About Building A Business That Honors God Without Losing Your Family with Annie Ward

A business can be your dream, your plan to provide, and the place you expect God to “bless” in obvious ways, until it doesn’t work. We sit down with Annie Ward to talk about what happens when you do the right things, pray, spend the money, put in the work, and the business still closes. Instead of treating that moment like proof you failed or missed God, we unpack how a closed season can actually be protection, redirection, and formation.

We get practical about faith-based entrepreneurship and Christian finances: why providing for your family is good, why creating jobs matters, and why God’s principles can look different from the world’s pressure to chase bigger numbers. We talk about keeping kids and marriage centered, resisting the temptation to carry provider anxiety, and learning to hold plans with open hands. Along the way we share stories of staying out of debt, wrestling with tithing when the budget feels impossible, and discovering that generosity is less about a formula and more about surrender and worship.

If you’re trying to build a Christian business, recover from a failed business, or trust God for financial provision, this conversation will meet you with honesty and hope. Listen through to the closing prayer, then share this with a friend who needs courage for their next step, subscribe for more, and leave a review telling us where you’re choosing open-handed trust right now.

Transcript

Welcome Back And Set The Theme

SPEAKER_02 0:01

I am back with Annie Ward. If you missed the first one, you really need to listen to it. She is a mighty woman in the land. She has done so many incredible things. She's been on the mission field. She now leads the, she's the mission lead at our church, Sabus Creek Church in Wimberley. And so she talked a little bit about all that. But now we're going to talk about some uh, and she also talked about how she met her cute little husband, Josh. So go listen. Um, but now we're gonna talk about some deeper things, the things that we as women go through and how faithful our God is. And so we just invite you to be part of it. And so, Annie, yeah, um, you want to just start off with what Harry you'd like to talk about? I'll hear for you.

SPEAKER_01 0:54

Well, I appreciate that. Um yeah, one of the one of the things that I'm very interested in in being able to talk to you personally, you know, as as things go things go on, maybe not on the podcast, but in person just between you is to hear more about um about what it means to build businesses that honor God. Yes, and um and ways to build businesses that also grow, help our families, you know. Like it is it is a good thing for us to have ways to provide for our families. And

Faith Based Business As Mission

SPEAKER_01 1:25

God says that. Exactly. He does, exactly. And not only that, but but also whenever you're a part of that, you're providing job opportunities for other people in your community.

SPEAKER_02 1:34

You're not just providing them with money, exactly. You're training in them, training those people too up in the way they will go. So when they're old, they don't depart from it. Not just your children, but these people that God's put in your life to raise up. Right. And so yeah, I you know, I love business. He did put me into business, and it's a literature, it's triggering. But uh, but then I fell in love with that. It's it has been my mission field, and I feel like it's been yours in Josh's too. Um, and you've been learning through it. But yeah. Yeah, um, but I want to know more about like why.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

That's a really that's a really good question. Um, I think I said last time in the last podcast that it seems like God's kind of built our life backwards, uh-huh. Um, where you know we really we met, we fell in love, and we had this whirlwind romance, and then um I was away in in Europe for a year, and then whenever we came back home, uh we started to build our life together. And one of the things that um I one of the things that we both felt very strongly from the Holy Spirit, and honestly, I still feel it, even though things look way different now than I was expecting, um, is we both really felt like the entrepreneurial life was what was for our family. And um I personally I'm not that business savvy. I'm I don't have a business mindset, but what I do, what I really am very attracted to is um having the freedom of owning our own business so that we can also easily go do other work that we built called to, which happens to be doing global missions. And yes, and so um, but I think for the longest time I had this idea, this dream in the back of my mind that was uh my husband's a carpenter by trade. He's built some homes, so he's done a little bit of contracting, but mostly carpentry. He's very talented, he's very good. And um, so our hope and our desire was for him to build to build a carpentry business. Um, and you know, we prayed and we asked and we followed and we tried to see what that maybe was, whether that carpentry can be a lot of things, you know, it could be cabinets, it could be, who knows? And so we spent a lot of time and a lot of money and a lot of energy um building a carpentry business, and and we even and we sought the Lord, you know. I I can look back and there are moments when I question that and I was like, did we seek the Lord? Were we following Him closely? Were we asking Him

When The Dream Business Fails

SPEAKER_01 4:15

for His guidance? And the answer was yes, we were but the business failed.

