My dear friends, Gloria and Julia, The Resourceful Gals, asked me to do an interview about what it is like having started a family business.
You can read about it here,
Featured Resourceful Gal - Michelle!
It was a fun interview in which I shared my struggles, advice and heart. Hope you are blessed by it.
Thanks, Gloria and Julia.
Escapism: The tendency to escape from daily reality or routine by indulging in daydreaming, fantasy, or entertainment.
One thing that irritates me to no end is technology. It is a love/hate relationship. I think it is incredibly useful but also has the potential to destroy ‘family’ as we know it. I am seeing our family be distracted with technology more and more as we all have smart phones and have reasons to be on the computer. I am not sure what to do about it, but I am taking notice and don’t want to be slack in this.
I have noticed, for myself, that not only is technology, in the form of the internet, blogs, Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter, a giant timewaster, but I think it is actually becoming an acceptable ‘drug’.
Sound crazy? Hang with me for a minute. Drugs (and the abuse thereof) are used, in part, as an escape. When life it too much or one doesn’t know how to handle life, they need to check out in some way. Drugs, money, shopping, food, whatever the vice, the ‘need to escape’ is there. Of course, there are a multitude of reasons that are the root of this abuse, but the need to be loved and to fill the empty, broken place are probably the most prominent. I want to focus on one the things we use to ‘escape’. (The Lord should be sought as to the ‘why’ we run to these things.) Most of us are not getting drunk with alcohol, or high on drugs, but there are other ‘drugs’ that help us to escape.
Maybe this is just me, but have you ever just mindlessly clicked from blog to blog or Pinterest idea to Pinterest idea? Click, click, click. You should be making dinner, looking at your children when they speak to you, educating them, doing the laundry, . . . It is so much easier to just click, click, click, and escape the responsibilities. Or maybe you are just plain overwhelmed and don’t know where to start . . . click, click, click.
Or Facebook, do I need to check it a bazillion times a day? Why do I? Because I really ‘care’ what is on there or because I just want to escape my reality and dive into someone else's. (I could do a whole series on the evils of Facebook!)
Smart Phones have upped the ante. We don’t even need to flip open the lid on our laptop anymore. That’s so old school, we just need to start sliding our fingertip across the screen, and bam, we are transported to another place. Not to mention they are always with us, in the restaurant, while we are driving, at the coffee shop, on the playground, at the dinner table.
I absolutely have to use the internet, Pinterest and Facebook for our business, but I must honestly admit that I also use it to escape. I have not figured out the balance yet. I am an all or nothing gal. I’d rather throw the computer and smart phone in the pond than have to find that balance, but I can’t.
The following verses have been speaking to me as I seek to find that balance and they are very convicting. I’m still working these out ladies.
Pr. 14:1
The wise woman builds her house,
But the foolish pulls it down with her hands.
I wonder if a modern day translation could read, The wise woman builds her house, but the foolish pulls it down with click, click, click of the mouse. (Or her rapid-fire thumbs on her smartphone)
Ephesians 5:15-17
See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit,
Perhaps, ‘do not be drunk with wine’ would be translated today as ‘do not use technology to escape’??
Not trying to be disrespectful in anyway with the Word of God, I am just seeing yet another way in which I have been ‘unwise’ and have not been redeeming the time and have actually been getting “drunk” or “escaping”.
What about you? Do you find yourself using an ‘acceptable’ “drug” to escape reality?
This past weekend I had another opportunity to share my heart with hundreds of women. I was asked way back in September to be a speaker at the West Michigan Women’s Expo. I was shocked and thrilled at the opportunity. I knew immediately it had precious little to do with our business and all to do with touching women’s hearts.
The work the Lord has done in my heart through preparing and doing this weekend is so cool. He is teaching and training me, I can tell! More on that later. I though I would share my notes from which I spoke with you all. Of course I added things here and there, but you will get the gist of it. The response was overwhelming and as I read emails and comments I am brought to tears and so humbled that He would choose me to be His vessel. So here it is.
Welcome to West Michigan Women’s Expo
I’m Michelle Grzybowski with
{re}imagined just for you.
This is presentation is . . .
So excited to be here, it feels like such a privilege and gift to be able to have this platform to share a little bit of my heart, so thank you for being here!
When Denise asked me to speak at the Women’s Expo I was so excited and yes I did a happy dance or two at the prospect of being here
You see, I LOVE Women! I think we are the most amazing creatures and my heart is to encourage and inspire women! So I am just a wee bit excited to be here.
INTRO
I’m going to tell you a little bit about me and our business and then we will get to the demonstration.
My name is Michelle G. and I am married to an incredibly loving and patient man! And I say patient because he not only bears with me and my crazy ideas, but he also encourages and picks me up over and over.
