One Yes at a Time

If you would’ve told me I was going to be the House Manager during a pandemic while we were simultaneously trying to become fully staffed and hit our max resident number while also being in grad school… I don’t know what I would’ve said in reply.

We often believe the perfect plan for our lives involves one big ‘yes’ where everything will be laid out in front of us and we just say ‘yes’ or ‘no’. I know I often believe there will be one big moment in my life where God asks one big thing of me and all the sudden I’m a saint. I think it will be burning bushes and pillars of fire. But this season of my life has shown me the opposite. Instead, it’s still small voices. It’s whispers and one little ‘yes’ after another until the big stuff starts to become clear.

It started with a small yes to come to Dallas, TX. I packed everything in my little Nissan and just went. Then it was a yes to be a staff member with this little place called ‘In My Shoes’. And then it was a yes to be the House Manager. And then it was a yes to continue to lead during an unprecedented pandemic. Then a yes to hiring more staff, to adding more moms, and to growing the program. And before we knew it, the team and I were changing the world.

We didn’t know we were changing the world in the little steps leading up to here, especially the challenging and difficult steps. The 4 am hospital runs and hard conversations were the yeses that hurt a little. But, just this week we had a mom come home from the hospital with the first child she was able to keep with her. In the car she said, “I am so thankful that someone believed in me so that I could finally have the chance to be a mother.”

And in that moment, I realized we were actually changing the world in a big way. That baby could be the doctor that cures cancer, or the next great saint. They could be the pope or the president. That mom was no longer in survival mode. She had something to live for and something to love because people had lived for her and loved her first. As she stepped through the door of the house with her newborn a tear glimmered on her cheek as she said, “it feels good to be home.” Maybe we just make a home for mothers and babies, but if that home is changing lives for the better then we’re changing the world. That’s one more person whose potential has opened. Now, their world is possibility and opportunity instead of dead ends and barriers. Everyday, we help with that opening. The possibilities for these people, moms and babies, are endless; that changes the world.

When I started this thing, I didn’t realize I’d be shifting the future. Like I said, if all the beautiful and the hard had been laid out in front of me before I started, I don’t know if my answer would’ve been the same. Instead, I took one yes at a time. Before I knew it, this home had seen ten babies born here in just a few months. That’s ten little lives that were saved because my team and I said ‘yes’ many times in a row. It wasn’t one big moment. It wasn’t a crazy movement of the Spirit with thunder and thousands of people. Instead, it was little nudges, whispered prayers, and invitations to the Holy Spirit.

Don’t be afraid of the little ‘yes’ that leads to another ‘yes’. Before you know it, the world will change.