SPEAKER_02 4:21

Okay, so is it let's just stop right there because I really want to talk to you girls about that. You said I spend a lot of money when we learn in college, yeah, we spend a lot of money. Most people think I'm gonna get out of college, I'm gonna know it all, I'm gonna go out, and everything I do is gonna succeed. But God has this plan to build this depth into you. And when you were doing that, didn't you weren't you able to do things with the kids and uh be around with the children, or was that something you didn't get to know?

SPEAKER_01 4:55

No, that's exactly it. So we were building our life, and at that time I had two and then three, and now I have four, but in that in that season I had two and then three young, young children. And we orchestrated it so that Josh was running the business and Josh was doing all of this, and I got to be home with the kids, yeah, which is a gift that I will never be able to explain.

SPEAKER_02 5:20

No, I that and and I believe that that's what God wants is for, you know, I look back on the mom of four kids. There was nothing. I ran companies, global companies, things all over the world I had responsibility for. Um, in the eyes of the world, it was an amazing position, you know, and I loved it, but for different reasons. But my whole life prior to that was raising four children first. And I had a lady tell me that I was not gonna be successful because I always quit my jobs when it got in the way of me being there for the kids. Guys, the most important thing I ever did was raise those four kids. I love all the other stuff I've gotten to do, but they were not as important. You know that they now have together 16 kids that are my grandchildren. And now I'm about to, I already have one great grandchild, and two more are growing in wombs. I'm gonna have three grandchildren in the earth by my 52nd wedding anniversary. And I can tell you that is the harvest that means the most to me. So I don't want you to miss it. And and I have done the same thing. We had a daycare center when I was younger and leave school in school, and we ended up selling that daycare center, uh, but it was a minimal amount after five years. But while I had that daycare center, it provided me the opportunity to to do something, first of all, um, to to have a oh, I'm waking up and in my passion.

SPEAKER_00 7:02

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 7:03

And um, I was with my children. I had flexibility because I own the business. Um, it gave us it gave us a little meager, whatever we needed cash flow, uh, not a lot, uh, but it met the need and it taught me, you know, it I was being taught through that process. And years later, we had a store here in town after I left the corporate world and um it failed. Yeah, you know, uh five years in it failed. But we got to know everybody in Wimperley through that store. We had so much fun just getting to create and we made it. We didn't like right, we eked out a living, but it wasn't the huge successful thing that we hoped it would be, right? But when I look back on it, I just feel like it wasn't a failure at all. We were so blessed in these different seasons to have that. And and because God looks at business differently than us, he says, I'm gonna provide for all your needs, I'm gonna give you enough to give to every good work, I'm gonna take care of you. Like he doesn't say, I'm gonna make you a millionaire tomorrow, or I'm gonna give you more money than you can think about so you can store it away in a bank account. The other thing, Annie, I can tell you is all the way through these businesses, we have had so many great adventures, but we didn't like have a huge publication to make. Yeah, and still don't. And guess what? All of our kids got to get educations, all of our kids got to grow up. We own this house. You know, we there are things that God has done. God has done it, clearly. Yes, not us. But that's why I don't worry anymore. And I want to teach you and uh you all that that the most important thing is that those children, when you have them, and that God's got a plan for you to make enough money to make it through, and you don't have to worry uh that you're gonna starve or your bills won't get paid. You don't have to go into debt. I'm a big believer because God taught it to me that tithing is really important. Um, and that giving on top of it is, and when I used to look at my income, I'd be like, Well, where am I supposed to even find this? But when I became faithful, when we became faithful, we and I became faithful in bringing the tithe, the whole tithe in, then all of a sudden more money came in. And it just wasn't the thing that we had to

