Burden Lifted Off My Back

Regarding my decision to leave my job in end Jan next year, the only people I haven't informed are my parents. You might find it weird that the whole world already knows except them. The reason was that I find it difficult to break the news to them.

I did that two years ago when I told them I wanted to leave my full-time job to do part-time teaching. They were so against it. Their rationale was that part-time job would not provide the benefits like annual leave, medical benefits and bonuses. And at that time in Oct 2008, I guessed it was also not God's timing for me to leave my job yet.

The government just announced that they would increase the maternity leave to four months. Not only that, I would also lose my year-end bonus and my performance bonus. Besides, one of my staff just left, her replacement had not been found and it would be disruptive to my boss if I leave now. So I stayed for good reasons but mainly because I didn't sense that it was God's will to leave my job then. It was tough to stay on but I made the decision to trust God.

Since then God has been preparing the way to provide for me to stay home. I asked God to do three things for me in order for me to stay home:
1) To provide for finances so that I can stay home in style
2) To put me in an environment so that I can fellowship with other stay-home mums
3) To let me find something meaningful to do so that I won't be bored (because after a while, taking care of kids can be quite mundane.)

God is so good. He fulfilled all my three requests. He provided for our finances through the rental income. He put me in a condo where there are many stay-home mums. He put an idea for me to write a book and blog so that I can still be connected to the outside world. Isn't God great?

Lastly, He also prepared the hearts of my parents so that they could take to the news well. When I told them last night, they were not so 'worked up'. I knew that the timing was right and they saw how God blessed them financially over the years. They had the assurance from God that though I might not be able to give them as much household allowance as I did, God would still find ways to provide for them.

Actually this was one of the issues that I had to grapple with before I came to the decision to leave. But once I made the decision, I trusted God to take care of my parents' family and to prepare my parents' hearts for this decision. Thank God that He took care of that and my greatest burden now has been lifted! Praise Jesus!