“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” -Isaiah 43:19
As I sit in reflection lately, I cannot help but think of all the ways life will change or how we are all finding a “new normal”. It has provided me with quite the variety of emotions from sad to excited and everything in between. It would be easy to get bogged down thinking only of what I cannot do, so I am making a daily effort to think about how ‘change’ has always been constant in my life. Some of my best moments have come to me in times when life has thrown change my way.
After Carter was born, I was certain that I wanted to continue in my career and be a working mom. I had a great job I was good at and it worked out to have wonderful childcare. When Carter was about 2 years old, I started feeling God nudging me to stay at home. After months of doing my best to ignore the nudge, I made the leap into the role of a “Stay at Home Mom”. This should really come with a learning manual and much more pay! It was a huge learning curve and a big cut to our family budget, but a time I will never regret. Even on days that were really hard, I knew I was where God wanted me to be. I recognized my privilege in being able to be at home with Carter gal and was much better at it than I ever thought I would be. I was surprised, but I know God was not. He orchestrated so many things to make it a possibility and it was a time I was challenged the most ever, but the happiest too! I realized strengths and grace within myself I did not know I possessed!
Carter started Kindergarten and that year I quickly filled my schedule with PTO, Mom Core (A mom group at the Edmond Campus that is so fun to facilitate… holler at this momma if you want to know more!) and other activities in which I could serve others. One of which was being a faith friend to confirmation students. This is when God through me another curve ball. After one of the confirmation classes, Josh Attaway asked me if I was open to thinking about something that he thought I should pray about.
“We are looking to hire a youth director and I really think you could be a great fit for the job. Pray about it and let’s meet up in a couple weeks to talk about it.” I thought to myself, “Okay, Josh. Yeah…. I will totally pray about it and kindly tell you thanks for thinking of me, but no thank you.” I went home to tell my husband this crazy idea Josh had, and he was not surprised at all! Jeffrey told me that when the church announced they were actively looking to hire a youth director, his first thought was, “Sarah would be really good at that.” Long story short, I didn’t see it coming, but when God put it in front of me, I could not deny that my heart’s answer was “YES!” I took the leap of faith to become a working mom again and had to trust that God would provide. He did, He is, and along with this amazing church leadership, I found myself in another “New Normal.”
The greatest blessings can come out of big changes, and for me, being the Youth Director at the St. Luke’s Edmond Campus has brought more blessings to my life in just under a year than I could have ever imagined. Change, while scary, is so utterly good for the soul.
– Sarah Cohea, Edmond Campus Director of Youth Ministry