Redefining Success Around Family

SPEAKER_02 9:35

worship, like it became the thing that we could just trust in. Yeah. And then God began to speak to both of us about giving, yeah, on top of the tithe. And the way that we would confirm that was like, I would say something to Lee, and we would say, This is what I'm thinking, and I would be like, Oh my gosh! And then we would know. We would know this is something God's put in our heart to do. And he does it not just for money, but he does it when you say, What do you think, Josh? You go to Serbia. Yeah, exactly. And she would take the boys. Yeah. And he's like, Yes. But they have the same thing. Because he put us together and he's in the middle of that. We can trust that he's gonna meet our needs, and he does. And he uses us to meet other needs. So that's what I think. The baseline is that there are principles we put in place in business that are different from the world. If God has closed that business, it was because he's got another season for you. I wouldn't be here if I was still running that store. That's a great point. You know, and I had a great time running the store. It was an experience I wouldn't forget. Yeah, or trade. Yeah, but when it became stressful, yeah, because and this is where it became stressful. It became stressful when we were we were making the bills and we were bringing home money, and then all of a sudden that changed. And we had a choice. We could go into debt, exactly, or we could close the business. And we trusted God that we weren't supposed to go into debt. Yeah, and we did go into debt a little bit actually before we started trusting God on that. But guess what? He paid it off. And so praise God, it just worked out good. You know, you just you just walk through the walk. Okay, so that's one place where you were feeling like, wow, this is I made a mistake. And and I'm just gonna tell you in Jesus' name, you did not make a mistake. I agree. It was a season. God will use the talents that your husband has to do something else. And now he's got him in a job where he's learning new skills.

SPEAKER_01 11:39

Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 11:40

And and it's right for our family right now. And it's great. Yeah, he's gonna provide what you need. Yeah, and in the future, I wouldn't be shocked at all if you were back there doing entrepreneurial things in other places.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

We have some dreams.

SPEAKER_02 11:53

We have some dreams we're brewing up. That's good. We'll see. So just take it one day at a time and try and and this is how you do it. You walk through your life with your hands open. Every good thing comes from him. So if you take something out of those hands, leave your hands open. He's got something else that's gonna come in to fill your hands.

unknown 12:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:17

And keep those kids the most important thing in the season, you know, that's family. Yeah, raising them up in the way of the Lord and loving them and planting dreams and visions in them and teaching them how to walk with the Lord.

SPEAKER_01 12:33

I can also see, too, like what so much of that was really wrapped up in in what Josh was doing in his dreams and his desires and the way he was leading our family and the way he was providing. It really was because I was at home, you know. Yes that's how that's how it was supposed to be right then. I can see now, and I think I could see it then, how God was using um what seemed like a worldly something that was not success successful in the world to take things off of Josh that he was carrying, that he didn't need to carry anymore. Like expectations that the world could be.

SPEAKER_02 13:10

Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Men especially, I feel like we're we're ready to select because Lee was the one that said, Well, did we miss God? He was like he was really worried about that. And I said, Okay, well, this happened, this happened, this happened, this happened. We missed God, we don't miss God. We were listening. Yes, and through that, it's so interesting because what he does now, and he is about to turn 71, and he still works full-time, and he mostly loves it. Like, you know, there's days there are hearts, of course, but he loves having this purpose to get up for and be successful with, and uh, it's just part of men's DNA that's different from um us. Not that we don't want something, but theirs is a heaviness because they're the ones that are supposed to provide, you know. And that's it's reinforced in the world in bad ways, but God built them to be the provider, protector, to be the precinct king over our households. So, you know, they carry things if they don't let God carry them.

SPEAKER_01 14:16

So it's just it's so the thing that I've been praying about recently is that um my hope is, and this is again trying to not have the expectation that this is going to be true, but just waiting on God uh to confirm or to change those desires. But I really am hoping that whatever it is that we do next is something that we do together. Because one thing that's very, very obvious to me and Josh is that we have, and if this is true for all marriages, it's true, yes, but we have a we have a partnership. We have a true complement. And you have partnership. And we have complementary skills, and so I really do see that God put us together for multiple reasons, and I'm hoping that one of those reasons is so that we can work and run vocationally together.

