Never too old for a new profession

“I’m too old to be in the job market.”

“If I were younger, I could go back to school and find a new occupation.” 

Perhaps similar thoughts are entertained by people who are seeking professional placement after a period without professional employment.

After my four children were born, I stopped working to devote myself to my family, which always brought me joy. But when I turned 40, and my children had grown up and become independent, I felt I could be useful to other people.  

To occupy my time, I started taking painting and drawing classes. I had some of my paintings exhibited, and sold a few of them, but I wasn’t reaching my ultimate goal: to do more for my neighbor.

In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy says: “Working and praying with true motives, your Father will open the way. ‘Who did hinder you, that ye should not obey the truth?’ ” (p. 326 ). My goal was to help others by means of a job, which is a right motive. Therefore, what could hinder me from expressing God’s love and vitality? Could Life’s activity and intelligence stop being manifested? Certainly not. Since man, a term that includes all men and women, is one with God, no circumstance can prevent us from fully expressing our divine Father’s qualities.

When we focus on God, instead of on the chaotic evidence of the material senses, we realize that our true work consists of experiencing the constant unfolding of God’s purpose for His children. He guides us harmoniously along the way, as I have confirmed in my own experience. 

The art school offered other classes, one of them on how to make dolls. Knowing about this, a friend of mine asked me to take a doll to be reproduced in class. It could be used in courses that guide mothers-to-be.

However, the teacher told me that reproducing the doll would not be possible because meticulous and hard work was involved. When I explained the situation to my friend, she told me, “Then you reproduce it.” 

That week I had studied the Bible story of Samuel, and these words came to my thought: “Speak; for thy servant heareth” (I Samuel 3:10 ). I realized that my friend’s words were like a call of God to me. And I answered, “Yes!”

I had sewn a few of my daughter’s cloth diapers 20 years before and believed that sewing was not for me. I also thought my sewing machine could not be repaired. To my surprise, a technician informed me the opposite. To me that was a sign that I should move forward with my purpose.

Before beginning the work, I turned to God and prayed: “Father, I feel that it is Your will that I follow this path, because everything is flowing so naturally. Guide me! I know I have the same intelligence that inspires a seamstress or a designer to make patterns, because all creativity and knowledge come from You and are reflected by all Your children.” 

Observing the doll more carefully, I noticed that I could improve a few things when drawing the pattern. I realized that I was using what I had learned in the courses I had taken previously. I felt that God had prepared me for this moment through my experience with drawing and painting. 

Slowly, but with confidence, I was able to draw, cut out, and sew the doll. My friend noticed the changes and praised my work. 

The following week, she gave me the amount from the sale of that doll and asked me whether I could produce two more. Within a week after this, I made two more dolls, and over time, the orders increased. I knew that this was the result of my prayers for divine guidance. 

Every time I faced an opportunity to create a new product, I asked God to inspire me, since those would be products to bless moms-to-be and their babies during birth and breast-feeding. 

God's law is a law of progress, and its fulfillment cannot be hindered by age or any limiting thought!

I like to ponder this passage from Science and Health: “To begin rightly is to end rightly. … Divine Mind is the only cause or Principle of existence” (p. 262 ). My original desire was to help others, and the outcome of such prayer was being revealed through the will of God. Because divine Mind is the only cause, the results of that undertaking could only be harmonious. The new products were always well accepted, and I was led to market them.

Today I have created more than a hundred products. Every doll we sell has the mission of spreading love. A good friend and supporter says they are the unfolding of good, which blesses all. In fact, our business helps our employees to provide for their families; the professionals involved in the courses for pregnant women are blessed by having the right material to work with; moms learn how to lovingly care for their babies; and their babies are blessed.

My business continues to grow since it began six years ago. We have customers from all over Brazil and some from abroad.

Becoming a doll manufacturer, a social educator, and a doula (a non-medical person who assists a woman before, during, and after childbirth) was a very natural unfolding of divine action. What a wonderful evidence that God’s law is a law of progress (see Science and Health, p. 233 ), and its fulfillment cannot be hindered by age or any limiting thought!