This was a live presentation captured informally at a Homeschooling Mom’s Retreat. The theme was “Seek” (from Matthew 7:7 “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you”.) Powerful principles applicable to all parents, whether or not they homeschool.

In this audio, I explain:

• How to make sure your next decision is inspired
• How to be a busy mom AND entrepreneur, serving only “one Master”

The audience was a group of women seeking help in their homeschooling, but also in their own soul building and development. It’s a cheerleader session for anyone who needs a pick-me-up.

For more about this retreat, visit stgeorgehomeschoolmomretreat.wordpress.com

TRANSCRIPT:

Announcer: Welcome to the Rare Faith Podcast where the solution to every problem is only an idea away and where the same activity with just a little more awareness always yields better results. Award-winning, best-selling author Leslie Householder brings some of her best information to this inspiring series of life-changing episodes that you won’t want to miss. Show notes for this episode can be found at ararekindoffaith.com.

Audience: No I need to tell you a little story. So 10 years ago I had just had my first baby and I was kind of floating along in life and it was just blah. Like nothing. And I literally thought of nothing all day long and I, except for my to-do list. I mean, what do you do when you have one baby? Does anybody remember what it’s like to have one baby? It’s so boring like I did nothing! So I had kind of like taken my whole vibrant life and set it aside to be a mom and I was like in that motherhood place and it had sucked the life out of me. Anyway at that moment I was on a walk with my mom one day and she was like “Hey I read this book called ‘The Jackrabbit Factor’ and you totally need to read it!” And she she had the stuff and I read it and it was Leslie’s book and it totally changed the pathway of my whole life. It like totally changed the trajectory of my life. It changed our financial life but it also changed my mind and heart and spirit. And because of that book, I started on this personal development journey. And I went to Arizona to do a training with her eight years ago. It was the first time I ever got to speak in front of a group of people and I was terrified. I have a picture of me doing it. 

Leslie: I think we have that on video.

[Laughter] 

Audience: Oh my gosh I didn’t know that! Oh my gosh it was terrible! I was so scared to be in front of people. I did not want attention. Anyway my life completely changed after that. I am so grateful for Leslie and so grateful that in the midst of her having seven kids and homeschooling her kids and all the work that that takes, she wrote books! And she taught classes and she created courses and she took her passion and her knowledge and her understanding and she shared it with people and because of that is completely changed my life. I am so grateful that she could ever do that. And trying to balance all the things in life. You guys know what it’s like trying to balance all the things. And in the middle of all that she created all of these things and it has impacted me hugely and I’m so grateful for, I’m so happy you get to listen to her. Now let’s give Leslie a round of applause.

Leslie: I didn’t know who’s going to be here it’s just really fun to come in and see her face. And my heart and my mind is full of about four thousand five hundred and seventy three things I want to share with you and you probably have time for about two hundred. So I am just going to kind of trust that as we get into this, the right things are going to come out. I want to back up a little bit and kind of tell you what started my whole journey and why I do what I do. So when I married a million years ago, my husband and I decided that I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom, he wanted that for his kids. It was an agreement. This is how we were going to do our family. 

We had no idea how we were going to pull that off financially but we thought “You know if we just decide and we act on faith then things will work out because you know that faith works.” Right? I was just barely twenty, my husband was just barely off of a mission for the church, and my friend had told us that if you just have a thousand dollars a month between the two of you, you could probably pull it off. And this is not in the nineteen fifties. And so that was the goal two thousand or twelve hundred. I think we were making about $1,200 between two of us when we started, and trying to go to school, and didn’t feel like you should delay a family, so baby number one is on its way. And I’m a little bit stressing it how this is going to work because we’re already bouncing checks and we don’t even have a baby yet. 

So that year I’m getting bigger and bigger and bigger and my radar is us looking for “How are we going to do this?” Looking for better job. We were in Provo, Utah and trying to find a job that’s better than just your typical college student kind of job. I don’t know, they’re probably there but I wasn’t seeing them. And we met someone in the grocery store, a young man who was probably 18 maybe, I don’t know how old he was. And I don’t know how we got started talking to him, but mentioned that we were looking for better work. And he said “Oh well I’ve got something that might help.” “Like okay well what’s that?”

He came over to our house and he showed us a presentation that was a home-based business. And we’re like “This is it. This is our ticket.” And so we jumped in and we started learning how to build this home-based business while working and going to school and being pregnant. And when I am pregnant, I mean I know some things about nutrition that I didn’t know when I was having my children, but I am like a witch. I am just, it’s like Jekyll and Hyde. My husband could tell when I was pregnant before I even thought I might be. “You’re pregnant.” I’m like “No I’m not.” And I want to bite his head off like this. 

So we’re trying to work this home-based business and every month they had these meetings that would teach us about personal development, mindset training, business development, this kind of thing. Just little seminars. We started going to those and each one gave us little nuggets that said “Here’s how you set a goal more effectively.” “Here’s how you can do a presentation more professionally.”  “Here’s how you can posture up so that people respect you.” “Here’s how you can dress better.” 

All these things just trying to bring us from these college kids that know really nothing about success to someone who can be our big goal with $2,000 a month, we’d be retired if we can get that kind of money. You know? 

So we started going to these and each one gave us something and it kept us coming back. But it turned out, we did this for like seven years. And seven years is a long time hoping for that $2,000 a month. You know? We’d have a good month and that was just a good month.” And then it was back to $30 paychecks that next month or whatever. And it was just really kind of hard on the hope factor, right? To keep hoping. 

And I finally got to a point where I’m like “Honey I can’t do this anymore.” We were getting enough good stuff from these events, they are bringing in speakers. You know what it’s like to listen to this because it empowers you, that gives you a new way of looking at something, gives you hope, gives you something. And so that’s what kept us going. But you know, “Okay this next event is in Florida. Alright we got to be in Florida.” “How are we going to do that?” “We’ll find a way.” And so we would sit and shop. I remember shopping, this was back before the internet, but we were shopping for the cheapest plane ticket from where we living at the time, I think we were in Arizona. From Arizona to Florida. Cheapest you can go. Anybody know where I’m going with this? 

We saw more of the country on a cheap flight than had we just paid, four stops. Four legs to save money. And it took us all day long. But we got there and our plan was to sleep in the rental car through the weekend to save some money. We get there and our credit card didn’t have room for the rental car. You know it has to have $500 on there. We’re like “Awesome.” We had a can of corn in our backpack and we were going to sleep in the car, and we don’t have a car to sleep in. But we were there to get the information. That’s how hungry we were for knowledge that we knew would help us. 

And the reason, the reason it kept us going is because we were watching people all around us, hundreds, thousands of people that were in this organization who were growing, moving on, and making money, and getting the mom home from work, and retiring early, and being full-time mom and dad. And I’m like “What is wrong with us? We’re doing all the same things that they are doing but we’re, we’re just sitting here like nothing is happening. But there must be something wrong with the way we think.” 

So we kept going. Kept going. We ended up getting an emergency limit increase on the cards to get the car to sleep in through the weekend. That was that one experience. But along comes another seminar and this one is going to be in Utah. And I’m like “Honey I can’t do this anymore. I can’t keep going and getting close and believe that something’s going to change to come home and two weeks later have things be no different.” We’ve been doing this for a long time. 

