Talk & Pray for Life & Business
Faith-based personal development Courses and Coaching
TaPing into our Best Life
Hi! I'm Mary Lou Casada for Talk & Pray, and it took me a while to settle into myself...do you
know the feeling? Capable, ambitious, but wanting more? - More impact, more success, more
satisfaction?
Me, too! I've been a mom-preneur and now mature-preneur (how do you like those terms?!),
and I have a lifetime of experience-work, family, love, and loss-that, combined with the
Truth of Scripture, has taught me valuable lessons. I have a passion to share that wisdom with
women of faith who want more. Welcome to Talk and Pray for Life and Business!
Where you are now is where you are supposed to be
You might wonder what Talk & Pray has to do with Life & Business! And to be honest, I had to
scratch my head a little when the name came to me. Let me explain...
Talk, for me, is a given. I was the kid who brought home report cards that said, "Mary Lou is a
good student, but she talks too much at her seat." Later, at my first job that then was called
"keypunch operator"- it's called data entry now-I was denied a raise and given a reprimand
because although my production was excellent, the people around me were decreasing in
production because I couldn't resist starting up a conversation with my neighbor! Not much has
changed over the years!
Pray, too, wouldn't be a surprise for anyone who knows me. Prayer is a conversation between
the pray-er and God. I've been a life-long follower of Christ, perfectly imperfect, raised in
church, with a heart that truly desires to walk with the Lord. I know the value of prayer and its
impact on events and circumstances, and more importantly, how I am changed when I not only
talk to God, but truly listen to His side of the conversation.
Life is a given, and I've had quite a bit of it... I've raised a family, homeschooled my children,
faced the death of a child and both my parents. I've been married 36 years and both of us are
still living (although I've been known to quip that while divorce is not an option, homicide is
still on the table). Just kidding!! If something untoward happens to my husband, I guess this
podcast will be used as evidence! Please please tell me you'll be a witness for my defense!
Talk. Pray. Life. Business, however, is a surprise. If you looked back over my life, business
wasn't the obvious trajectory.
One of my early memories is of a book that I checked out of the school library countless times.
It was a "Childhood of Famous Americans" book-do you know the series? Sort of imagined
childhood stories based in fact about significant people in American history. My favorite in the
series was about Katherine Lee Bates, the author of America, the Beautiful-you know, "O
beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain." Some people think it is a better
national anthem than the Star Spangled Banner. It's a beautiful piece of poetry, penned by Miss
Bates, after traveling across the country and seeing the view from Pikes Peak in the Rocky
Mountains.
Katherine Lee Bates was my childhood hero! Her name became a source of eyerolls among my
family because I talked about her ALL the time! While I can't recall any details of the book
today, I know that her words impacted a nation! And I had "change the world" kind of dreams
after that.
Not in an Oprah kind of way- "You get a car, and You get a car! -nor even in a clean-water
kind of way, like the entrepreneurs you read about whose profits go to provide resources for
third world countries.
But to change how people think with words-Oh My Word!!-and later, to understand that the
Word-capital W, Word of God-changes WHO people are...well, it's not any wonder that my
childhood dream was to be a preacher! By the time I was in college, those dreams inspired a
degree in English with a minor in Biblical Studies.
Still not getting the business connection? Me, neither. My love of words and English degree
landed me in a position to write grants, proposals, and fundraising letters for my college, then
for a few para-educational and business groups, dipping my toe in the business world.
About this time, my dad started a business and I got to see a less traditional and more
entrepreneurial lifestyle. But me? stepping into that life? Not on my radar at all.
Proverbs 16:9 says, "In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their
steps." Fast forward a few years and three children later, and in enters homeschooling and
ministry, more threads of preparation that I didn't understand at the time. God was growing in
me a love of teaching, of passing down wisdom, and of being a life-long learner.
And as my children left home, that dream of impact hit me again. My middle son, Sam, passed
away unexpectedly, and the hole that event left in my life needed filling with something that
would occupy my hands and my mind. So I signed up with a network marketing business,
something I could do from home and still be free to spend time with family and do things in
ministry. And I soaked up everything I could about how to sell, how to serve customers, how to
market and run a business, how to impact people with products, how to tell a story that inspires
people, and how to impact a team with wisdom and motivation. I went to a retreat with a group
of executives from the company just before the pandemic. As we talked about business
challenges and how to serve our business and our customers, one of the executives leaned over,
took my name card and on it wrote, "You have the gift of words."
