Unqualified With A Purpose

Long time no see, my friends! It has been one heck of a year since I last wrote on ANDB- so much has happened so let me catch you up to speed!

 In May 2025, I graduated from Clemson with my BA in Early Childhood Education (Go Tigers always!); in June I married my best friend, Tyler; in July we moved to Charleston, SC for Tyler’s medical school and settled into our new home. In August we both started school; in September I started a new job and became a Kindergarten teacher; from October-May we were both surviving and navigating newly-wed life, our new city, first year of teaching, medical school, and first holidays married. In June we celebrated one year of marriage (!!) and from June to now I feel as though I have finally been able to catch my breath and slow down. So, not to use a classic cliche that everyone says but… we have been busy and life has felt like it’s been moving 100 miles per hour. 

Writing is a form of worship for me and in this last year of amazing chaos and living in answered prayers, I have missed worshiping in this way. Transparently, I’ve been believing a lie for too long- that because of the amount of time that has passed, I need to have a picture perfect story of what this last year has looked like and all the amazing things I’ve learned all tied up in a silky, satin bow before I can share it. All I’ve kept thinking is that I’m underqualified to write, overbooked and don’t have time to write, and not organized enough to get the train back on the tracks at the moment. I think we can often have this mentality of allowing all the conditions of our lives to get in the way of our God-given purpose: approaching the Lord not with perfection but with an authentic and humble heart. Oh how this can stunt us of hope and intimacy with Him. Reading my devotional this morning gave me the “push” that I needed (thank you, Holy Spirit), specifically these lines: 

“You and I have no natural abilities to rise and do what God calls us to do, but he refuses to leave us to our own resources. He is not so unwise, unkind, or unfaithful as to ever call us to a task without enabling us to do it. Have courage. Be active. Your Savior really is your strength.” (Paul Tripp, New Morning Mercies)

As I read these words, it hit me like a ton of bricks that the message I have told so many girls and said with my chest time and time again had become buried in my heart over time. 

You may be unqualified but the God who dwells in you is not. He has placed gifts and knowledge in your heart for Himself to be glorified in you. 

There have been a plethora of times this last year that I have felt hilariously under-qualified, like seriously, if there's a word for the least qualified in the room, that would be me. Between being a first year teacher, living in a new city, being newly-weds, moving hours away from family, and navigating finding a new church here in Charleston, dare I say I could be awarded  a “least qualified and endured most change” trophy. 

Having this stunted motivation and lack of time this year has been difficult for me to navigate. If you know me, I love a to-do list and I thrive off of setting goals. I mean, I’m the girl who created an epic summer bucket list graphic on Canva containing DIY’s, Charleston adventures, a walking challenge, and books I’ve been dying to read; a list to give me some aim for my first teacher-summer! However, I was kindly told by my friends at the needlepoint store that it wasn’t a true bucket list but was actually just a house punch-list… and they aren’t entirely wrong.

Believing the lie of ‘I’m not qualified to do this anymore’ or ‘no one really cares what I have to say’ is not from the Lord and morphing it into an excuse for not pursuing a calling and command is delayed obedience. How deeply grateful I am for His abounding grace, repentance, and mercies that are new every morning. My stagnation is the perfect example of why I need the Lord every. single. day. and apart from God, I do not have the strength to run the race He has set before me well. Just as Paul Tripp said, “Your Savior really is your strength.” This year my faith has been stretched by new opportunities, through multiple rejections, and learning new roles that have left me with no other option but to fall on my knees and rely solely on His strength. 

Let me leave you with a piece of encouragement, some of my favorite verses. I encourage you to read them slowly and soak them in. Ephesians 3:14-20: 

^“14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom every family^[a] in heaven and on earth derives its name. ¹⁶ I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸ may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

²⁰ Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”

Fresh out of high school, as a freshman and college at Clemson University, the Lord placed a desire in my heart to create a space for women of all generations to come and glean wisdom from one another. Almost five years later, His fingerprint on A New Day Blog is all the evidence I need to continue. Though not perfect, He is using me for a purpose I cannot see fully and I need only to trust the Lamp that illuminates the step directly in front of me. So here I am, a wife, a teacher- just a girl trying to be obedient to her Abba and not ignoring the tug any longer. I don’t know what my writing schedule will look like nor what I will write about but I do know that I’m not letting my fabricated excuses stand between me and my God-given purpose. 

To leave you with a challenge, here are some questions I ask you to think and mediate on:

• What is something that the Lord has been placing on your heart that you’ve been putting on the back burner? 

• Would you pray today for God to give you the courage to acknowledge the tug and take the next step that He has illuminated for you? 

You may be unqualified but the God who dwells in you is not. He has placed gifts and knowledge in your heart for Himself to be glorified in you. 

-AJ