And he’s like “Honey whatever you want to do.” I’m like “Uh.” and deep inside I knew I was supposed to be there. I knew I had to go because I hadn’t had the answer yet that I’ve been looking for. 

We were seeking so hard and of course our relationship is struggling, and you go through this long enough, and the finances are tight long enough, and you just, hard to put words to it but I remember. And I told this many many times. But my mindset was so wrapped up in stress and fear and worry and constantly wondering “How are we going to make this next month work?” I wasn’t, let’s see was I home at this point? After we got married and had the baby I stayed home for a year because we were going to operate on faith. And that year we kind of fell behind, got into debt, realized “We can’t just do this. We have to plan for it. We have to make it work.” And so I started working and that was really hard while I have one baby, and then two babies, and I’m still working and it’s heartbreaking to me. 

I know that you all homeschool. You know how hard that would be to leave your kids when you want to not just be home with them, you want to be their caregiver. So I told my husband “Alright I will go to this last one but if something big doesn’t change here, I’m done. I’m just going to have to figure out how to be happy with life the way it is.” At this time we were living in a little four-plex in a not great part of town, with cigarette smoke coming through the outlets in the wall. And my two little babies with me. I remember coming outside one day being so stressed about our situation, my broom has been broken in half by a neighbor kid and that was one of the last straws. I called the police. 

And this is where my mentality was. And what made it worse is looking at everybody else around and like “How do they have a camcorder? How do you have something to capture the moments with their kids? I can’t afford that. How do they have a car that starts in the morning?” You know? “How does everybody do this? Why are you so different? Why are we so different?” So this event in Utah I knew deep down I had to be there. “Oh fine I’ll go.” 

So we spent the money, got to Utah, and it was a three-day event, no. Two day event. And it was in the big event center that holds thousands of people, right? It’s big and it was full. And the speakers that they brought in was Bob Proctor and honestly I was kind of distracted. I was spending more time visiting with my friends and not really paying attention because he wasn’t the really exciting speaker. He was kind of really quiet and normally in these events bring in the Zig Zigler and the big loud people with fireworks. So I thought that he wasn’t that. And the whole event, I got through it and I can’t tell you what I heard because I really wasn’t paying attention. He didn’t catch my attention. 

But at the end everybody was in a buzz “Like my word can you believe that?” And they were all talking like this and I had been to events for seven years and had never seen an audience react the way they were reacting to Bob Proctor. I’m like “This was going to be my last one and I missed it? What’d I miss?” And I turned to my husband said “What did he say?” And he’s like “He just spent two hours explaining some things.” I’m like “You can’t, you can’t just convey that to me?” I’m like “Oh man I missed it. Ah.” You know I thought “Oh well I guess I just missed it.” So we come home and about two months later people are still talking about that event. I’m like “Oh! You know maybe that was the one that was going to change my life!” And they invited him back which is interesting because this organization never invited the same person back twice. Not that I had seen. 

They brought him back but instead of giving him two hours, they gave you all three days. And they’re like “Take our audience and just teach them.” And I’m like “Honey we are going to go to this one. We’re going to be in the front seat and we are going to be ready. You know we are not going to miss a thing.” And so we went and we’re listening and we’re taking notes and we are hungry and we are listening and he shares a diagram that I now call “The Stickman Presentation” which I’m going to tell you where you can watch that. 

I later trained with him to facilitate his programs and I have a video of me teaching this little piece that he shared with us that day. And as we’re watching this, about halfway through my husband and I, our mouths drop open, we look at each other like “That’s all it is?” The lights went on and we’re like “I get it and it is so simple.” And we went home and in three months tripled our income. And what’s interesting is we didn’t triple our income in that business. We found an opportunity that tripled our income that was outside of that. And what one thing I learned through that event was that the principles are true and can be applied to any endeavor. And that was an epiphany for me because we’ve been part of this organization believing that this was the only way that we could make the kind of money that these people around us were making is to be selling this product and selling this opportunity. 

And when he came and taught principles, we’re like “You know, I don’t love selling this. But we could use these principles over here doing the thing that we do love.” And so that made a big difference. It made such a difference and things started changing for us so rapidly. And after having suffered for seven years and suddenly the lid comes off and things change. As I was training with Bob Procter to teach his programs which by the way I will tell you how that happened. So we tripled our income and about six months later he put out an invitation. This was before the internet still. I can’t believe I can say that. 

But we got a letter in the mail, big a letter explaining you know “Have you ever thought about teaching what you’ve learned?” I’m like “Oh I want to do it!” and so I went and trained with him. One thing he said was “I don’t usually get invited back to an organization because every time I’m invited into an organization like that there’s a huge exodus because people realize that they can go make whatever they want happen whether in the organization or out of it. It just set them free to use this tool to do something that they want to do.” And so most of the times people don’t invite me back because I create exoduses out of their organization. He said “They should be thanking me instead of frustrated because I’m getting rid of their deadwood, making a space for the right people to come, and they can use those principles that they love it so much to grow their business.” 

And I just thought that was really interesting because truth sets us free. So I trained with him to teach his programs and at the time I had five children, one on the way. My husband had gotten a better opportunity, but the opportunity was two and a half hours away, so he had a long commute. Somedays he would drive it there and back in the same day, some weeks he would stay down during the week and come home. And so while we had this breakthrough, it wasn’t quite yet the ideal life, right? We wanted to have more family time. And so I thought “Well I want to teach what I’ve learned.” And I was teaching these principles, I was doing seminars, but because of the busyness of family life and everything, and time I wasn’t homeschooling yet but it’s still a lot on my plate not having my husband around very much. 

I felt guilty from not sharing because in my mind’s eye I could see other families who were still suffering what we had been suffering and I thought, “Well I’ll write a book and let that be my seminar.” Someone asked from the musicians Bono “Why do you write music?” He’s like “So I can sleep.” And I can relate to that. I can relate to that because it was inside of me, it needed to get out so that I wouldn’t feel guilty just only being the one beneficiary of this information. And primarily I was really on fire about wanting to share the principles with those who shared my background in my upbringing. And so I got to work. And actually at the same time all this was going on, I was trying to forgive something that had happened, a situation outside of our family that was really hard. And I was trying to forgive. 

So in trying to get rid of these feelings of anger and upset, I was looking for insight. I had started studying my scriptures, I’d been listening to General Conference talks, I had been counseling with my leaders, and just looking for a relief, wanting to get rid of these feelings and couldn’t shake them. And so the internet was new now, we’ve backed forward now we have internet and I thought “Well maybe I should google it.” I don’t know if Google was around. “Maybe I should search it.” Yahoo. Search Yahoo. Well I thought “Maybe I should search the internet.” But there was a piece of me that was really afraid of doing that because I had heard that there’s bad stuff on internet and I just didn’t want to go there. And I thought “Well what can I search for to make sure I only get faith things back?” I thought “Uh… forgiveness. Um… Christian.” 