I filed the affirmation away. I had plans, but God was ordering my steps.
I was successful for 12 years with that company, until...
Well, until it was time to move. Not physically but to move toward the next right step. In the
direction I can now see that God was moving me all along. A direction that wasn't clear when
my business was growing fast and I could barely keep up, nor when it was stuck, when neither
my teams nor I were motivated nor inspired no matter how hard I worked or how well I talked.
Now I can look back and see how the ebb and flow of business was part of the pattern of God's
work in my life. Scripture says His thoughts are not my thoughts, His ways are not my ways.
But when you are IN it, on the struggle bus, it's hard to see and hard to trust. But believe me...
He IS working and you ARE right where you are supposed to be.
You may be scratching YOUR head now...asking yourself, "Really? THIS is where I'm
supposed to be now?" Feeling stuck, or unfulfilled, or grasping for that "next thing." Or maybe
you've had a plan, and it's not going the way you thought it would, not according to your plan
at all. I've been there.
Would I have preferred a straight line to where I am now? Of course. I'm sure you would like
the same thing. But let me assure you, where you are is where you are supposed to be. For
NOW. You are being prepared for the next thing. Maybe in the business you are in, maybe
somewhere else.
For me, those gifts of words, and talk, and prayer, and life experience, and business are now
being used to teach, to coach, and even to write a book! I saw the promise of these things, the
HOPE of these things loooong ago, though I forgot for a time. The steps God ordered to get me
here were not in MY plans, but surely in His. And He has the same promise for you.
Can I just tell you? There is time to realize your dreams. Whether you are an entrepreneur,
solopreneur, mompreneur, homepreneur, maturepreneur, or oldpreneur, where you are now is
part of the plan.
Look back, and search for the patterns. What was your dream when you were a little girl? What
has been a recurring theme through school, relationships, jobs? What has been affirmed in you
time and time again? These are clues to God's work in you. They are clues to your unrealized
dreams and the thing or things that will produce the more-impact, success, satisfaction-you
are looking for.
What are the skills you are developing where you are? I have a missionary friend who spent a
painful year repairing small engines: lawnmowers, weedeaters, brush trimmers and the like. He
wondered why God would allow a missionary, a person who just wanted to share the good news
of the gospel with people, do this ordinary, tedious, low-paying work. Many years later, the
missionary and his wife landed in east Tennessee at a camp which ministered to children all
summer long and was home base for other ministry throughout the area. Guess what that camp
had lots of... grass, and trees, and brush... good thing this missionary had learned to work on
equipment. He was right where he belonged, being prepared for his greater mission waiting for
him in the future, something that, as an avid outdoorsman, was the perfect place for him to
serve. More impact, more success, more satisfaction.
You see, you are neither too early nor too late. You are NOT ahead of or past your prime. I read
every day of the under-30 crowd who brilliantly change the world with ideas and inventions. A
mentor of mine started a new business and podcast after her retirement as an executive in a
billion-dollar sales company. My husband reminded me that Colonel Sanders, of Kentucky
Fried Chicken fame, earned his first million when he was close to 70 years old. His whole life
he was being prepared for the impact his life, recipe, brand, and legacy would bring to the
world.
How are you living in this season? Are you open to soaking up everything you can, knowing
you are being prepared for more? Are you developing yourself personally, professionally, and
spiritually for the next leg of your journey? Make plans to do so, then watch how God orders
your steps.
Where you are is EXACTLY where you are supposed to be. For NOW.
Father,
I thank you that you order the steps of the righteous, and where we are is no surprise to you.
And where our steps have led us is exactly where we are supposed to be for now. Lord, though
our choices may have taken us down painful roads, or circumstances unforeseen by us have
created bumps in the road, the journey lies before us. I thank You for Your preparation for
NOW, and your preparation for LATER. Open our eyes to see and our hearts to trust that the
dreams you have given us are still available to us. And whatever the road before us holds, you
have gone ahead to prepare the way. Give us wisdom to follow you.
In Jesus' Name,
Amen