SPEAKER_02 15:06

So Lee and I got to work together when we were teachers for a season, and we loved it so much. And then with our businesses, we worked together. Of course, and lots of people will say, Oh, I couldn't work with my spouse. I feel so blessed that we both do know like we have talents and gifts that complement each other.

SPEAKER_01 15:25

We don't have to do everything, and we don't have to make the other person feel badly because they're not gonna do the thing. Do something the same way that we would.

SPEAKER_02 15:35

Yes, exactly. In fact, we still let them do something differently and maybe learn something from one another and grow. Life is a wonderful

Tithing Giving And Staying Out Of Debt

SPEAKER_02 15:45

adventure, and work is part of life, and God is in the center of a marriage, He wants us. I believe He wants us to be working together, and and that's my dream still. Like Lee's working in his own thing now, and I'm working in this. Uh, but I I have a vision for us both being able to coach and teach because we're both teachers, and God will have to do that. But if that's his vision, then he will, and I can trust that. Open your hands, girls, open your hands and and just hold it lightly, hold it. Um because God he wove us together in our mother's womb after he called us, he called us and sent us for purpose into this earth. You are sent for purpose into this earth just for a short time, and that short time, he had a reason for doing that, and he is going to make you able to finish your race, to finish your course well, and then you get to go back to him. So, girls, like let's learn and ex and really receive that every good thing. Our husbands, our children, our finances, our skills and abilities, every single our friendships, all of that is a gift from our Lord so that we can run our race and finish our course. That's it. Not so that we can lollygag around the earth and just have a really good time all the time. It's because he wants us to live with passion and complete what he set us to do. And if we do that, we're all gonna be so much happier. It's not gonna be the way the world says, it's not gonna be running after dollars for sure. God is going to provision you for your journey, he will do that. And you don't have to worry about that. As long as you go to work and you work with all your heart and give your passion to it, he's gonna provide for all of your needs.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

I know that. And I keep, as you're saying that I'm hearing the word, it's worship. And it even says that in Romans 12. Yes, that you know, we give ourselves as a as a living sacrifice, yes, which is our which are true worship whenever we do that.

SPEAKER_02 18:10

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 18:11

And so it's really all tied together. Even whenever we're in the middle of something that on the world standards looks like it's failing, whenever we're whenever we're open-handed, whenever we're working with the Lord, whenever we're living in obedience, it's worship. It is. It's worship.

SPEAKER_02 18:27

It's just it's just being a part of a father. And you know, where sin comes in is we want to run our own way. And sin doesn't lead to glory, it doesn't lead to anything good, it leads to sorrow and sadness and separation. Separation from the one that loves us so much. So yeah, so uh I I was just thinking when you said that uh we're a living sacrifice that some of you might be saying, Wait, I don't want to be a sacrifice. Listen, just coming from two that know. Yes, you do. When you are giving everything to your father, your life just becomes a lot easier. And then you're you're leaving it in his hands. You don't have to worry about it. Uh, are we gonna be able to pay our bills this month? Well, I don't know. So, Lord, I'm casting that care on you, and somehow I know you're gonna provide, or I'm gonna trust that you're gonna provide because maybe you you just have hope that he'll provide, but he's gonna give you faith because it's gonna be the evidence of what you hoped for. You're gonna look back and you're gonna go, Oh my gosh, he paid this month's rent. And then years later, like he did for us, he's gonna say, Take this job, Denise, because I want you to pay off the house. And you're gonna take the job, you're gonna work a certain amount of time, get laid off 15 days after you paid off the house. Wow. I mean, he just does the work. And listen, y'all, I was so ready to not be working on what I was working on because I was traveling a lot. So I was dancing.

SPEAKER_01 20:12

You were like, yes, hire me.

SPEAKER_02 20:14

Thank you. It was a big layoff. You pay out the package. No, yeah, exactly. They didn't really do that. They were poor little company was having a hard financial time. But um, you know, it just got in the third wave of layoffs. 15 days after we made the last payment on this house, and now we own our house. Wow. And, you know, he did that. I have nothing to do with that, except that I just said, okay, let's go.