And I’m looking so I, I do the search and this website pops up called “SheLovesGod.com” And I’m like “This looks safe.” And I looked down and there was a Greg Olsen painting there and like “Huh okay.” And at the bottom it said “CES consultant”. Does that mean anything to anyone? What does CES sound like? Yeah I found out later it’s not that. It was something else. But that was enough for me to feel safe. I honestly don’t know what that stands for. It’s Marni’s site. So I’m there, I’m reading some articles there and enjoying the website, I get on their mailing list, get the newsletter, and at one point I get her newsletter and it had a message on forgiveness. I’m like “Yes! My answer!” And I read through it and I’m like “Oh I know all this stuff. I’ve heard all this stuff. I already know all this stuff.” 

And I’m grasping and so I reply to that letter and I said “I know you’re probably not going to answer…” or whatever I said but I said “I love to run something past you. I’m having a real hard time with this forgiveness thing. And she replied, and we got talking a little bit, she let me share the story with her. She’s like “Oh yeah I can see why that’s so hard. So you’ve probably figured out that the reason I wrote this article on forgiveness is because I’m struggling to forgive someone.” I’m like “Oh I hadn’t even crossed my mind.” You know I thought to being an expert. And I said “Well what happened?” She was in a marriage that they’d just gotten out of debt and then her husband racked up all the credits cards again and she was discouraged by that. And I said “Well finances, I can help you with the money thing because I just had this breakthrough over here applying the principles that we’ve learned.” 

So we started communicating back and forth, she’s from Georgia and here I was in California at this time, and I am sending her stuff in the mail. We’re going back and forth and her website at the time was making two thousand dollars a month. The next month it went to four thousand. And the month after that was eight thousand dollars. And it just kept growing and she’s like “This is amazing and it’s so simple!” And I, don’t worry I’m going to share with these principles are. She said “This is so powerful. I need you to teach this to my readers.” And I said “How do I do that?” And she says “I want you to write one article per week on each of these ideas that you’ve been teaching me.” I’m like “Okay I can do that.” 

So I spent each week just really expounding on each one of these principles, sent it to her, and then she sent it out in her newsletter. And then comes October of that year and she says “Oh I’m hosting an online Women’s Conference I want you to be a speaker.” I’m like “What is that?” You know. She says “It’s a teleclass. You get on the phone and you teach us.” I’m like “Wow that’s weird.” You know. “I’ve never heard of such a thing.” 

She said “Don’t worry I’ll get you set up.” And so that day I call in to this line that she has set up and other people are, it was a group conference call, and I’m just kind of teaching and it was the weirdest thing but it was so cool because I could do it from my home. But she did say before the conference started, she’s like “Oh wait a minute. After people will hear you, they’re going to want a website to go to. You need a website.” And I’m like “Okay.” And she was like “Let me throw one together.” So she threw a website together for me and she’s like “Alright here.” And then she taught me how to change it up which was, she was having me go into the code. I was doing code. 

It was years before I found out there was such thing as a “WYSIWYG” like a “what-you-see-is-what-you-get” editor for you to just move things. I’m in the code. And all the while I got all these kids consumed with this project. So she got that going and then a lot of story short, that series of articles became my first book and that book is called “Hidden Treasures: Heaven’s Astonishing Help with Your Money Matters”. And that book was an e-book for two years, meaning it was just a digital copy that people could buy for $10 and download. But then I realized “Okay that book is kind of meaty. I’m not sure everybody’s ready to read what’s in this because some people might be kind of way out there. Woo-woo or something.” 

And so I need to write a book that’s just more fun, that’s a story that helps prepare people’s minds for bigger treasure and that’s where “The Jackrabbit Factor” came from. “The Jackrabbit Factor” is a story about a couple who are at the end of their financial ropes. And the story begins, they’re having an argument about bills. He feels defeated because he’s not being a good provider and she’s angry because this isn’t what she’s signed up for. So he just leaves the house and goes back into the woods behind his home. 

Well she starts worrying about “Well how depressed is he? You know, do I need to worry about him committing suicide?” What, she’s just worried. She’s all wrapped up and worrying. So the book is all about his journey, where he goes and what he learned. And her journey trying to find him and simultaneously they have to learn the same set of principles number one for him to find out what he needs to be able to provide for the family better, and her in order to find him. The principles are the same for success no matter how you’re applying them. And so it’s fun watching them learn these things through their own experiences. 

And my goal for that book was to create an experience so that a reader would be able to get lost in the story and have these ideas come out of their head and into their heart. And I think that way because those seven years we were hearing the principle for seven years. There is nothing new in the book and nothing new that Bob Proctor shared with us that we hadn’t been hearing for seven years already. “Dream big. Picture what you want.” “Believe. Dream. Yeah I got it, but what I do?” And it was the way he explained it that made me realize “Oh so I should picture I want. Oh so I should imagine what that’s going to feel like once it’s been accomplished. Now I know why and now I’m going to do it because I understand why. I’m going to do it with intention and I’m going to do it knowing that something is changing in my world because I just did it that way.” 

It’s powerful. It’s also very simple. And it’ll lose most people. And you really only get it when you need it. It’s funny because I love teaching what I’ve learned and I love meeting with people who appreciate the information. But I have found that I don’t just share it everywhere all the time anymore. I share it where I see someone who’s hungry. I share it where I see someone who really wants it. Because otherwise, I’m just saying “Picture what you want. Dream big.” And they’re like “Yeah I got it. What do I do though?” And that’s a waste of time. 

So we got to a place where we were ready to move back from California to Arizona where my husband was from and where I wanted to live with the extended family down there. And actually we had seen these principles work first with our income, and then with little experiences after that that proves to us that they are true principles, that can be repeated intentionally. One of my first experiments was I needed a headboard for one of the rooms in our house, but to make it feel more like a home I wanted this headboard. This had to be big and wooden and chunky and I looked at what they cost and they’re several hundred dollars for the kind I wanted and we didn’t have that. But we knew that didn’t matter anymore. It didn’t matter what you do or don’t have. It doesn’t matter what you do or don’t have. It begins with seeing what you intend in your mind’s eye and imagine how should you feel to have that, and then getting to work. 

And what happens if you’ve got unseen help that helps put that together. So this experiment, I’ve set the goal the way I’ve been taught, and then I went back to life. And one day I’m going into town and coming up on a hill, I get to this intersection where I could go straight or I could turn left and I would end up at the same place. And normally I go straight, but today I had this thought “Go left.” “Okay.” So I went left and it really wasn’t conscious that I just turned left. I go down the hill and up this little bend and off to the side of the road was this big chunky headboard and footboard out for the trash. I’m like, I pull over and I run up to the door and knock on the door and this lady answers. I said “Are you getting rid of that?” And she goes “Yeah.” And I think she was worried that the trash wouldn’t pick it up because it was so big. And I’m like “Can I have it?” She goes “Sure.” I threw my arms around her. I was so excited and it wasn’t because I cared that much about a chunky headboard, it was because it worked. 

I’m like “Man if I can do that with a chunky headboard, what can I do with my life? What can I do with my life?” I have so many stories in the “Hidden Treasures” book. Another one, I taught my son, he was eight years old and he really really wanted some Legos. You know the expensive kind. The $50 per box kind. And there were several that he was interested in and I’m like “Oh I cannot justify $50 for a little box of Legos.” But I didn’t want to discourage him because I just learned these principles. I’m like “Honey, here’s what you do.” And I taught him what to do and he, he set the intention and he put it on the, the fridge was how to help him remember what he was intending. 

