MEET CANDRA GEORGI!

Listen to Week 1 of Be Missional and Build-Intro by clicking here!

Listen to Week 2 of Be Missional and Build-Meet Pam Elmore by clicking here!

Candra’s middle school superlative was “most likely to become a psychiatrist after completing beauty school”. Two things you should know about her: 1) She has naturally great hair that she only washes once a week, and 2) She would be charging you for all her advice, but she didn’t like the salaries she heard of in the Careers in Psychology course in college — so she got married and pregnant. Candra has been married 10 years and counting [super easy!], and has three boys [8,6,4] and a 2 year-old girl [also super easy.] Candra is also very sarcastic. And funny. What she lacks in grammar she hopes to make up for in humor. In the trenches of homeschooling and non-Pinterest homemaking she finds time to write these day—never. She’s always had a heart for ladies ministry, and now that her wardrobe gives her away at college gatherings so has shifted her focus to ministering to mothers. In her free time, she chases others peoples kids and tries to get them to smile at her camera. She hates cooking, wearing bras and the flat white paint that covers the inside of her home. She loves Jesus, which should be obvious based on the task she’s undertaken to keep her kids home all day, all year long. You can find out more about Candra’s photography here!

I remember the exact weekend I realized the Lord leading me to marry my now husband. I called my mom on the phone and said, “But how can I marry him? I think he wants lots of kids and wants to homeschool them! I’m called to travel and preach on stages!”

Since I was little I had seen visions of myself preaching on stages to thousands of people and now I was facing motherhood? I was finishing up my college degree at the time and had an incredible job at one of the world’s most famous Christian organizations. I was going places…but not with kids.

It took one movie to change my life. The Passion Of The Christ. No, I’m kidding, it was actually Cheaper By The Dozen. I saw that hot mess of a house and dirty kids running around and somehow — somehow — was in love with the idea. God had changed my heart. He showed me stages aren’t the only places the Gospel is preached.

I grew up thinking if you love Jesus with all your heart you travel and preach the Gospel on stages. You hold gatherings, not babies. Fast forward almost 10 years of marriage and four kids later and I’m not on a stage:

I’m IN one.

In this stage I see the Gospel preached day in and day out. Let’s face it…my two year-old? She is NOT saved! My daily life gives me plenty of opportunities to preach Jesus to people— specifically four little people…Nation, Solomon, Moses and Heaven.

I’ve heard the call to being a stay at home mom. I’ve heard the call to home school my kids. Not because being a home school mom is a higher calling than a mom in the workplace or a mom on a stage, but because it was the call on my life.

I’m so glad I answered it.

Has it been tough? Yes. Impossible at times? Yes.

But has it been overwhelmingly beautiful as well? Absolutely.

I think one day we will still travel, and I think one day there may still be literal stages, but I want to live fully in the stage of today. I want to be completely content and joyfully present today. I know that the changing of diapers is just as spiritual and valuable to the Lord as the changing of medical dressings in a hospital and just as valuable as helping change a stranger’s path from eternal death to eternal life by preaching the Gospel with words.

Someone has to do it. Someone has to answer to the call to love, comfort, and teach the next generation — to the next evangelist or missionary or…mommy. After all, maybe the stages that will be preached on won’t be preached on by me, but rather by part of me — my little disciples. I can imagine their voices echoing in a stadium.  

All the work we dedicate to the Lord is holy. Motherhood is holy. Staying at home is holy. Working outside the home is holy.

Wherever God calls and we obey becomes holy.

I have had to put aside daydreams of where I would be now if I were still working for that organization while in college. I have had to give up a lot to be fully present in this season, but I believe I will reap a holy harvest. I know that my sacrifices (even if overlooked at times by my husband, or society, or my friends and family) are never overlooked by the Lord.

I have a lot of gifts and talents that may seem to have been better used outside the home, but for now, in the Lord’s eyes, those talents are being used exactly as He planned. God has called me to use them in the home, and I am happy to do so.

At the end of the day, in your spit up stained shirt, possibly unbrushed hair [you can’t remember!], and holding your several times over microwaved coffee, you have to be able to say “not my call on my life, but yours.”

Because He’s worthy.

So, be all in at whatever stage you’re in. If he’s called you to be a stay at home mom… be there. If he’s called you to homeschool… be there. Be where He is. Be a missionary to your little disciples. You don’t need an Instagram full of people hashtagging your preaching at conferences to prove you’ve served God well — an Instagram full of playgrounds and math books will do…for now!

What are you doing today that God calls holy, even if it doesn’t seem like it to you? Share in the comments below!

Looking for a new small group study? Check out the Be Together Small Group Bible Study on Be Loved and Live. It includes deeper levels of understanding how God wants us to truly love, honest discussion and practical application. Get your copy today!