Where's Your Focus?

This past Saturday I had the opportunity to sell Virtuous Bloom items at a trade show. I was so excited to take the online boutique to in person sales. Tyler helped me order a banner with the logo on it, and I stayed up super late the night before putting the price tags on everything and printing out my blogs and business cards. I was so excited for the opportunity to share this project with others. We get to the trade show the next day early to get a spot. When 9:00 hits I pull up my app for sales that is connected to my debit card reader, and it would not connect. I tried everything. I had just posted on Facebook for people to come and shop Virtuous Bloom at the trade show, and they are gonna come and not be able to buy things. How embarrassing! Tyler being the supportive husband he is instantly started trying to fix the problem. I was mentally in a panic, but still trying to smile as people walked by. After about 30 minutes there was a woman that walked up admiring the dresses and then noticed my blogs laying there on the table. She asked me about them. I told her about the encouraging blogs and how my goal is to help encourage women through their journey with the Lord. She grabbed a couple of the blogs off the table. I gave her one of my business cards, and she walked away. Then it hit me. In the midst of trying to get everything perfect, I had lost the reason I started this in the first place. Yes it is fun to sell the dresses, but the real push to start Virtuous Bloom was the blogs. I wanted to encourage women and remind them of God’s love and goodness. Sharing the love of God did not require making sales at this trade show. I was there to share a message. Once the Lord brought this to my attention, I began to relax and depend on Him in that moment. I began to talk with people not with the goal of selling a product, but the goal of talking about the Lord. Encouraging them to read the blogs. The card reader never ended up working, but the Lord did provide us a solution to making sales. God is good! After the trade show was over I began to wonder what if in that 30 minutes while I was freaking out about my card reader, I missed an opportunity to speak to women about the gospel. I was so easily distracted by what was happening that I lost focus of the mission. This made me think how easy it is to lose our focus in life. 

Proverbs 4:25-27 states: 

"Let your eyes look straight ahead, And your eyelids look right before you. Ponder the path of your feet, And let all your ways be established. Do not turn to the right or the left; Remove your foot from evil." (Proverbs, 4:25-27, NKJV)

There are so many distractions that pull us away from the reason we are here in the first place. We are here to glorify God. Whatever your earthly job is whether it is selling clothes, working in an office, a nurse, a stay at home mom it should never cause us to forget our real job. This life is not about the titles, the sales, or the popularity; it's about spreading the gospel and showing God’s love to His people. 

"Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, 'Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.' And Jesus answered and said to her, 'Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.'" (Luke, 10:38-42, NKJV) 

It is easy to get distracted by our worldly concerns the way Martha did. She was working hard doing what was expected of her at the time. When we get so overwhelmed by the expectations of the world, it causes us to lose sight of our focus on the Lord. Yes we are supposed to work hard and serve, but it should never be more important than sitting at the feet of Jesus. We need to choose the good part.  In order to do anything worth purpose you need the Lord.  He created all of the gifts and all of the opportunities. You need the anointing. You can only get that through spending time with Him. You have to know Him. Fix your eyes upon the Lord and what he says in his word. When we focus on the earthly things it is easy to get stressed and overwhelmed over an expectation that wasn’t ours to fulfill in the first place. The devil takes pleasure in making you feel defeated or embarrassed as I was at the trade show. Making you feel like you are not capable, but if what you are doing is for God and you are following in where the Lord is leading, there is no reason to feel embarrassed or defeated. If it's for the Lord it becomes about Him and not you. It takes that pressure of depending on your own strength, your own knowledge, your own gifts, and opens the door to let the Lord take over. When you have the Lord working through you nothing is impossible. 

I encourage you to keep your focus on the one who created it all. Through the business of life, don’t neglect the time to sit at his feet. Read your word, pray, spend time with Him and never forget the true reason you are here.

References:

King James Version. Bible Gateway, 2025 https://www.biblegateway.com/