And it wasn’t long after that, we were shopping the eBay auctions thinking maybe this is how it’ll happen for him. We’ll find a really great deal. And one day my husband’s at work and a co-worker comes up to him. She says “Hey my son’s done with his Legos. Could you use some?” And he’s like “Actually, yes!” You know. And she’s like “Great!” And so she went back to her family and all the extended family gathered all their Legos that they weren’t using anymore either and by the time they got to us it was probably about $2,000 worth of Legos in a trunk this wide, this deep, and this tall, and had all the booklets. And we’re like “Oh!” So it was close to Christmas and we could have all in boxes that we could wrap and worked out to be about three or four boxes. Put them under the tree and we’re just “Oh we didn’t even end up buying it!” You know? 

Honestly when you set this goal, in my mind I’m thinking “Oh Heavenly Father please bless this child’s faith.” Because I was struggling, you know. But he knew what he needed to do. And so he opens it and he’s like “Oh!” he’s so excited then he opens the second one he’s like “Oh!” and he opens the third and he falls on the floor just like frozen like this. And it’s just taught him what’s possible. And he is now 26 years old and I’m watching him use these principles right now. 

He is putting on a conference called “The Healing of America Conference” based on the book by Cleon Skousen. And he’s got a big vision for this. He’s bringing in Evie Claire from America’s Got Talent. He’s got politicians coming to speak. This is his first conference he’s putting on. Because he sees it and he feels it and it’s bigger than him. And I am convinced that there is more good that God wants done then there are people willing to be facilitators for those projects. And so as we learn this faith and I call it “Rare Faith” It’s rare faith because of a quote by Boyd K. Packer. 

And they said there are two kinds of faith and I’m going to summarize. I won’t say it perfectly. He says that there are two kinds of faith. One operates ordinarily in our daily lives. It, we know that the Sun will rise because it always has. But there is another kind of faith, rare indeed it is the kind of faith that causes things to happen. It is worthy and unyielding and it has great effect. It comes with great effort. I can’t remember the rest. So now when I talk about unseen help in accomplishing our goals or these serendipitous things happening, it’s rare faith.

It’s having that rare kind of faith that causes things to happen. I used to pray “Heavenly Father, please help us. We are so desperate. The car won’t start, we need this money for bills, we’re overdrawn again, please help us. I don’t even know, I don’t know what to pray for just help. Help. Desperate plea for help.” All the while and picturing the mess that’s going to happen at the end of the month if something doesn’t change. Alright? And all the while He’s up there like “I’ve got everything you need. Waiting for you to get it right. Just waiting.” 

And these principles taught me how to get it right. And how to get a right means, see it done. See the end that you intend. See it done. What does that mean “see it done”? Close your eyes and imagine what it looks like on the other side of it being accomplished. In my son’s case he’s picturing himself having these Legos and playing with them and he’s involving all the senses that he possibly can. To ask the question “What’s it going to feel like when-” “What’s it going to feel like?” I knew very well what it felt like to be strapped. I knew what it felt like very well to be strapped. I had a really good habit of that. So it was really really hard once I understood that this is what needed to happen. To stop and ask myself “What does it look like when we are fine? What does that look like when our bills are paid? What are we doing when finances are not a stress anymore?” That’s work to create that image. It’s work. It is work. But it’s easier than what we’ve been doing. 

And so it’s imagining it as those already happened and then it’s answering the question “How is that going to feel?” And you answer that question with a feeling, not with words. And in order to get that feeling you have to imagine it long enough for your subconscious mind to think it’s actually happening. Kind of like when you’re watching the movie, if you’re really into the movie, we were just watching the movie on the way. And we actually weren’t watching the whole movie we’re just watching the end we both knew the movie and we wanted to see end again. 

So I’m driving you know and she’s holding it up and we’re watching it and I am in tears because I love this movie and I love how it ends and It’s so touching and I’m crying. Hey these are actors on a screen, a replay, not even going on right now, and I am bawling because I am emotionally connected with the experience. Right? My subconscious mind didn’t know that that wasn’t happening right now. It didn’t know. It can’t tell the difference between an experience that is real and one that’s being imagined or or watched on the screen. 

You know, if you’re watching a scary movie and your heart starts thumping, or if you’re like my husband he’s like (thumping) you know and I have to stop his leg from dancing. It’s because we have physiological responses when our subconscious mind thinks something is happening. It’s upping the adrenaline so that we can escape the monster. We don’t need the adrenaline. We don’t need it. But we’ve allowed ourselves to take in the image on the screen of our mind and allow ourselves to imagine what would it feel if we were really being chased by Godzilla, right? We’re allowing ourselves to feel it and our body changes when we do. 

There is one of the laws that I’ll share with you called “The Law of Vibration”. The Law Vibration just is based on the premise that everything in the world is vibrating. This window on a molecular level has atoms and molecules bumping around, right? And that we are also vibrating. Our bodies on a cellular level, molecular level, there’s space in between our atoms molecules and there’s vibrating going on. Doesn’t have to be weird. You know what I’m talking about cuz if you go into a room and someone is angry, they don’t have to say that they’re angry for you to feel it, right? Because of the way they are emanating energy. 

That’s all we’re talking about. Feeling is nothing more than a conscious awareness of vibration. So with the Law Vibration, when we picture it on the screen of our mind as done, we allow ourselves to feel what we expect to feel when it is, we change the energy that’s coming off us. We change our vibration. And our vibration is going to resonate with things in our environment, with other people in our circle that happen to be on the same frequencies in a harmonious way. So this is just one concept that made me understand why I need to picture it and why I needed to feel it because I was trying to do something, I was trying to change the energy that was coming off of me. Here’s an example of how this works: someone goes in for a job interview, all the while they’re thinking “I have been out of work for two years” or “I’ve been out of work for two months” whatever it is “and nobody will hire me. And every time I think I’ve got an opportunity, it falls through my fingers.” Or like us. We’ve been doing everything we’re supposed to do for seven years and nothing’s working. All the while imagining how bad things are and feeling upset about how things are. 

So what do you think people were feeling when we would go show them the presentation? They’re feeling it. We can be smiling, we can be all polished, we could be all suited up and smiling and saying all the right words, but they’re feeling this. And it’s that simple to change how you show up. To change how you show up. 

So with this job interview idea, you go into this interview saying all the right answers and smiling, you’ve got the right handshake, but you’ve got this fear inside. They’re going to pick up on that. They might not be conscious of what they’re picking up on, but they’re going to see incongruence, they’re going to see this picture and they’re going to feel something different and it’s not going to settle right with them. So instead, before you go into the interview, you imagine yourself coming home from the interview, calling your spouse on the phone saying “Oh my word you won’t believe it. They were so excited to hire me!” You imagine that phone call or you imagine what you’re going to say. You’re going to call your mom or whatever. This is something to teach your kids as they grow older. 

