When Faith Meets Purpose

Sometimes God's greatest work begins when we stop suffocating our purpose. For Emily, a butterfly emerging became the powerful metaphor for her life's transformation—when we surrender our desperate grip on certainty, God reveals the wings we never knew we had. What feels like confinement today becomes the catalyst for tomorrow's purpose. 

Emily grew up in a devoutly Catholic family where church attendance was non-negotiable. Her father, once studying in seminary school, chose to become a doctor instead, driven by his questioning nature and his desire to help people. This spirit of questioning would become a defining characteristic in Emily's own journey.

As a child witnessing the dissonance between Christ's teachings and guilt-inducing messages from both her mom and the church community that seemed to contradict the loving God she sensed within, she asked the question that would define her faith: "If Jesus is in my heart, then why would He want me to feel this bad?" She recognized that shame is incompatible with divine love.

Without language to articulate this insight, Emily carried her questions into adulthood. While never abandoning her faith, she hungered for authenticity that matched her intuition about God's character. Each Sunday was a pilgrimage toward a truth she knew existed but hadn't yet found embodied.

The breakthrough came at the Franciscan Renewal Center, where Emily discovered a community that embodied the radical inclusion and forgiveness she had always sensed was at Christianity's core. Instead of condemning those who struggled with divorce or addiction, the center offered support and renewal. 

"This is Jesus," Emily realized with conviction.

In this healing environment, Emily realized, Jesus "gave us permission to make mistakes because He knew we would." Far from demanding perfection, God created space for human frailty, offering forgiveness and love as the central themes of faith. This revelation—that believers are simultaneously perfect in God's eyes while being granted grace to fail and begin again—became the foundation that would later enable Emily to release her own perfectionism and help other women do the same.

God's plan for Emily began to take more definitive shape through motherhood. After years working as a nurse, Emily felt a calling to be a mother. When God blessed her with not one but two daughters, Emily recognized the humor in her situation. Mothering these "fiery, passionate little women" became the most challenging experience of her life—precisely because Emily's own relationship with her mother had been difficult.

Eight weeks after her first daughter's birth in 2017, Emily experienced an unexpected emptiness. Despite having everything she thought would fulfill her—a beautiful baby, loving husband, and satisfying career—something still felt missing. This created intense shame and confusion.

"I was so mad at myself," Emily remembers. "I felt so ashamed to feel that way."

In that vulnerable moment, Emily sensed God reassuring her, "You don't have anything to be ashamed about." He seemed to be saying that while motherhood was her current calling, she was "meant for something more" beyond it—but the timing wasn't yet right. First, she needed to be with her daughter and get some sleep before receiving her next calling.

After returning to nursing, Emily advanced into leadership, hoping to make a greater difference. Instead, the role became increasingly toxic, filled with anxiety and a sense of not being valued or heard. Looking back, Emily believes God knew she would eventually resign and needed her to experience this painful chapter to prepare her for what was coming next.

"Every pain point that I went through, He had a plan," Emily reflects. "That has given me so much strength."

The decision to resign from her 20-year nursing career—walking away from a six-figure salary as the family breadwinner—required tremendous faith. Emily's husband fully supported her, saying, "I’m surprised you stayed that long.” His confidence stemmed from knowing Emily's character—her name literally means "hardworking." Emily assured him, “I won’t let the ship sink.”

Two days after resigning, Emily sat on her porch swing in a moment of surrender, telling God, "I trust you. I have no fear in this." Yet her impatient nature prompted her to ask for a sign of reassurance. As she shifted position on the swing, a butterfly emerged from beneath the cushion and flew away. Emily burst into tears at the significance: "I'm suffocating a butterfly."

The butterfly moment became an illustration of her own metamorphosis. Just as the butterfly had been trapped, unable to fulfill its purpose, Emily had been confined by professional expectations and societal definitions of success. In her tears, she recognized that her resignation was a necessary emergence from the chrysalis of her former life. The butterfly didn't need directions for where to fly next—it simply needed freedom to follow its natural design. Emily realized she needed to do the same: stop suffocating her calling beneath the cushion of security and allow God's plan to unfold.

"I will just continue to trust you," she whispered, releasing not just the butterfly but her own desperate need for immediate answers. This surrender marked the death of her self-reliance and the birth of authentic faith—one that believed in God's provision before seeing evidence of it.

Just days later, the hospital called with an opportunity: to work as a coach focusing on employee well-being. The position required Emily to be self-employed—the very status she had just embraced in faith. She had crossed the threshold from anxiety to trust, from controlling outcomes to surrendering to divine timing.

This personal metamorphosis became the foundation for Emily's true calling. Today, she leads Empowered Moms, a community that embodies the freedom she herself discovered on that porch swing. It emerged not just from her background but from witnessing her mother's unfulfilled potential. Emily had watched her mother transform from a joyful, playful parent into a woman who repeatedly lamented, "I gave up my life for my kids"—a bitter testament to sacrifices that had suffocated her mother's God-given identity. Emily shares more of this story in her book, Life Your Life For You (Not Your Mom).

Through her own journey of release and renewal, Emily gained spiritual authority to address this generational pattern. Her work now stands as a redemptive response to her mother's unresolved struggle—healing not just her family line but countless other women caught in the same suffocation. "We weren't meant to sacrifice 100% of ourselves," Emily teaches, offering a theology of motherhood that honors both calling and personal wholeness.

Through Empowered Moms, Emily creates sacred space for women to recognize when life has become misaligned with their God-given purpose. "When something is not aligned, where are you equipped with the tools to realize, I might need to pivot something?" Her question invites women to see challenges not as failures but as redirections—butterfly moments that signal the need for emergence into something new.

Emily and her husband have distilled their theology into a simple mantra that carries them through uncertainties: "No matter what, it always works out." This is a conviction forged through career upheavals, postpartum struggles, and financial leaps into the unknown. Their shared faith allows them to release anxiety about the future, trusting that if God planted a desire and is nurturing it, the path will unfold according to His perfect design, even when the cocoon feels constrictive.

Emily's story powerfully illustrates how God transforms every experience into a masterpiece of purpose. What she once saw as disconnected events, she now recognizes as a sacred progression of butterfly moments, each one necessary for her emergence as a woman equipped to help others break free from their own confinement. Her life stands as living testimony that God doesn't waste pain but rather weaves it into the very wings that eventually enable flight—not just for Emily, but for every woman who finds in her story the courage to trust the God who makes all things new.