The God Who Gives And The God Who Takes Away – A Testimony

It all started in May 2020.

My kids, hubby, and I were all at home due to the national lockdown in Portugal.

I didn’t have any paid work (I trained as an English teacher and Portuguese/ English translator but as a freelancer the amount of work I had was unstable), and I’d just heard from God about writing my book Unique – A Testimony Of Hope In A Comparison Obsessed Mommy Culture.

I was in a very blessed stage of my life. I was homeschooling my children, I was writing my book, and I was looking after the home. Life was good.

The weather back then was mostly sunny, so even though we weren’t allowed to leave the house, we got plenty of vitamin D from spending large amounts of time in our garden and patio.

I even got into looking after my plants. 😂

It was then that I decided that I was happy with what I had. I enjoyed writing. I enjoyed homeschooling. And I enjoyed looking after the home.

That was it. I was going to be a housewife/writer.

But God had something more!

God gives

A day after I made this decision in my head, I got a freelance job offer. To translate 2 to 3 articles a week for a big Brazilian health website.

I was reticent. What about my decision about focusing just on the house and the book? I spoke to Luís and he said he could support me with the translation work in the evenings.

He also pointed out that financially it would also help us out, and the articles weren’t too big.

I thought about it, prayed and I felt it was right. I said yes to two articles a week. That’ll be manageable with the kids at home – I thought.

I didn’t really understand why it was God’s will at that time, though. After all, because of homeschooling and housework, it took me two days to just translate two articles.

Then I only had Wednesday through to Friday for my book writing. I couldn’t imagine how I was going to deal with the extra work I was going to have when I set up my blog.

By God’s grace though, I managed to do both projects, and then Daniel got into pre-school the following year which meant I managed to increase my translation work to 3 articles, as well as expand the blog.

As I developed the blog, however, I realized I was creating several content types all within the same values and ideas which were present in my book. I was creating an author brand.

And that’s when I began resenting the translation work. It was just taking time away from building my business. So, at the beginning of this school year (2021), I pondered whether to abandon the translation work altogether.

But then, I came to a realization. The translation work was actually ideal for this season of my life. One, because it funded my self-published books (cover design and proofreading). And two because it gave me web content experience.

Not only that, but I got a set amount of money every month, and the work itself was flexible in terms of hours.

So I decided to hold on to the work. In fact, I even upped the articles to 4 a week.

Until…

Monday, November 16, 2021.

God takes away

I got a message. My services were no longer required. The company had found an in-house full-time translator.

And just like that, what I had finally come to appreciate completely was terminated.

I felt conflicted. On one hand, I felt the full irony of my own desire to quit weeks before but then continuing, only to be the one to be let go.

On the other hand, I felt anxious. How were we going to deal with the pay cut?

But deep down there was another feeling: excitement.

If God closed that door, what window is He opening? I pondered.

At this moment in time, I have no paid work lined up. Yes, I sell books and journals but these are still very much in the beginning stages. My platform is still small.

And I’m writing a new book. One, which I imagine will also be self-published and need funding.

So I’m looking to God to nudge me in the right direction about what to do. Trusting Him to provide, no matter what. Praying that I would have wisdom in what to take on.

Strangely enough, an hour or so after I got the news about being let go, and without making a connection to this, I decided to share a photo of a flower on Instagram with a quote to go with it.

I couldn’t find any good quotes, so I ended up sharing the Bible verse “See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.” Matthew 6:28-29

It was only later that I actually made the connection between that verse and my anxiety regarding provision. God had been showing me all along that He would provide. 🙂

Isn’t that encouraging?

How about you? Have you got a similar testimony? Let me know in the comments. 🙂