So you see it as though it’s done. You feel it as though it happened. And then you go in with a smile on your face and you have just changed your vibration to match what they’re looking for. You see how it may or may not be the right opportunity for you but this is how you make sure you’re not the limiting factor. This making sense? So it’s funny because as I’m teaching my son this, I’m explaining to him that these Legos he wants or on certain vibration and it’s his job to match it so that they will become a natural part of his world. And how he matches this Lego thing is by seeing himself playing with it to be so excited and so grateful. 

To be grateful before it happened is faith. So I walked him through that exercise. I helped him imagine what it’s going to be like to be playing for Legos and imagine how you’re going to feel and that gratitude. And I can’t say for sure because it’s been so long ago, but I’m pretty sure I watched him with his eyes closed get a smile on his face. And once we see that happen you know it’s landed and it’s changed him. And then I’m like “Now just don’t worry about it. Go about your life. Go about finding ways where you might be able to earn money for them.” Because you don’t know how it’s going to come. 

It might come through an opportunity that allows him to earn the money to get it. In this case it didn’t have to be that way, but it might be. Right? So fast forward, I am teaching classes on this now and we are moving to Arizona, we were, we wanted to move to Arizona. We decided “Man we can really have whatever we want here and we feel like it’s right for us to be in Arizona. What are we waiting for? Let’s just make it happen.” So we use these principles and we’re like “We’re going to just act as though and get moving.” And actually we realized that for him to drive to work, two and a half hours away was a longer commute than if he were to just fly home an hour away to Arizona. 

So we were just going to move the family and let him commute by plane back when Southwest was cheap. Like 39 dollars each way or something and that was worth it. But long story short, we end up in Arizona and while I had been living in California I met a woman who was homeschooling her nine children and I’m so amazed and impressed with what she was doing. And intrigued because I thought “What kind of freedom could come with just being responsible for our own children’s education?” It’s interesting though because after we moved to Arizona, the kids are in public school, and I’m writing these books, and we’re doing events, and turns out that it got a little bit crazy when my oldest two entered junior high and they each had seven teachers. Six or seven teachers. And then the kids in the grade school all had their teachers and I am answering to a lot of teachers. And I realize I am NOT that organized. This is really hard to keep track of what all their teachers expect. 

That’s like having not just two masters but I calculated that once and if I would’ve kept them in, there would have come a point where there would have been at least 49 teachers to keep track of. And I’m like, I am not that smart. 

And so I decided to actually read the book “A Thomas Jefferson Education”. It’s been ten years that I’ve been thinking about homeschooling but never had the courage. Ten years is a long time when you’re raising a family because they grow. Right? So by the time I decided to try it, the thing that inspired me especially from that book was the idea that every child has an innate desire to learn everything that they will need to know to fulfill their life’s mission. And by this time I just kind of been really wrapped up in this personal development information to be inspired that we all have a mission to fulfill. It may be big, it may be small. But we are here to do something. 

And that if I could just help my kids figure out what they love, help them to learn how to love learning, if that was my only goal is to help them love learning, then I know that as they grow, they would ultimately be inclined to want to learn the things that they will need to fulfill their mission. But I didn’t have the guts to just jump in. 

So I decided to pick the one child I knew I couldn’t ruin and pull her out. She was in second grade. You all know and I’m talking about. We all have that one child. She was in second grade at the time and I thought “Okay she will be my experiment.” So I pulled her out and I didn’t have the guts to do my own thing yet, so I contacted the district. They have this distance learning program and I thought “This will at least help me stay on track with all the other kids in school but in case it’s a failure, I will put her back in and she won’t be too far damaged.” But I’d also heard that you can accomplish the same amount of learning in a very short period of time when you’re free to do it in your home. 

So I got the material, stack of books and materials and brought it home and she, we just look for the stuff that interested her first. Remember? Because I’m trying to go on this idea that you just do the things that are interesting for them. And we just had a good time those first four months. We did baking, we did math in the kitchen, we just did fun stuff that was enjoyable and very organic. And online stuff that their program provided were games and that was fun too. But come January I thought “Ah you know what, we’re coming down the homestretch, standardized testing is soon, Kayli you probably ought to open these books and see what we should have been doing the last four months and get caught up.” And I open the book and I’m looking at this and they literally had every day a six hour lesson plan. And I’m like “OH! Oh no!” And I panic. And like “We are so far behind! We’re never getting caught up! It would literally take six hours to go through everything.” And it was gathering materials for this one lesson… and this and that. And I’m like “I am, I am in trouble.” 

So I called the district and I said “I think I made a big mistake. I don’t know what to do! I’m so behind!” And she likes “Calm down honey, calm down. Calm down.” She said “Don’t worry, just start where you are, she’ll get it all again next year. And I thought “Really? You mean I can blow off six months of the public school system and they are not even worried.” When they’re enrolled you can’t go nine days without a nasty gram and a police visit at least in Arizona. 

And so that just kind of snapped me out of it. Snapped me out of thinking they have something that I needed. And I realized “You know what? We can do our own thing. And so the next year I pulled more kids out that actually wanted to. You know, pulled a few more out and we just did our own thing with the idea that I was going to let them figure out what they wanted to learn and just support those interests. 

For the first two months it was a lot of complaining and worry “Mom are we learning today? What should we do?” You know, “What are you going to teach us?” I had even gotten them a desk, and the chalkboard. You know the, the board, and just different things to help me be a teacher at home. It was a waste of money. 

But it took about two months for them to stop worrying and nagging me about “What are we gonna do today? What are you going to teach us today?” And I knew we had turned the corner when instead of that I heard laughter outside. And they were building something together. And to give them ownership of their own learning and create their own environment. And from then on we had just a good time. Which was actually, I don’t know if you can say this is a selfish thing, but I pulled them out of school so that I could work on my books and stuff and not have to answer the teachers why they didn’t do anything that day. 

But what was interesting is they would come with me to my event and work the tables. And they were learning how to take a passion and bring it to the world. And I thought maybe they’re not learning XYZ, but they’re learning life principles. And I remember there was an ebb and flow. There were some times where it felt like “Oh we are falling apart and this is looking really messy and I don’t think they’re learning anything and I think we are super dysfunctional.” And all these concerns. 

And I remember at one point when I was really really worked up about this, I asked my husband to pray. And in that prayer he said some things that I felt like were not his natural vocabulary and it brought me peace. And that was assurance that my children are being tutored. They are being tutored. And when he said that what came to mind was “unseen help”. That I remember being a child and having a lot of quiet time to myself because I was the youngest. And remembering some of the thoughts that I had back then that made me wonder about things, that made me curious about things. Just letting my thoughts wander and daydream and imagine what it’s going to be like to be a mom… 

And when he offered that prayer I got a glimpse that they each have this life mission that they are here to fulfill and that there is unseen help prompting them to be curious to think about things. 

I can look back and remember being 12 and thinking “I want to be a speaker one day. I remember being probably seven and trying to walk on water at the pool in Orem. I thought if I just had enough faith. Because I was intrigued with faith. I was intrigued with “Can my thoughts have an effect on my environment?” At seven probably somewhere in there. 

Your children are being tutored to prepare them for their future. It took a load off my shoulders to realize it’s not all up to me. My job is to create an environment, but God knows better than I do what they need. God knows better than I do what their purpose is going to be. God knows better than I do the skills that they’re going to need to face this challenge that would be at their feet at age 24. Whatever. He knows all of that and I don’t. 