SPEAKER_01 20:40

Yeah. You know, that's amazing. He does it. Yeah, he really does. There have been stories after story. I mean, we did this for 10 years on and off. Had a c had his company and then worked for somebody else, and then had a company, and then worked for somebody else, all on carpentry. And there were times, there were many, many months, where I would get to the end of the month, and it was time to go to the next month, and I was like, there's not enough in the bank account. And we sorry. No, because it's it's your book. We never missed one payment. Yes, praise God. Maybe something was late. But we paid and we paid a late fee, but we didn't miss one payment, and sometimes it was people giving us gifts. Sometimes it was sometimes you know, sometimes it was shuffling things around to making to make it work, but we we have paid every bill that we were supposed to pay.

SPEAKER_02 21:40

We have those stories too. And and I tell you that just because not to also say we have a story, but because this is what God does. He does it for any, he does it for me, he's gonna do it for you. He's not a respecter of persons. He loves you, daughter, as much as he loves us. That's right. And he'll give. The IRS send us money. And I was like, wait, what? That was very ironic in my life because I was afraid of the IRS growing up because my parents had figure at the IRS. And so I grew up afraid of them. And when we decided to get out of debt, um, seriously decided God didn't want us in debt. We had a lot of debt. And uh it was gonna be seven years to have it all paid off, but we committed to that and it was gone in 18 months. And part of it was the IRS randomly sent us a check, and I wouldn't even cash it because I was like, they're gonna put me in jail. Yeah. And then we did. Yeah. And money would show up on our doorstep, and somebody would call and say, Your bill is paid. I mean, it was it was miraculous, y'all. Our student loans, two student loans were paid off uh just so

Miraculous Provision And Open Doors

SPEAKER_02 22:55

quickly. Um, it was big amounts, and we had no imagination on how that could happen. But God knew. And so we can trust him. He is so faithful. When I was faithless, you know, he was faithful.

SPEAKER_01 23:13

Yeah, his faithfulness is not dependent on ours. No, thank goodness. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. And you know, you you brought up tithing too, and that's been something that we really wrestled with a lot because there were months where I was like, if I pay, if I give this tithe, I can't pay the electric bill. Yes, we were the same way. And there were some months where I chose to pay the electric bill instead of tithe. Well, and he's okay. We wrestle. There's grace, there's grace. Yeah. But in the long run, what God really, really wants is not is surrender. Surrender and worship. Surrender to him and worship him. And all of those details, they just get taken. Even though we think if I can just come up with 14 plans to come up with my debt-free scenario, I'm gonna come up with that debt-free. Oh my gosh. And here's my 14 assist plan.

