have to reach. And if you’re not doing it, you’re a failure.

Or if you’re not doing it, you’re not worthy of doing it. Or you’re just not good enough, whatever, you know, there’s many different roots attached to that thinking. But for me, there was this standard though. It was just like, I don’t think I can reach this. And I’ve never been in a homeschooling home before. So I didn’t even know what it looked like. All I know is that it did look like public school in my house. You know, just with like the routines. It was hard for me to really latch onto a routine and following the curriculum. And I know we haven’t really introduced my girls yet. So I have twin girls with cerebral palsy. Their names are Mikah and Isabella. So there are just different things to bring into mind when you’re educating girls that are nonverbal. One uses sign language, one understands. It’s like the different levels of understanding. And one is more mobile than the other, one is more involved. So if we’re doing like a craft or something like that, it’s just way more involved. And it was so stressful. And I was just like, I’m completely failing at this. I’m like, God, why did you do this?

And there I was, I just remember sitting in my frustration. I wasn’t even trying to get out of it. I was just sitting in it and the Lord just comes to me right there. And he says, I didn’t ask you to get the curriculum perfect. I didn’t ask you to follow the curriculum perfectly. I didn’t ask you to do this. I asked you to bring your girls home. I said, okay. And where do we go from here? He said, I’ll show you. I just put down everything. I put down the curriculum, I put down the routine and I just said, okay, you tell me where to go and we’ll go. And this is where God… I’m going to start crying, God, it’s just so precious. He’s been so precious to us.

And he wanted to show us was that this journey at home started with him. He led us here not to leave us here, but he led us here so that he could lead. And so that we could walk with him because he had something special for our family. It was also something of a level of protection because of what was to come. But he was building something in our family and we couldn’t go about it without him. So that was the moment where he just kinda stepped in and said, I want you to remember what I asked you to do. I didn’t ask you to do this perfectly, I asked you to bring them home. Now let’s do this together. From then. it was very strategic. We did need help in the house with the girls, but it just didn’t feel like the right time to ask for it, to promote it, to put the job out there.

But at one point I felt like we had that release to put it out there and ask, you know, for caregivers to come in. And we did. We put it out there and just guess who we got? We got two caregivers who used to work in the school system. One of which worked with special needs children. And we have them here and they’re helping with just not the curriculum side, but just their hearts for the kids. It’s just like we have help with the education, but we also just have this team. We’re on the same page. We’re seeing eye to eye as far as the goals for the girls. And as far as our hearts for them, and it’s just beautiful how God has knit our hearts and our minds together to help our home. So I’ll stop there for now.

Speaker 1:

I love it. Oh my gosh. I could go in so many different directions with that, but I just echo that, you know, and if anyone’s listening to this and there may be new to their faith, that God goes before us, he really does. And it’s tuning in when you said, Holy spirit lead. You know, I’m so much operating that way too. Like, I can plan my to-do list. I can plan out my schedule for the week and when I’m going to do that day. But Holy Spirit always has the invitation to come in and just completely take over. But I think that, it sounds like as moms, we’re like, what’s the plan? What’s the curriculum? What’s the routine going to look like, what is this? I’m like, I need to know. And he’s just like, no, honey, we’re going to work on atmosphere in your home first. Right? So can you tell us – and if you shared all that you wanted to share about setting atmosphere in your home, great. But if there’s anything else that you want to add, because I feel like that is important. Even with us, we didn’t, you know, people ask me like, what did you, what curriculum do you use? I don’t use any particular box curriculum. Like, God, led us step by step. And we were just open to that. Okay. We don’t have to add science right now. We don’t have to add history right now. History is going to be all about our Bible stories. And so not having it look like public school at your home, but really letting Holy Spirit come in and guide you in the way. Like we’re talking about things that they don’t teach you in school. Like we have our five senses with our body, and right now that’s what we’re teaching Eleanor, but we’re also talking about our spirit and our soul and how those interact with our body and how we can hear God’s voice. And what does that sound like? And just pictures that are like our image center and our mind and how God can speak to us through visions and dreams and promptings and knowings and words and scripture. And it’s just like, they don’t teach that in school. And so you have the freedom to let Holy Spirit guide you in your home. And so if you have anything to add, as far as atmosphere or how that helped you share that with us.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Well, part of it for me was that, and this is actually part of my testimony too, but I just remember when I was drawn back to the Lord, it was his presence that initiated that and I’ve never forgotten it. It was this moment that just completely marked me just feeling his presence in a more intimate way. It just marked me. It marked my life. And from that point, I’ve just been running after Jesus. And I’ve been saying, you know, I just want you to be here running all of this. Like, I cannot do this without you. If it’s without you, I don’t want to do any of it. Like, I just want you and I need you. So that being said, that’s kind of always been a central part of me as, I mean, as should be really any believer I would think, but there’s this thing with, and I don’t want to say this as a blanketed term, but for my girls situation, there were parts of being in school that was just completely chaotic for them.

