I love teaching, I knew I connected well with my students, and I felt really fulfilled from my job.

So when I prepared to return to work after taking maternity leave with my first child, and I received a strong prompting to resign from my job at the end of the school year, I was shocked.

That wasn’t my plan.

That wasn’t what I wanted.

But I also could not deny that prompting— resign from teaching at the end of the year.

I realized that when I told people about my resignation at first, I would “blame” it all on God.

“I wanted to keep working, but I got a super strong prompting to quit so I guess that’s what I’m doing!”

I had my own will.

I had learned God’s will.

And I guess I was going to let His will win.

Then one day, it clicked.

God didn’t want me to grudgingly follow this prompting, blaming Him for giving up what I really wanted.

He wanted me to do it willingly.

And so I started to pray.

I prayed for the desire to WANT to quit my job.

(Kind of weird, I know.)

But that desire came. Pretty quickly, too.

And suddenly I felt so much more at peace about my decision.

I wasn’t “giving in” to what God wanted for my life.

My will and God’s will had become one.

We wanted the same thing, even though I wasn’t sure about the WHY yet.

“Take ye from among you an offering unto the Lord: whosoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it”. (Exodus 35:5)

God doesn’t want us to come dragging our feet and blaming everything on Him. On His promptings, on His commandments.

He wants us to come and sacrifice willingly.

And I’ve learned that if I truly come to the altar of prayer with a desire to have our wills become the same, He will always help my heart get to the right place.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post The will to quit my job first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

As I walked through one of these beautiful temples, one of our ushers told us that the reason why the church only wants the best and most beautiful craftsmanship within temples is not to show off or spend money needlessly.

Instead, he actually drew a comparison to the tabernacle of ancient Israel.

They set the pattern of using the best materials that they could, spending countless hours preparing every detail, as a symbol of their sacrifice and dedication to the Lord!

If the tabernacle was going to be used to worship the Lord, then they wanted to put forth their best effort in every single detail.

“And he overlaid it with pure gold within and without, and made a crown of gold to it round about.” (Exodus 37:2)

This lesson from my temple open house usher really stuck with me.

Am I giving my absolute best to the Lord as a symbol of how I feel about Him?

Or is He getting my leftovers from whatever else I have going on that day?

Don’t get me wrong, life is busy and crazy and insane.

With everything I have going on as a mortal human being, it’s not really possible to spend all day every day giving Him my best.

And I hope those questions don’t weigh you down with shame.

Instead, I hope they inspire you to do a little better in some small way.

Can I give more of my best self to the Lord?

Can I make sure He isn’t ever the one getting pushed off my to-do list due to over scheduling?

Can I give Him time when I know my mind is in the best shape it can be?

Do I make sacrifices to give Him time?

My little inspiration, my little nudge from the Spirit in response to these questions probably looks different than yours.

“My best” changes every day.

But just like ancient Israel, I think I can do a little better at choosing to give my best to the Lord as a symbol of what He means to me.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Giving my best  first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.