If I can help them love learning, if I can help them have faith, if I can help them have time where they have think time. It’s like me turning them over to God and saying “Here’s a quiet place for you to speak to them directly whether or not they know that’s happening.” I believe it’s happened. I spent time imagining it happening and feeling what I think it would feel like to know it’s happening. 

Okay so funny story. As we were doing these events I had my kindergarten daughter, age daughter. She really wanted to go to real school. She just was fixated on having a real cool experience. And I’m like “That’s fine.” So I put her in kindergarten, most of the rest were at home, but we kept pulling her out to go to events and then travel and stuff. And so I’d go to the office and I’d be like “Alright so just so you know, Bethany’s going to be gone again this weekend.” And they’re like “Well have you had a visit from the police officer?” I’m like, “What?” “Well she’s been absent a lot. Have you had a visit from the police officer?” I’m like “No but that’s why I’m here, to get it to you so as to avoid the police officer visit. I’m just here to, give me whatever homework she needs to take with her so that we can just have this excused.” And they’re like “Well you know we can give you the homework and stuff but you’re still going to get a visit.” I’m like “Oh how do I avoid that?” And they’re like “Well call the district truancy officer.” My kindergartner. “So that you can work it out with him.” 

So I call him up and I’m like “Hi I was told to call you, I’ve got this daughter in kindergarten and we’re going to be pulling her out to go on this family trip, and I’m just wondering how do I get that excused?” He’s like “Well have you had a visit from the police officer yet?” I’m like “No how do I avoid that? Like that’s why I’m calling you.” And I explained what we were doing and what we’re about and he said “Okay. Just don’t worry about it. If you get a visit, just tell him what you told me.” And he says “Honestly, I wish every kid in the district had a family like yours.” 

I get choked up when I think about that because what you are giving your children has eternal significance. And you will not look back and regret that time you’ve had with them when you had that opportunity. 

There may come a time where you will feel like it’s time to change things up like I have and that’s fine because God knows best what they need and when they need it. One of the, one of the key principles that I have become all about is this “Jackrabbit Factor” concept and let me tell you what that is. 

So at one of these events that we were going to before our breakthrough, we used to listen to people who had been very successful try to explain these principles. And they each had their own way of trying to describe it. And we’re just trying to glean and understand it, we hadn’t quite put it all together. But I remember one time listening to a man by the name of John. And he was very successful and he, he was addressing somebody who was feeling bad and frustrated because their family didn’t understand why they were so into events, staying up late talking to mentors, why they were spending money on trips to seminars, it just looked crazy to their family. And they’re like “I don’t know what to do because I’m getting a lot of flack for what we’re doing in order to try to put this lifestyle together.” Whether it’s to keep mom home from work or to be able to retire and serve or whatever the goal was. 

And he said “Have you ever seen a dog chasing a rabbit?” And I don’t know what their answer was but can you imagine a dog chasing a rabbit? What does that look like? Chaos. Jumping in darkness. Right? Barking. What would you think of the dog if you couldn’t see the rabbit? They’re like “Don’t worry about what people think, they just can’t see your rabbit.” 

And I would say that to you as homeschoolers. How many of you have encountered someone who thinks you’re crazy? Family members right? Friends. You kind of are careful about who you talk to about it, right? 

They see a crazy dog jumping and barking and they don’t see your rabbit. You’re chasing this rabbit. You’re chasing this vision of what your family can become and who your children can be, right? So when they don’t understand, it’s because they just don’t see the vision you have and it’s okay. It’s okay. 

So here’s the thing. I chewed on that analogy for years. In the moment it helped me feel better about the crazy thing my husband and I were doing. I remember we were so hungry for knowledge and so hungry to learn what these people knew, that we would at the time when we lived in Provo, I remember finding an insomniac in our ward who was willing to watch my baby overnight so that we could-

[Laughter]

Audience: I think that’s funny!

Leslie: What, an insomniac?

Audience: Yeah you’re like “I want you to do this.”

Leslie: I needed someone who doesn’t sleep. Yeah? Because our hours were so off I couldn’t promise that my baby would sleep. You know? But we did find what we needed, right? And remember so that we can drive from Provo to Ogden for a 10:00 o’clock meeting with a mentor. 10:00 p.m. Crazy. Crazy. What is that, two hours away like that from Provo – Ogden? Somebody knows. Two hours. 

So well we sit there and talk to them till like 1:00 in the morning and then it’s time to come home. So we come home at 3:00 and then before we get home, we have to go clean the office buildings that we were contracted to clean as one of our jobs. And so this is what we’re doing. We are jumping and barking like crazy at this rabbit that we see. We’re doing whatever it takes. Whatever it takes to have the family, the family life that we were trying to build. And crazy stuff. 

So it helps me during those years that we were being crazy to not worry about what people thought. But then later it took on a whole different level. I kind of thought this through and I think it was that those questions, the prompting that comes to you that get you to keep pondering and chewing on things because there is more epiphanies for you to discover if you’ll just ponder. Imagine, and I’ll just kind of tell you what the book turned into. It’s turned into this story where a man is on a path in the wilderness somewhere, he’s on a path and he sees this dog just jumping around and he thinks it must be crazy until it stumbled onto the path with a rabbit in its mouth. And he’s like “Oh I get it. I get it. Now I understand.” 

Well someone behind him sees this and he’s like “Ooh I want to rabbit.” So he goes out into the field and starts jumping and barking. Jumping and barking thinking that will produce a rabbit. Think about that for a second. This is how we were approaching our goals. This is how we were trying to change our lives. 

We go to these events and we take notes on “Step one: set up so many presentations. Step two: say this to open it. Say this, say that. And when you close say this. And then set up another question.” It was step by step, here’s what you do to get a sale. Or here’s what you do to achieve this lifestyle. And I had heard these speakers say things like “If you just do what I did, you’ll get what I have.” But we do what they did and we wouldn’t get what they have. We were jumping and barking instead of chasing a rabbit. Kind of deep. Kind of deep. But here’s the main point that we’ve been told is “If you just show a hundred presentations, you will get the status of $2,000 a month residual income.” We’re like “Oh we can do that!” 

So I created a card of, a big card with a hundred squares. And I bought little smiley face stickers. And every time we showed a presentation, I filled in one of squares because I knew that when that whole thing was full, we’d be making $2,000 a month. Oh and they said “Because nobody in this organization has done that without making $2,000 a month.” I don’t know if that’s true, but that’s what they told us. Now that I think about it like “How did he know that?” But I believed him. And so we filled out that card, got to the end, and we weren’t making any more than when we started. And I thought “We are the first people in the history of this organization to show a hundred presentations and not be making any more money. There’s something wrong with us.” We were jumping and barking. Here’s the difference. What was my goal? Somebody say it out loud.

Audience: Hundred presentations.