Because you’re in a classroom and there’s just so many different needs and the workers there, they’re all doing their best and there’s different IEPs. And there’s just so many different things going on, different conditions. Things were just so chaotic at points in the day and the girls would come home exhausted and it wasn’t because of therapy. And it wasn’t because they were outside all day. I could just tell emotionally they were just kind of drained. And I just knew that it was the environment. And so one of the things that was just on my heart when I did bring them home, was that I want them to be able to rest like where they are. I don’t want their brains and their spirits to just, you know, to be on high all the time because there’s so much going on. It almost felt like they needed a detox, if that makes sense, because they were just in the midst of chaos for a long time.

So part of it was just like, all right, we need to detox. And we need to recalibrate what their setting is. Their setting is not going to be public school anymore. I don’t want them to expect things to be crazy. Like, let’s go ahead and nip this in the bud. This is going to be the environment. And there was, yes, there was worship music. And even from the smells, you guys it’s just like, what is it going to like in here? Wwe’re going to open up the windows, we’re going to do this. We’re going to have natural sunlight, just all the things that bring peace and all the things that bring that settling, because really my girls needed a detox. And I really just wanted to recalibrate and put that stake in the ground that said, God, this is yours. This home is yours. This setting is yours. And we’re going to start with you. We’re going to walk with you and the day’s going to end with you. So I think for me, I just had to put that stake in the ground and for my girls, they just needed the detox.

Speaker 1:

Hmm. Yeah. I can relate to that. And I think when you said rest, that is a great picture for me. What came to mind was also just resting in our identity Being at school, it’s kind of like this – you’re just trying to survive. And with Eleanor, she was only in 4k. And again, a lot of her time at home after school was us unpacking the drama of the day. Being at home allows you to work on identity and have that peace and just work at this pace of grace of let’s take into their whole person and their whole being. Did they get good sleep last night? Did they eat well? My girls don’t like to eat right away in the morning. Like me, it was hard to get them to school and have them eat before the day. And then they only have snacks at certain times, and anyway, rest is a great way – and the recalibration and the detox, I love all those words. All right. So share with us, if you don’t mind sharing, a little bit of your testimony. I know just because I know you, you’re committed to inspiring and motivating others to press into God’s presence in their home and the relationships. And so I would love to just hear your testimony.

Speaker 2:

All right. You guys, so you know that like on a timeline, there are dots all across the timeline, significant events or things worth mentioning have happened for each of us. Like we have that with God. And for me, my history was that of growing up in church. I was a pastor’s kid. I went to all the church camps and the gatherings and the youth services and revivals and you name it. I grew up around God and around God’s people, but I don’t know, just at some point I just didn’t want to do it. I, you know, there’s rebellion in my heart. And I went with that because that’s what I wanted to do. And I became pregnant my senior year of high school and I had the girls the summer after graduating. And I found out about their condition. Soon after, after they were born, the doctor told us they had a rare brain condition, but I’ll just tell everybody it’s, you know, the umbrella term is cerebral palsy.

Most people are familiar with that term. And the doctor just gave us a list of major milestones the girls would never reach and all this other stuff. And even though I wasn’t walking with the Lord at that point, there’s just something that rose up in me. I just had this zeal and even like a righteous anger that rose up in me that just said, “you’re not telling the truth, and God’s going to do something about this.” And not even walking with the Lord, that just, that just rose up in me. Because even though I wasn’t walking with him during that time, I had still seen enough, heard enough and understood enough that reports don’t end with the doctor and it’s God that comes in. And he does the intervening. He does. It’s what he says that goes. And I still had enough of that understanding for that to rise up in me.

