In January I asked God to speak to me to tell me what decision I should be making about my career path. He told me "make your cakes Becky." The next day I asked him again, he said "follow your dream and make your cakes Becky, make them all for Gracie, tell her story and give your cakes away to kids like Gracie, put smiles on their faces with your cakes!" And so I am doing just that.
God has also been pushing me to step out of my comfort zone with several things. I got an inquiry about a fondant cake, now those of you that know me well know that I have very strong feelings about fondant. I have worked very hard on perfected my recipes over the years with a strong emphasis on tasting homemade. I also strongly believe a cake should look like a cake and fondant just doesn't fit this profile. I have a hard time turning anybody down and it took me about a week to realize that I had to say no. I had to start this business out right and stick to what I am gifted with. God told me "I made you a painter, not a sculptor." :-)
I was at a connect group at church a week ago and of course I told little bits of Gracie's story to a small group of people at my table. When it came to the end of the meeting the Pastor asked if there was anyone that wanted to share their story with the entire group. Nobody volunteered, he asked one last time and there went my hand up in the air! I have never been the best speaker, over the years my nerves have matured a bit, but I still get some anxiety when I'm in front of large groups, I was always fine singing solos in front of an auditorium, but speaking, that's a whole different thing for me. So I grabbed the mic and began telling Gracie's story, I was emotional in the beginning and I think I may have confused some people at one point but I got through it and told them all about Gracie and how God is using her to inspire me to do great things.
Yup, he's pushing me to do things I am uncomfortable with but he's teaching me that yes, I can overcome these fears and well, he's making me into a business woman too. He has got BIG PLANS PEOPLE!
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Gracie would have been 7months old today and It's been a hard day for me thus far. Yesterday I was making a birthday cake for a 5year old girl. As I was finishing up the cake I was piping butterflies on the side of the cake and I was listening to Pandora, as I always do, and "Healer" started playing. This is the song I sang to Gracie every day. Well, I broke down of course and I felt Gracie in that moment, she was guiding my hands to put that butterfly on this cake. She really is with me when I make every cake and I am so thankful. After she passed in October, I have only wanted to be in the kitchen making cakes. I have never felt so happy making cakes before and I can't wait to make the next one, because it makes me so happy. I hadn't figured why until yesterday, it's because Gracie is with me and I feel so close to her when I make cakes. I don't know how better to explain it, and those of you that have lost a loved one knows what I mean. She's amazing isn't she?
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I don't consider myself a great writer, but I like to think I'm good at it and I do enjoy it. I was asked to write a few articles for Lasting Imprint's Newsletter this month. One about Gracie and one about Faith's Lodge. I have gotten a lot of great comments about it and encouragement to keep writing and do more. Hmm... maybe someday I could write a book. ;-) Well sometimes words are hard to come up with, the right way to say something or even what to say. God put a lot of these words into my head, I just wrote them down. I can honestly tell you that I have never loved so much, felt so much, given so much, or thought so much as I have in the passed months since Gracie passed. Jesus is working in my life and I feel that he is so proud of me and that makes me love him and want to know him so much more. We all have a mission in this life, that is to be obedient to God and to reach others for Him. We were all given great gifts that are all different, mine is making cakes, singing and sharing stories. I'm not your traditional writer, I write like a talk and I speak with my heart.
Here are the articles... http://myemail.constantcontact.com/News-from-Lasting-Imprint.html?soid=1104770033433&aid=H7tzhiuv1eA
Thank you for reading!
Becky
http://cakesfromgrace.com