People like me may jump high but we also fall hard and he’s always there to pick up the pieces
After nearly 25 years we have figured out that I’m a jump off the cliff person and he offers parachute so yeah, he’s Patient! You could pray for him because sometimes I’m a full time job!
Here is our family,
We have 9 children, 8 still living at home. 3 grandchildren
We have homeschooled pretty much from the beginning, oldest few years
We are a very close family and all of the children are involved in our business in one way or another
From Tech support,
to woodworker
to creating some of the things we sell at our sales
to helping with the home.
I’d like to tell you it’s a perfectly working well-oiled machine, but it is not and we are just fine with that! We learn and grow and mess up and try again together and that’s all that matters.
Amazing Women
Like I mentioned, my heart is for women, I adore the men in my life, but it’s the women who intrigue and inspire me.
Women are amazing!
But here’s what I have found in my own life as well as the women, I come in contact with and maybe it’s true or you.
If I were being honest, I think we struggle with some common issues
I think we often times feel like we just don’t measure up, I call it the never good enough syndrome
We think we need to DO MORE, BE BETTER, TRY HARDER.
This often leaves us empty and tired, exhausted really, it did me any way. Actually, it made me very sick but that is another awesome story of Gods’ redeeming love.
OUR VALUE
Our value becomes about what we do and how well we do it and because we never seem to do it “good enough” we beat ourselves up, we are so hard on ourselves. We may struggle with self-doubt, and insecurity. I think we can be our own worst enemy.
Maybe our value is wrapped up in being a mom. I know mine was for a while. ( I have nine children, homeschool, bread, socks match. It wasn’t so much about impressing you as it was about proving that I was somebody special)
Or your job. Or where we are financially.
Or our appearance. . . Pretty enough, thin enough
Or keeping up with the Joneses.
Clean and organized house.
How about this one, what our children become, if they are ‘successful’ in our eyes.
WORK DONE IN MY HEART
Ladies, the Lord has done a deep work in my heart over the last several years and I’m here to tell you.
And listen to me closely and I dare you to believe me as everything in your head may be screaming. NOT TRUE!
Here’s what I’ve learned
I am Enough! I am good enough! And so are you!
Right here and right now. We are good enough!
No amount of doing more, being better and trying harder is going to change your value in the eyes of the ONLY ONE WHO REALLY MATTERS.
Ladies, I’ve learned that I am dearly loved right and that I am a treasure in the arms of Christ, right where I am at, flaws and weaknesses and unwanted facial hairs and all.. (did I just say that out loud?)
I was created on purpose with a purpose and so were you! Did you hear that? You were created ON PURPOSE with a PURPOSE. You are of great value.
You see, you are already amazing! You are loved, you are valuable just the way you are!
Is this just me, or can anyone else relate??
ANOTHER LIE
And our want to hear another lie I find so many women fall for?
“I’m Not Creative”
Who here has ever thought or said. “Oh, I’m not creative”-----“I could never do that I don’t have a creative bone in my body”—raise your hands.
It’s a lie, Ladies, and let me prove it to you.
Think about this, each one of us was created in the image of God. He created ALL things. So, guess what that says about us, we are creative!
It just might look differently than someone else.
Or maybe life and circumstances have buried it so far down,
Maybe it was never developed or fostered in you.
But I want you to know, you do create. You are creative.
We create babies.
Homes for our family
Meals
Memories- did you ever plan a vacation, you created a memory.
Maybe you gather flowers form your garden and place them just so for others to enjoy
He has given you gifts and talents to share with others, you have a purpose.
You are valuable!
You are loved!
You are amazing!
Okay, on to {re}imagined just for you.
What is so cool about this is that it was a ‘public’ forum. The Lord enabled me to proclaim HIM in this venue that is definitely not Christian! I was so excited, I do not know if I will EVER have that kind of platform again and I wanted to take full advantage of it!!
Ladies, I would like to offer a pair of tickets to the West Michigan Women’s Expo that I am speaking at to one of my ‘local’ readers of She Looketh Well.
Anyone out there interested in attending? Leave me a comment and I will enter your name in the drawing.
If you could share our new website with someone else who is local to the Greater Grand Rapids area, that would be awesome too!
Aemelia Tripp February 22, 2013
For Michelle Grzybowski, refurbishing antique furniture is more than just a hobby. “I’m living the dream!” says Michelle. She works with her family, restoring gorgeous antique pieces and encouraging as well as inspiring women through classes, antique markets, and expos, like the West Michigan Women’s Expo this March. “For me, it’s the people, it’s not about selling furniture,” she notes.
Many people ask, but Michelle decided long ago not to open a store. “I couldn’t just drop off the furniture. My heart has always been to encourage women as well.”
Michelle has always been crafty, but decided to start her business, {re}imagined just for you about two years ago with her husband and kids. . .
Read the rest of the awesome article at Women’s Lifestyle Magazine
Thank you, Aemelia, you did an beautiful job capturing my heart.