Speaker 2:

Anyway, one of the things that doctors said that they would never do is drink from their bottles, suggesting that they would need to be tube fed, right? But they both learned to drink from their bottles before coming home. And they weren’t even in ICU for that long. So they drank their bottles. They came home and we started that journey. And I lived with my parents for a time. Fast forward about three years, I still wasn’t really walking with the Lord. You guys, I ran, I ran because I could. And, but it’s the mercy and the grace and the constant pursuit of the Lord that is a miracle. It’s just a miracle. My life. It’s probably a miracle in most of your lives as well. Actually, this is just coming to me as I’m saying this, I don’t know who’s listening to this, but you’re probably thinking the same thing about your child or your teenager, even your young adult, or maybe adult child, just thinking, “are they ever going to come around?”

And I’m going to tell you that God is such a pursuing presence, a pursuing fire. His, love is such a grand pursuit. That there are just things that you don’t even realize what’s going on in the hearts of your children. Right now, there are things that they’re thinking. There are things in their heart that they’re weighing and pondering. And I just want to release that peace to you. Whoever’s concerned about that right now that the Lord is in constant pursuit and that hearts are turning and minds. Our minds are being shifted right now. So just want to release peace to you mamas and just know that the Lord has not stopped working and to just entrust that salvation to him.

But anyway, so fast forward, about three years, I met my husband through community softball and then he and I were both. What’s the best thing for a young lady not walking with the Lord? Yeah, that’s right. To get with a guy who’s also not walking with the Lord. We, we were, I mean, we just got together. We met at community softball and we liked one another and we started a relationship and it just went from there. And I don’t know when it was, but I ended up going to a service because I had to, I was still under my parents’ roof. So I was still going to services and going to church and all this other stuff. And I got to a point where I just said, you know what, if God’s not going to be in this relationship, then it’s just not going to work. But I was putting the load on Ashby, my husband, my then boyfriend to take care of that because he was the man.

And even though I wasn’t walking with the Lord, I was basically telling him, “you need to figure this out and you need to figure out your walk with the Lord so that this relationship can work.” It doesn’t really make a lot of sense, does it? But that’s where my head was. And at one point I just went to a revival service and the preacher just looked at me and he pointed me out and he said, come here. And I looked at him like he was nuts. I was like, “you don’t tell me what to do. Like, what do you mean come here?” And he’s just like pointing me out. And he starts prophesying to me. And he says, “people say things about you that are not true. And he said, I don’t care what they say about you. He says, God says that you are anointed. You belong to him. And that I’m sorry.” And we even have to have these conversations? Oh God, the Lord just, Ugh. The Lord just touches my heart. I’m sorry. Anyway, “he says that your his anointed, he has not forgotten you and go – like move forward.” Pretty much. Like, it just felt the Lord saying like, “who cares what they say?” Like, “this is what I’m saying about you right now.” And I didn’t even think in my heart that I cared what other people were saying, but there really was that weight of damaging and tarnishing the reputation of my parents who loved me the entire way through my pregnancy, through having the girls, through letting me live under their roof. There was this thing in my heart that, you know, did say, you know, I’m a failure and people are saying things about it.

And I didn’t realize that was in my heart until the prophet actually brought it to the surface, which is why the prophetic is such a gift because you know, it discerns the hearts of people and brings things to the surface. So anyway, that was kind of a turning point. And I basically went to Ashby and I said, because we were actually in, you know, in our relationship, we had a sexual relationship obviously, and that was on the table. And I basically took it off the table without giving him any warning. I just said, “look, I want to walk with God. We can’t have sex anymore. And things are going to change.” And that sounded so great to me, but it sounded awful to him. And he got so mad, like, so just so upset. And I thought, okay, this is probably going to end now. And up to this point, you know, he was faithfully coming to visit us and creating relationships with the girls. And the girls are just in love with him.

Speaker 1:

Because you had your girls already, sorry to interrupt you. How old were your girls at that time?

Speaker 2:

They were probably going on five, five or six years old. So we’re just like in the midst of this relationship, and it really wasn’t a good time. It was very tense. It was very fragile, I would say, but I just kind of moving forward with it. It was to that point where it’s just like, “I’m moving forward with or without you. I would love to move forward with you, but God is taking me somewhere and I just have to go for it.” So he came around quickly. Actually he basically said, “I understand what you’re saying. I don’t know what this looks like.” Neither one of us knew what it looked like. We just kept walking together. And as we continue to walk together, he never really went to church with me. But you know, like the Christmas, Easter type attendance thing, well, he would do that, but never really faithfully went to church with me. But we faithfully did life together, if that makes sense. But anyway, so I can’t even tell you when but little by little, he began to go to church with me. And then we started walking that out together. We started this young adult group together. Then at one point, maybe it was a year and a half, two years later, he was teaching a Bible study in our church. And I was just like, it’s one of those things you look up and you say, what, what even happened here? Like we went from not even talking about the Lord, not even mentioning the Lord, not even blessing our food, none of it to him teaching Bible study, I’m leading worship. We’re doing a young adult group together.

