Day 50: Work From Home

Scripture to Memorize:
She makes linen garments and sells them,
and supplies the merchants with sashes.
She is clothed with strength and dignity;
she can laugh at the days to come.
Proverbs 31:24-25
Passage to Read:
Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind our own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.
1 Thessalonians 4:11-12
Prayer:
Dear Heavenly Father, I have made it my ambition to lead a quiet life. I pray that you will give me the wisdom and guidance required to mind my own business and work with my own hands to help provide for the financial stability of my family. Lord I want my daily life to win respect of outsiders. I want them to see that I am not idle. That I am capable and industrious. I want them to see that not only in my home but at my job. I want others to see me as a productive part of society. I do not want to be dependent on anybody. I want to depend on you my Jehovah Jireh, my provider. I know you will lead me as I seek to establish the work of my hands for the sake of your kingdom. Amen.
Personal:
Donna shares her personal examples of starting her own home-based business twenty some years ago before there was such a term. She carries us from her single person at home business to one that has several of others working for her. She also talks about how she trained her children to follow suit and how all of them have started their own home-based businesses at very early ages. The Thessalonians, according to Donna, had a problem with idleness and she warns that just like them some "stay at home" mothers have the same issue. "They are not busy; they are busybodies'. . . ."They are at home, true, but they are not busy at home. They are onthe phone gossiping, watching soaps, reading romance novels, and surfing the internet. At the very least, they are not setting an example of productivity". Lastly, Donna tell us to keep an open mind in the coming days as we explore other home enterprise opportunities. I have attempted some at home businesses and do not do very well. My most likely avenue would be to start selling things on ebay. However, I have not yet gotten ambitious enough to put forth the effort to do so. I do like the things she says about training children to be entrepreneurial and self-sufficient under God's sufficiency? Her training has been such that her daughters do not believe that their lot in life is to have some corporation giving her a paycheck and job securit for the rest of her life. "We need to train our children for the real world, where the wisest people use the gifts God has given them to mind their own business," says Donna. Donna further shares that her oldest daughter has gone and plans on going on more mission trips in which she has had a hand in raising her own money and she carries her own money with her on the trip instead of depending on her parents to provide her with money. If I were to get ambitious and begin an ebay business the items I would sell are things I make at home.
Affirmation: I stay busy at home.
Practical: Prayerfully consider whether or not you should explore ways to generate additional family income through your own home-based business, is Donna's advise. She also gives a website for further suggestions, www.donnapartow.com/homemadebusiness.