Do you think it’s possible some people are just born with the “counseling gene?” If that’s true, I’m one of them. Ever since I can remember, people have easily opened up to me about their problems. One day when we were in a dollar store, I smiled and said, “Hi, how are you?” to a young woman. She followed us around the store for quite awhile telling me about her sore toe and all the problems she’d had with it. Sometimes Donn just rolls his eyes!
A friend of mine who was a supervisor for a Christian counseling organization had been trying to get me to enroll in their training program for years, and in 1997, I finally agreed. As I neared the end of my training, strangely enough I became terrified about doing the thing I’d done all my life. I went forward for prayer at a Christian women’s meeting and explained that I was going to start a new career path and the shoes I was expected to fill looked very large. The speaker, whom I’d never met, said, “First of all, I noticed you earlier sitting in the audience and sensed the Holy Spirit’s presence on you. And secondly, God is the One who will fill those shoes.”
I was greatly encouraged and found that God was true to His Word as I counseled people during the next three years. Then God called me out of counseling to take up the mantle of an intercessor and begin preparation to go to Japan. A year later, I offered to do a temperament profile for a friend’s daughter who lived at a distance and was having some emotional problems. On the way home from counseling with her, I said, “Lord, that felt so right, but you called me out of counseling and I’m not going back into it unless you make it very clear.” Then I added, “And if I go back, I don’t think I’ll do marriage counseling.”
When I got home, the answering machine was blinking with a message from a woman who was looking for marriage counseling for her son and his wife. As we talked, she said, “Someone gave me your name and phone number a year ago, and I’ve carried it around all this time.” I told her God had called me out of counseling a year ago and only today had given me an inkling that He might be calling me back. So much for not doing marriage counseling! I did very little except marriage counseling until we left for Japan a year later.
After our service in Japan was finished, I had peace about taking up counseling again. Eventually as I got into writing the Sarah’s Legacy series and was between clients, I considered retiring from counseling. I had told the Lord if nothing changed by a certain date, I would retire. But I had also told Donn if I didn’t retire, maybe I could take on just one client at a time. I could be available only Tuesdays and Thursdays after 4:00 so I could still write on those days. About a week before the date I’d given the Lord, a friend called wanting counseling for her son. It turned out that after 4:00 p.m. was the best, perhaps the only, time this client could come. So for a few years, I went with my second option, taking on only one client at a time during my specified counseling hours.
Recently, one of the organizations with whom I was a member went through some changes and raised their membership dues substantially, making it more difficult for me to stay solvent with only one client. At last that client became willing to accept a referral I felt would be advantageous for her. I waited to be sure it was a good fit, and then with perfect peace, informed my organizations of my intention to retire. Afterward, I sorted and burned files more than ten years old, reading cards and letters from former clients, thanking God for the privilege of being involved in their lives. I continue to pray for all my former clients.
The counseling gene? It’s not as active these days, but I’m still open to using it non-professionally whenever I’m prompted by the Holy Spirit, who is Himself the Counselor. I’m more convinced than ever that Ecclesiastes 3:1 is a fact of life: To everything there is a time and season, and a time for every purpose under heaven. If we’re willing, the Holy Spirit will guide us about which abilities He wants us to use in the various seasons of our lives.
