I quit?

I quit my corporate job today.

quit [kwit] - verb: to stop, cease, discontinue...

I've worked in an office for nine years. I've loved it. I love talking to people all day. I love interaction with colleagues around the world and customers on the phone. I will not be doing this anymore. I will be staying at home with my son, all day, every day.

... to leave...

I'm leaving the people I've seen every weekday for years. I have a lot invested in these people. I like them. I love them. I care about them. I'm leaving a place that has given me opportunities to grow, learn, excel, use my skills and knowledge, and advance my career. I'm embarking on a daily journey that I'm not sure I can handle. I don't know that I'll like being a full-time mom. I'm leaving a job where I'm successful for one where I'm sure I'll fail.

... to give up...

I am giving up a steady paycheck, annual bonuses, a few weeks of paid vacation, financial security. I'm giving up my ability to go out to nice dinners every week, to splurge on new clothes and records and makeup and whatever else I want, to say "yes" every time a friend asks me to a $10 movie. Instead, I'm accepting a new role where I come last, where my needs and my wants are not what's most important.

Can I really do this? Can I give up so many benefits, so much security? Can I leave behind my freedom, all these things and people I enjoy so much? Can I sacrifice all the things I want to do for a life of full-time motherhood?

resign [ree-sahyn] - verb: to yield...

As it so happened, I didn't follow my senses. Or my bank account. I chose to follow my heart, to yield to its yearnings.

It isn't that I gave up all the things I love; it's that I gave in to something else.

A little boy named Arlo.

...to submit without resistance...

I felt the pulling of a new calling, to relinquish my corporate career and adopt a new path. I felt the Lord asking me to sacrifice for my family, not by leaving every day (which for many is a huge sacrifice, and something that they have no choice in, but for me would, in a way, be easy), but by staying home. And boy, is it a sacrifice for me. And for our finances.

But what always follows sincere sacrifice? From the beginning of time, God has shown us that, where there is a pleasing sacrifice, He will follow it with blessings. Whether it's incense or a fatted calf or the ultimate sacrifice of His own Son, He blesses those who lay their offerings and their lives at His feet and say "Not my will, but Yours."

And so I offer up the paychecks, the freedom, the benefits and the indulgences. I submit, and I wait.