Leslie: Hundred presentations. Everybody else, you know what their goal is? No it was what they were gonna spend it on. They were already living what they were going to use the money for. It wasn’t about the $2,000 and it wasn’t about the hundred presentations, they had spotted their rabbit. They were chasing a rabbit. They showed presentations because the rabbit jumped that way and they knew that to chase it meant showing another presentation. It was instinct. This is what instinct is. You get a vision for what you’re trying to accomplish with your family. You get a vision for the kind of reunions you’re going to have when they are grown and married with children. You imagine that reunion or you imagine how you’re going to feel on that last day of your life and you reflect back on what you did with your family. You imagine it, you feel it. And when you imagine it and feel it, you will instinctively know where to jump. It will become instinctive. 

And you don’t know what to do with that one child is struggling, imagine them happy. Imagine them thriving. See them as responsible, functioning, happy adults. If you can see that, take a minute to see it on the screen of your mind and feel the joy that you have in them. It changes you so that your next step becomes inspired and instinctive. You have to be careful not to make decisions on what you’re going to do with your children based on an image of fear or disaster because those will not be inspired instinctive choices that lead you to an outcome that you want. It might keep you rolling, but more than that it’s very likely to lead you to the disaster you’re trying to avoid. I learned that from hard experience. So yeah?

Audience: I’m going to home school. The part of me already visualizes what that looks like. People here have different methods and philosophy and I will visualize that and be like “Hmm” And I’ll share a different philosophy that’s very different. And I’ll be like “Who has something new?” and say “You’re right. You’re also right.” And I think they’re all right and they are…

Leslie: Okay so this is really easy. This is really easy. Yeah because what you’re trying to visualize from what I’m hearing from you is you’re trying to visualize how you want this homeschool experience to look. And that could be a hundred different possibilities. Why are you homeschooling?

Audience: Because God told me to? And I was like “Okay.” 

Leslie: You’re homeschooling because God told you to do it and you’re obedient. So what do you think His vision is for your family 20 years from now? No hang on, hang on. Are you going to still be homeschooling in 20 years? That’s what I’m asking for. What does that look like? 

Audience: I don’t know.

Leslie: That’s your opportunity to create that vision. And if you can’t see the vision of it, what you can do, and here’s the default answer for any of this because this zooms out far enough that it captures everything. Imagine yourself on the last day of your life, you know this is the day you’re going to pass. And you’re there and you’re surrounded by loved ones. And you are reflecting back on your life and you might not see the life right now what that’s going to look like, but you can decide how you want to feel. I would take time even tonight, every one of you before you fall asleep, take five minutes to lay in bed and imagine that is your deathbed and you are feeling so amazed and grateful at what God accomplished through you. 

You don’t even have to know what it is but you can have that sense that “He accomplished something amazing through me and I’m so grateful that I got to be a part of that. I am so honored and humbled. And look at what He did. Look at what He did because I was willing to move my feet.” And you don’t even have to have an image of what those are, but you can picture yourself being in that bed. You can imagine yourself looking at your spouse and saying “Look at what we did. Look at what we were able to do. Look at the joy.” Feel joy. Feel joy there. Your children may choose paths that stress you out.  Right? They just might. 

And very likely at times will for all of us. And when we are in the middle of that and we’re worried about “Oh my gosh if he keeps that up he’s going to be in jail.” You know? And we’re picturing the worst case scenario. Or “He’ll never get married.” Or whatever it might be. But everybody’s got a past, everybody has a dream, everybody has unseen help guiding them in that journey. Everyone. Even those who don’t think they have it, they have it. And so if I were you, I would imagine myself on that last day saying “What an amazing ride that was.” That even though they wandered sometimes or even though things didn’t look pretty sometimes, we’re here together, everybody is well and happy. And here’s the thing, we don’t imagine other people being or doing a certain thing because that’s kind of like a mental manipulation that we just stay away from. 

But you can imagine them in their best possible outcome. Not to change them, not to manipulate them, not to control them, but so that you are responding from that energy of possibility and of hope and patience and love. Do you feel like you can create an image of that last day and how you want to feel? When you do that, when you do that and you feel it, you only have to feel it for a split second, but if you can acknowledge that you’ve felt it, from that place consider the different homeschooling methods and see which one resonates most with you. Because in that place you will be in an inspired, instinctive decision preparation to make a wise decision. Katie you’re nodding. I want to hear what you’re thinking right now because you’ve been practicing this, you’ve seen this work. Haven’t you.

Katie: Yeah I was thinking about remember the very first time I tried creating this picture and feel it. And we were created this picture and I was like “Oh this is crazy possible!” We could not feel any feelings at that moment but I can feel that moment when we could feel what that would feel like. Inspiration totally changed it. It is completely different when you feel the picture than when you are just picturing it. 

So you were talking about your little four plex with you’re not going to the events. We had a tiny little apartment, a little nasty, like the carpet I had my baby crawling on it and it stressed me out so bad, I thought he’s going to pick up Ebola. Anyway, we barely could cover our bills. We had this goal like you did and I’m like “Oh my gosh that’s so crazy!” Like we wanted to be millionaires basically when we retire. And, and the moment that we felt it it’s just been an incredible experience to feel something for real before it actually happens. It took incredible mental energy but we did it and it worked! I’m not a millionaire.

[Laughter] 

Katie: Anyway, this is hard. Hard. 

Leslie: It’s easier than the alternative isn’t it. You have to look at the alternative. How long do we want to suffer and struggle? Can somebody pull open Ether 12:19?

Audience: And there were many whose faith was so exceedingly strong, even before Christ came, who could not be kept from within the veil, but truly saw with their eyes the things which that had beheld with an eye of faith, and they were glad.

Leslie: Isn’t that powerful? Ether 12:19. Oh I hope this has given you some some hope that the struggles you face, I mean we’re going to have struggles throughout our life, it’s part of what helps us grow. But it’s a tool that we can use at appropriate times to make sure that the decision we make next is inspired. Because going back to prayer, when I change my prayers to imagining how it feels to say “Honey I just paid that bill now we can go do this thing that we wanted to do.” Or whatever it might be and imagining it and feeling it as though I’m actually saying it, and then in my prayer saying “Thank you for helping us have what we need to pay that bill. Thank you for the money you sent.” 

Try past tense that’s super powerful too. “Thank you for the opportunity you sent us.” If you look throughout the, especially the Old Testament how many times God said “And I have given you the Midianites into your hands.” and the battle hadn’t even begun. If you think about why did Adam call her Eve. She is the mother and yet she hadn’t had a single baby yet. Some people feel like, “Oh I feel like I’m lying if I say this has happened but it hasn’t happened.” It’s just called telling the truth in advance. God does it all the time.

[Laughter]

Leslie: So with that I just want to leave you with one more thought and this is a new epiphany for me. You’re one of the first groups to hear me say this. And that is, I took a break from my work around 2012 because I was just run really ragged. First of all the recession hit us pretty good because we had been doing really well, money was flowing better than ever had before, and we were investing in real estate at the top of the market. So when it tanked, it just pulled the rug right out from under us. 

And I’m like “Oh dear. This is bad. We’re worse off than we were when we first got married.” But the difference is we know what to do it’s just hard. It’s hard. And it was a very humbling experience. And we, it was, part of the problem is that every time I’m like “I’m so tired.” I felt like God was telling me “Keep teaching. You don’t make the principles true or false by how well you’re living them.” And so I would put on another event and just force myself through it. I think you were probably at one where I was really just forcing myself through it. And at the end you know everybody telling me how it changed their life, or I’m getting emails, or I’m getting letters, so I would keep blogging. I would keep blogging. And as I was writing in my blog, most the time it was coaching me on how I knew I was supposed to think based on these principles especially in “Hidden Treasures”. 