What’s happening here? And it’s just, it’s the Lord is the only thing. It’s the only way I can describe it. And part of that is because I feel like I was willing to sacrifice it. I was willing to say, “God, I love this relationship. I love this man, but I can’t do this without you. And I’m willing to move forward without it if it means that I’m going to go where you want me to go.” And from that point on, it just seemed like there was this thread and we were walking parallel together. So a couple of years later, we got married and now we’re living here in honky-tonk Virginia. It’s not really honky-tonk, it’s Southeast Virginia. And I mean, I did a couple jobs. I worked with a couple of nonprofits. I even went to PTA school, you guys for physical therapy. I was a physical therapist assistant for a time. But like I said, it was at one point the Lord just drew us home and he made that happen. And now I am a stay at home mom, and I’m entering into this entrepreneurship role and that’s kind of new too. It’s all in the unknown, but I know that the Lord is bringing us here and that’s all. I feel like my mind’s blank now.

Speaker 1:

That’s awesome. I want to touch on that. I want to hear about your entrepreneurship and all of that “you have going on there. But first I want to go back and just kind of share, as you were speaking about, you know, people are talking about me.” And so I just thought of Mary in the Bible. It’s like, you know, she’s pregnant. Nobody knows how she got pregnant. So I here go the whispers in the town, right? The angel of the Lord came to her and then separately in a dream came to Joseph, but didn’t tell the townspeople what was going on, that this was a work of the Lord. And so, you know, you can just imagine the talk of the town that was going on there. And so what I sensed from what you were sharing is that like God was doing a work in you that had nothing to do with Ashby, but God was also doing a work in Ashby that had nothing to do with you. But then he was also doing a work in both of you that had everything to do with each other. It was like this multifaceted of everything working together. Some people have this snap moment where everything flips and changes but what I’m hearing from your story is very similar to mine too. It’s this gradual layering on of like, okay, now we’re saying grace over our food. Now we’re, you know, doing all these different things that, wow, this is our life? Like we actually get to live like this? I could not even imagine living my life any other way. And I love the prophetic too. Man, there’s nothing like a prophetic word to turn your heart back to God as he has his face turned to you, but then like you’re able to turn your face to him and just be like, “okay I am in, I give it all up!” Like you have the lead, you know? So thank you for sharing that. So tell us about what you do for a living now, kind of your journey to getting to that place today, what you do, because you have your girls, you’re a work from home mom, you said, a stay at home mom, but you’re a work from home mom. So tell us what that looks like.

Speaker 2:

Well, that was kind of crazy too. He actually added that part on not long after bringing the girls home. And I don’t know about you guys, but for me, when I hear something, I think it’s like immediate. It’s like, “Oh, we need to do this now.” But what I’ve been telling you, it just, as I was telling you, my testimony, a lot of it is walking it out. It’s not like this one and done thing. But when the Lord brought this idea of business and entrepreneurship to the mix, I thought it was like, “Oh my gosh, I got to do this. Now we gotta to make money tomorrow!” And I totally, I just like overwhelmed myself. I went from analysis paralysis to staying up at all hours of the night and all this other stuff. And God’s like, no, no, this is, yeah, this, we need to slow down here for a bit.

But he brought the entrepreneurship piece to me I would like to say probably at the end of 2019 going into 2020. And really he was just presenting that idea to me and letting me kind of sit in it and kind of cast vision together. I had to like cast vision with the Lord to say, what is this really going to look like? What’s the purpose of this? Like, why are we doing this? I’ve never been an entrepreneur before, while I was doing this, which reminds me of the verse in Ephesians where it says that he does exceedingly, abundantly above all we could ever ask or think. And part of that is that he does things literally outside of what we ever would have thought for ourselves. So for me, I never thought I would be a homeschool mom. I never thought I’d be an entrepreneur, but it’s in those things outside of what we’re thinking that he has this abundance, that’s beyond what we’re thinking in the moment.

