FROM CALLING TO CREDENTIALED: A STORY OF ALIGNMENT

Gwendolyn J. Jones
Dec 16, 2025
2 min read

ROOTED IN PURPOSE. TRAINED FOR IMPACT.

My journey didn’t begin with credentials.

It began in the tension between who I was expected to be and who I knew I was becoming.

At the intersection of grace, authenticity, and vulnerability, I’ve built my life’s work. I create safe spaces where grief can be named, and curate conversations that shape our lives and identity.

On the podcast. On the page. In real life.

And one of the earliest lessons I had to learn was the power of AND, when society kept telling me I could only exist in the land of OR.

I was told I couldn’t have both.

That if I chose my dreams, I was neglecting my family.

That if I chose my family, my calling would have to wait.

I began this journey when my daughter was a senior in high school, carrying immense guilt fueled by false belief systems that told me I had to choose between cultivating my divine calling or nurturing my child as she discovered who she was becoming.

Now, as I face the stage, my son is a senior in high school. And I couldn’t be more proud of him and of myself. Proud of the woman who learned to embrace grace. Proud of the woman who no longer lives in the land of OR, but fully inhabits the land of AND.

A woman who nurtures her family at 100% AND nurtures herself 100% AND stirs up her own gifts. I am determined to passionately pursue, overtake, and recover all that God has for me physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally, and financially, AND to clear a path for others to do the same.

I’m also the woman who took a year off from school when my father passed away. The one who thought she would never see this stage. Amid grief, my calling reminded me who I am, whose I am, and the generational wealth, strength, and resilience embedded in my DNA, giving me permission to heal while continuing to build.

My faith, obedience, and perseverance-initiated legacy.

So, no, this moment didn’t happen overnight.

It didn’t begin with credentials.

It began with a calling… and years of becoming.

This week is graduation week, and I want to invite you on the journey to the stage with me.

What you’ll see this week isn’t just caps, gowns, and titles.

It’s a story of alignment.

Of passion meeting preparation.

Where stewardship, purpose, and legacy finally stand in the same room.

This chapter is closing.

A new one is emerging.

And I can’t wait to tell you all about it.