The End of an Era...For Me

All good things must come to an end.

Man makes his plans & God laughs.

A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord determines his steps. (Proverbs 16:9)

I have been very blessed over my lifetime. Unfortunately, I never realized it until later in life. This Seph Schlueter video describes it perfectly:

Yes, that's the B-2 in the picture. I spent 7 wonderful years working on that program. I worked on several different systems & was responsible for many designs that went on to be incorporated. Later, I got to work on it's eventual replacement, but nothing beats your first time. The work was challenging, interesting & fun. My one brag about my time on the B-2; I was on all 21 aircraft that were delivered to the Air Force. I'm sure there have been others, but I got to do it too.

If you have plans for your life, great, but don't be too disappointed when things don't go as planned. My wife & I had decided our plans together soon after we became a couple. In general, they were for me to eventually retire, sell the house, by an RV, & drive the country visiting friends, family & vacationing. That plan was hatched in 2011. Fast forward to 2024 & we are a 4 generation household & we wouldn't change a thing. I am now retired, but not as planned. It was decided that my years of experience were no longer required with my employer. No need to go into the details, but my guess is that the decision wasn't all financial. But it's over & done & we look forward to what God has planned for us. I was all ready to send an email to the HR department listing my grievances against my boss, including all the receipts to back it up. My incredible wife came to me & said she got a poke from God not to send the email. Another friend/coworker sent me a scripture that only drove the point home more. Exodus 14:14 - The Lord will fight for you; you must be quiet. Then he followed that up with Psalms 46:1 - God is our refuge and strength, a helper who is always found in times of trouble.

It's hard to argue with God at any time. In fact, it's not recommended.

As far as our future, well that was the reason that my wife, Corinna, started seriously looking into the whole work from home option. What started out as a post-retirement plan for additional income, has now moved to the need to make it our primary income stream. Scary, a little bit, but what we decided long ago is that God's got this & everything else. We try not to worry & definitely don't ask Him why things happened. We just keep praying & praising Him (another video reference coming) because He is a good God & His will will not take us where His grace will not protect us. Here's the video I mentioned & it's by Elevation Worship:

Currently, we are focused on our Legacy Builder product (https://family-blessings.com/freedom), which is a digital marketing product. That little tid-bit earns us 100% profit on all of our sales as opposed to a percentage of the sale price with affiliate marketing. We are also looking at other products that can be associate with Legacy Builder. Long story short about Legacy Builder, it's a 'done for you process' that you just need to fill in the blanks to get everything going. No technical skills required & there is community support as well as a mentor available for you. It covers everything you need from basic affiliate marketing to creating your own online content. A year ago, we started down the affiliate marketing path with another company. There was a fee for admission as well as other costs. Picture it like getting into a nightclub. The price of admission & the price after admission. It all adds up really quickly, but it was a learning experience for us on a whole range of areas that apply to starting your own business. Looking back, yes, we might do things differently, but, if I'm being honest, we learned a whole lot & met some really great people that we are still in contact with.

When you talk with some people about work from home opportunities, they immediately think it's a get rich quick scheme. Trust me, it not a scheme & it's not quick. It's consistent work, every day for 2-3 hours a day. It's meeting with other like-minded people & talking about different successes or problems. It's getting help or guidance on how to do something. Like any good thing in life, it takes dedication & perseverance. There was a quote a recently heard from a pastor (sorry, I don't remember his name) & it really struck home & applicable to everyone in their life. DON'T COMPARE YOURSELF TO OTHERS! Once you compare yourself to others, you evict joy from your life. It is so easy to wonder why someone is successful & you are not. Not a productive thought. Talking with that person & learning what they did & applying that to your approach is much better. You're going to need to be aware that their advice/information may not directly apply to your situation, but there may be a part of it or a process from it that will apply.

What does the future hold for us, only God knows, & we're fine with that. He's taken care of us without fail throughout. It may not have been the smoothest, non-troubled path, but He has gotten us through everything without fail. In the meantime, I've got a list of things that need attention around the house, things that we want done to the house, a lot of time to continue praising God, &, of course, a lot of time to spend with my wife. Yes, we have been looking forward to being together as much as possible since we got together. That whole working for the man thing really was putting a damper on that. If I happen to find a new job, hopefully it can be a remote position that keeps me at home. Once the home business takes off, I won't need to worry about another job. Only God knows & again, we're fine with that.

So ends another post. I hope you enjoyed it & maybe learned something from it.

Until next time,

Kurt