So anyway, let’s see, I was thinking, I was like, what can I really do? Because being an entrepreneur, basically I had to figure out what do I have that’s of value to the marketplace? You know, I’d worked in administrative work and nonprofits for a few years. So I was just looking at what I could do in that space. So now I have approached just being a virtual assistant and working more on the social media management side. Activate Virtual Assistants. And we’re just, it’s been kind of a slowly rolling thing, but at the end of 2020, I felt like this accelerant to it to whereGod was like, “okay, we can start moving forward a little more in this.”

So I’m doing some virtual assistant work. I just wanted to add this too. I don’t just enjoy taking things off of an entrepreneur’s plate so that they can be freed up to do what they really want to do. I actually enjoy partnering with an entrepreneur’s vision because God gives us vision when we go into that space. So I enjoy partnering with the vision of what other people have so the heart of that thing can really travel on through everything, even the backend stuff, even with the assistant work. So I’m a virtual assistant, but I’m also a partner, if that makes any sense, but I’m also working in direct sales right now. It is a powerful movement. It’s up and it is moving and there’s just a lot of powerful women, on fire women in the space and I’m learning a lot.

Speaker 1:

That’s awesome. When you were talking about just the timing of it, of, okay, here’s some ideas for provision for you that I want to bless you with. And you’re like, I could just imagine, “wait, I’m homeschooling and you want me to start a business? What?” Right. Oh, hold up, hold up. But, there is this opportunity for growth in there. Like that’s my experience too, it was so important to me to be able to, again, my older girls were in public school at the time, and so just drop them off, pick them up, be able to be in charge of my own schedule and not have somebody tell me when I can or can’t leave or what part, what I can participate in my children’s lives and what I can’t. And so owning that freedom was way more important to me than how much I would earn.

But you know, as moms too, it’s like, we almost need, at least me personally anyway, I need like this little something, something to myself that is just mine. And that makes me feel like, I don’t know that I’m using my gifts and talents and you know, obviously we show it to our children and we love them. And that’s something that we’re gifted with too, is being able to share and express that love and just kind of manage it all. But I love that you shared that he had this little special something, something just for you. And you know, it’s almost just like too, we don’t have to worry about his providing for us because he does and he’s like, “will I not provide for you? You know, I provide for the birds, I provide all of their needs. You don’t have to worry about it.”

Just say yes, your obedience, you’re currently moving at the speed of your obedience. That’s something that I’ve heard in the entrepreneur world. And I have this post-it note on my desk because like all of us doing all the things, right, it can be overwhelming. And so I had to remind myself, and these are words God has given me, “I do this business with grace and love at a pace that honors the growth of my family.” That helps me. Yeah. That helps me not get too far ahead of myself. Not feeling like I have to figure it all out on my own that remember, okay. Yes. You’re co-creating with him. You’re working with him. Like, what does Holy Spirit have to say about this opportunity – is it a yes or no, you know? And so I love that you’re aligning your heartbeat with kingdom entrepreneurs and their visions and the desires of their heart and what God has laid upon them to do and helping them move that forward. So very, very powerful in what you’re doing. A lot of people, man, are moving their businesses into the online space. And so how can people connect with you for virtual assistant support or where can people find you?

Speaker 2:

You know what, right now I’m just going to say, just head on over to my Instagram and Facebook handle and you can find me at Sarai Meador, come on over and just shoot me a message. I would love to talk to you.

Speaker 1:

Awesome. And I’ll put that in the show notes as well. And so we’re just going to kind of wrap this up. Tell us what is next for you in 2021.

Speaker 2:

2021. I will tell you, the Lord has told me that this is a focused season of growing in wisdom and insight. So for me, I told you that I’ve never read as many books in my life, but this is a great season of learning. There’s a lot of growth, a lot of mind shifting wisdom and insight, not just to build business, but to actually build my house because it says in Proverbs that the wise woman builds her house. And it also says that it’s actually wisdom that builds the house. So the Lord is just showing me that we’re going to be growing in that, so this is a building season. This is also a season of wisdom and insight. So through that wisdom, we can build something strong and something lasting.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that’s awesome. Yay. Well, I just want to leave you with a blessing and thank you so much for coming on. I know this is going to help a lot of other mamas in this space. And I think that sharing our testimonies and especially bringing down the expectations of what it has to look like is so super important. And so I just want to bless you and what you’re doing in creating your house and your foundation, building upon tha, line upon line precept upon precept so you can go from glory to glory to glory. So Sarai , thank you so much for joining us.

Speaker 2:

Thank you for inviting me, Heidi. This was awesome. We’ll talk soon.