There’s seven laws in there that if you don’t know how to think about something that happened, you checked with the laws like “Oh that one helps me stay in the right mindset right now.” And so I was coaching myself through those ups and downs. And some of my best articles came out of the worst experiences because I would test them and find out that they were still true. But I got tired and I finally to decide I needed to stop and I didn’t bother asking this time if it was okay. I wasn’t interested in knowing if He thought it was okay. I was just so done. And it took me about two weeks to finally be a little bit open to,  “Am I still okay?” You know. “Are you still okay with me even though I’m taking a break?” The words that came to my mind were “It’s complete.” 

And I thought “Really? You mean it’s really okay?” So I took a break and we healed for about four or five years and it’s only been recently that I kind of come back to this. But part of my struggle was balancing work and family. I never wanted a career, remember? I wanted to be just a stay at home mom. But this message was so big, so important, I felt like, I felt like I would be ungrateful if I didn’t try to share it. And honestly if I had learned them without suffering first for so long, I wouldn’t have felt compelled to share it. I would’ve been just been “Cool! Life’s better. Moving on.” You know. That there’s this piece of me that has felt a passion to share it with as many people as I can. And that’s why all three of my books are free downloads. You can tell your friend “You can just go download them for free.” jackrabbitfactor.com is the first free one. jackrabbitfactor.com. That’s the story. “Hidden Treasures” is a free download. It’s at hiddentreasuresbook.com. And then I don’t have time to share this story here but, I don’t know. I don’t know what I have.

Katie: Go ahead if you want.

Leslie: Oh gosh yeah I told you I got 4524 things. So do you want the third book story first and then we’ll open it up?

Katie: Yes.

Leslie: Okay well I didn’t tell you this thing yet. This is just a real quick nugget before I go back to the third book thing. So what I’d learned recently, you know I was just trying to juggle work and family, home schooling and always feeling torn. Like I felt like I had to write some of these things that were on my heart while my kids are saying “Where’s dinner?” You know? I have a daughter who now cooks because I wasn’t. She’s on a mission though so we’re barely holding on. But yeah. 

So this is stressful like “Oh but I feel like I need to do this work in the business and I feel like I need to take care of my kids and why does it have to be this struggle?” And one time I heard a woman say something that helped me through that time and she said “If you’re standing on both feet and you’re perfectly balanced, try going somewhere.” You know what? You do this. And she said “You focus on your family and then when your business needs your attention, you focus on the business until your family needs your attention and be okay with that rhythm.” I’m like, “Ok that works. I can do that.” But it still wasn’t easy. And here’s my recent epiphany in the last couple months. 

So I started working at the baptistry at the Gilbert temple every Wednesday. I’ve been doing that now about a year. And it’s six hours in the middle of the day, in the middle of the week where I just have to stop and be still and serve. And with the kind of pace I had developed for my life, this was a big shift. But after a while I thought “You know what? I really kind of enjoy this mundane, not needing to think thing. Just being told what to do and doing it with a smile.” I liked it. This, this is great. And I thought “Maybe, maybe my next thing I could do anything I want. What do I want to be when I grow up?” Go be a nurse. That would be cool. You know? And I just started daydreaming again. 

One thought that came to my mind is “Why don’t you look at being maybe an office lady at your kids school?” Because now they’re at a charter school which is a miracle we found a place that was like home for us. So that’s where they are now which has freed me up more to do more of this. But I thought “What if I could just be a office lady at their school.” Then I see him around, I could be that one mom that knows all the kids and that was kind of a fun thought. And I thought on that for a while and just within a month or so I told a friend who had something to do with that organization and I got a phone call saying “We have an opening. Do you want to come be an office lady?” 

I’m like, “Oh wait a minute. What does this mean?” And I’m looking at the hour like full-time and I’m looking at the pay. Probably twelve to sixteen hundred a month. And I’m looking at what’s on my calendar, like the events that I’ve already scheduled that I would have to cancel or ask for time off work. And, and all of a sudden I realized “Wait a minute. And the office might not be the same kind of environment that I’m experiencing six hours a week – at the temple. The relationships. There might be drama. There, there might be, there’s problems with the students.” 

And then I felt like in the back of my head with this reminder “Look at what I’ve taught you the last 25 years. Look at what you’ve learned. Is this how you want to spend your time?” And it became very clear to me that “No, I want to share what I’ve learned. There are still people that need to know how this works. There are still families that are suffering. There are still moms who want to come home from work. There are still students in college that are looking for a career that they can be successful in.” Whatever the case may be. 

There are people that need this information and I feel like it would have been a colossal waste of a gift that has been given to me to not. And that’s when I made the decision. And with that decision it dawned on me that to minister or to serve or to, you know like I had been taught to do at the temple to nurture and to edify and to lift and to show gratitude and appreciation for people around me. It’s something that I do not just do at the temple but that I do in my family and that I do with my subscribers and my readers and my customers and my clients and whatnot. 

And that when I wake up in the morning I can say “Okay Heavenly Father I am going to work for you. What can I do today to serve your children?” And it might be my daughter, and it might be that client, and it might be that person who doesn’t even know about my book yet, or it might be someone in my neighborhood that needs help that has nothing to do with my family or my work. That it doesn’t matter anymore that I serve one master. It’s not work and family. It’s one work and one master. Does this make any sense? So I’m not having to go from the one to the other. 

I just check in say “What can I do today to serve?” And what I found is that with these principles and understanding them and trying my best to live in harmony with them. He continues to provide us everything we need for us to fulfill our purpose. And I feel like my purpose is to serve my family, to serve my readers, or anyone else who needs this information, to serve those in my neighborhood or in my church. That I am here to serve. And if I keep my focus on that service, everything else will work itself out. 

Now it’s easier for me to do that now that I’ve put systems in place with my business that are obvious. Like I can send someone to the free download site and I know that it’s serving them and I have time with my family. That didn’t take any of my time up. But that was my focus. I spent a lot of years trying to create systems that would serve people without my presence. So one master as you are raising your family, you’re serving them, you’re guiding them, you’re teaching them. And as you learn and understand these principles, you can trust that not only will we have an innate desire to learn everything we need to know to fulfill our mission, that will be given everything we need resource wise to fulfill our mission as long as our thoughts feelings and desires and actions are all one duck. Because He’s here waiting for us to get it right. He’s like “You go set that goal. You go make that happen. You pray for that.” But picture it done, feel it as though it’s done, be grateful, ask for it, get to work, and it’s all there for you.

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This concludes today’s episode of the Rare Faith Podcast. You’ve been listening to Leslie Householder, author of “The Jackrabbit Factor”, “Portal to Genius”, and “Hidden Treasures: Heaven’s Astonishing Help with Your Money Matters”. All three books can be downloaded free at ararekindoffaith.com. So tell your friends and join Leslie again next time as she goes even deeper into the principles that will help you change your life. 

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