SPEAKER_02 24:07

Seven years. That's right. But you're right. We were trying to get out of debt, and we had two old cars, really old cars. Like y'all don't even know old cars. They barely ran. But my cousin and his wife uh were driving through town from Dallas on their way to Florida. He had been in medical school for it, it was his last year of medical school. So they were in super debt. Yeah. And they had three little kids. And on the other side of the town we lived in, they had a wreck, like right outside of our town. They had a wreck. And they totaled the car. And so we brought him to our house for the weekend. And this was the beginning of us hearing God, both of us hearing the same thing. And Lee takes me out in the garage and goes, Denise, I think we're supposed to give him this car. And when he said it, God had already been speaking it to me. But I said, How could we do that? We only have two cars and you go to work, you know, 30 minutes away every day. And I I said, but God told me the same thing. And so we just prayed out there and gave it. And we didn't miss it. Not too long after that, we were able to get another car, and uh we kept moving along. Five years later, that car that we bought, the suburban that we bought, uh, the transmission went out. We still were broke. I mean, we we never had so much. Never had that. And um so uh oh, but let me step back. I was a sales rep for a food service company, and I had really gotten to the point where I didn't have any passion. I was frustrated and I was away from the kids, and I've been praying. And um, in August, I'd gone to a sales meeting, Lee had come with me, and the whole way home I just cried and cried in the car. And he said, Something's gonna change, Denise. I know something will change. And right then I heard everything will change October 1st. Wow. And I told him that, and then I forgot about that. Just left it because I was back in the middle of this crazy work. And then our suburban broke. We couldn't get it fixed, and we had one little bitty prelude that had to get four kids to school, leave to school in 30 minutes away again, and I had to work and I drove. And so we were in kind of a bad situation, and here I was being despairing again, like Lord, where are you? Where are you? And then that uh the day before the end of the month, it was like uh September, the end of September, the school district called randomly and said, Could you come in and talk to us? Uh, we have a teaching position open, and uh, we're willing to emergency certify you if you're willing to take this job. So they tell me the job, and I've got, you know, teenage kids, so I'm like, I'm not putting up with anything in those questions from these sources. That's right. Um, and so something in that I thought I had not gotten a job, but I'm driving home 15 minutes later. Uh my friend came and picked me up, driving me home. They call and they offered me the job, and I said yes. And I had no idea what I was gonna make. Okay. Then I get home, and this is before we had cell phones, we just had house phones. The house phone rang, and it was my cousin and his wife, and they had uh bought 20 raffle tickets for a car, and they'd won it, and they were giving it to us. Wow. A brand new car. I never had a brand new car until that car. So they brought us that car, and um, I got that job, and it was October 1st. I said, You're not gonna believe this day. And I told him, and he goes, Well, you know what day it is, and I said, What? And he said, October 1st. God told you that. Oh my gosh. Yeah, so I had completed it. Yeah. I didn't ask what I was gonna make. Lee was in school full time. I left a pretty well-paying job and was making $800 a month. We didn't ever miss a bill through the whole summer till the fall when Lee got a job teaching, and I had that job teaching, and they raised the salaries that year too. So we made more money and we just kept on putting it on. I'm just telling you, he is a God that does stuff that you cannot imagine when when you think that there's no hope, you just aren't just in the wrong place because he will change everything. And then you'll have faith because it's the evidence. That's why I have such faith, guys. Because you've seen I've seen so much faithfulness from our father. I know that he'll come through. So that's anything else you would like to add to this podcast, my friend. Thanks for sharing.

SPEAKER_01 28:56

I'm really glad I got to be here today. It was a real blessing. And um, you know, I think that the the words that we said today that seem to be highlighted over and over in this conversation is that that open-handedness, that surrender. And I think it surprises us sometimes what it is that God asks us to surrender. And sometimes it's that, you know, like and he's a gentleman, he asks and he waits until we're ready, he waits until it's the right time. Yes, he doesn't push or force his way in. That's right. And so, yeah, if there's just something that you he's asking you to surrender, that thing that you know he's been asking you to surrender, just let it go. Just let it go. And and let him have it because on the other side, five years later, two and that's not why we do it. Yeah, we didn't. I wasn't expecting it.

SPEAKER_02 29:51

But God saw two out there. That's right. And and by the way, we got the suburban fixed, and our kid got his driver's license, and that's what he ought to drive.

SPEAKER_01 30:00

And you know, uh we don't surrender because we think that the blessing

Surrender The Summary And Prayer

SPEAKER_01 30:05

is coming. Yeah. We surrender because we love God, we want to obey him. And and the blessing comes later, it's blessing steps.

SPEAKER_02 30:14

You really have to step out there, but I I know he never ever lets us down. So praise God. Praise God.

SPEAKER_01 30:22

You want to pray for him? Yeah. Yeah, I'll let you pray. Jesus, we just um come to you with gratitude, with thanksgiving, and we celebrate the things, the things that you're releasing, the plans you have before us, the things that we together as a community uh just cannot expect. Um, and we put aside that expectation and pick up the expectancy of knowing that you are a God who provides. Yes. And you provide in unexpected ways and unexpected things. I mean, even the way that Jesus healed, he healed every single person differently. The story was different for each person. And your healing and your provision for us is going to be a different story for each person. And so I just pray that we set aside a comparison or again that word expectation, and we we s surrender and we hold open hands to receive and to give away um what give away what's not ours and to receive what is in any given season. I just pray that over um everyone. Yeah, that's right. In Jesus' name.