Bible on BusinessMuestra

Family Business

Life is a journey.

We have all heard this analogy countless times. The beauty of taking a journey is knowing your final destination and choosing the best path to get to there.

My journey has been as a second generation owner in a family business. My father started a one person retail business one month before I was born, in a rural area of southeastern Pennsylvania. I am the fourth of five siblings. We lived on the same property as the store which led naturally to daily chores to help my parents run the business. We literally grew up in the store.

As our family grew, so did our business. Within a few years after I graduated high school, my father had a vision to build a larger store at a second location. This dream was fulfilled and the second location was opened when I was 21 years old. I was given many new responsibilities and began to realize the retail world was driven by many worries and fears.

I had accepted Jesus as my Savior at the age of fourteen, but I found during this season I had not surrendered all of my heart to him. Six months after the store was opened I surrendered every area of my life to Jesus Christ, knowing God's word said "not to worry or fear, but to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness."

Over the next twelve years God blessed me with a wonderful wife and six children. Life was great and I was enjoying God's fullness of life.

Then, within weeks after my youngest child was born, my father had a stroke. He persevered through several more strokes over the next sixteen months before passing away. I was now faced with more decision making for the business than I had ever experienced before.

Once again I needed to surrender the store to God and "…seek first his kingdom and his righteousness." It is now seventeen years since my father's death and God has always been faithful in meeting needs. Our business has continued, but we understand it has only been by God's grace. I pray you would be able to focus on the destination of your journey and always put God first.

J Michael Weaver is the owner of Weaver Markets Inc. in Adamstown, Pennsylvania.