Finding My Place

Where has God placed you? We often struggle to know … Kendra Dahl shares how God’s perfect placement of us might just be right where we are.

Elisa

Finding My Place

By Kendra Dahl

I always dreamed of living and working overseas. I went to Guatemala on my first international mission trip as a freshman in high school, and I loved everything about it—experiencing a new culture, trying out a new language, seeing vast needs and believing I could be well-placed to help meet them.

The summer between my junior and senior year of high school, I spent two weeks with missionaries in Chad, followed by two weeks in Pyatigorsk, Russia, volunteering in an orphanage.

After that, I was hooked. I went to college and began pursuing a degree in International Studies. By the time I graduated, I thought the path was the Peace Corps, and then probably law school. I wanted to work for the United Nations, perhaps assisting asylum seekers or advocating for refugee populations. This, I thought, would be my calling.

But an unplanned pregnancy meant I never finished my Peace Corps application. Instead, I moved home and took the first job that offered health insurance.

Several years later, married and with a few children—during that season where I worked for my church but did my best to squeeze it into early mornings and naptimes so as to not actually impact my family—I was invited to spend a couple of weeks in Nepal teaching an Old Testament survey class to a group of women. I couldn’t believe it. An opportunity to revisit a dead dream, to taste the life I might have chosen if I’d had the chance.

My husband encouraged me to go, and my mom signed up to come hold things together at my house while I was away. So I waited with eager anticipation for my renewed passport, watching the days tick by until it was finally time to go.

But as the trip neared, a quiet panic settled in. I wasn’t afraid of the travel, the time in-country, or the teaching. I was afraid of reawakening a dormant desire, of finding myself misplaced. Confident the experience would be incredible; I feared coming home. I worried the trip would add to the angst I already felt trying to embrace my primary role as homemaker and mother.

I was afraid I would love it.

My existential crisis was, at its root, my wrestling with the notion—upheld in some spaces and considered antiquated in others—that women must be restricted to particular roles and places. Taking extended time away from my family felt like stepping out of my lane.

I wonder how it might change our perspective on a woman’s place if we viewed it as an indicative statement instead of a question. You don’t need permission. You don’t need someone to tell you where your place is. You simply need to believe there is a place for you. It’s where you are. That’s your calling. To this church, these people, this season. Where has God placed you in his household? What gifts has he given you? To whom has he given you? What opportunities has he provided for you to encourage or teach, to listen and pray for others, to bring a meal or provide childcare, to give generously?

Nepal was great. It was hard too. My older body didn’t handle the travel with as much grace as my teenage self, and I missed my husband, children, and church family more than I thought possible. But I was also glad I went, not just for the joy of seeing women dig into the Scriptures, though that was incredible. I was glad I faced my fears of wanting more than my life.

I stared into the temptation to believe God’s place for me was somewhere other than where he had me, and I found instead that he had been quietly at work in my heart, turning me into someone with new dreams, placing me among people who needed my gifts, and opening doors at the right time for me to step into new opportunities. He taught me—and is still teaching me—to trust that vocation is multifaceted, and that he provides enough grace for whatever he calls us to (Eph. 2:10; James 4:6).

There’s a place for you. What that looks like is going to differ for all of us, married or single, with kids underfoot or launched, at different points in our lives and careers, in different geographical locations, and facing different economic, physical, and emotional realities. God’s place for his daughters is spacious and it’s beautiful; we need only to receive it.

Adapted from A Place for You: Reframing Christian Womanhood by Kendra Dahl © 2025, Moody Publishers. Used by permission.

Kendra Dahl is a Christ-follower and writer, wife to Jordan, and mom to Hadley, Adrienne, and Maximus. Her most recent book is A Place for You. She holds an MA in biblical studies from Westminster Seminary California. She is also the author of How to Keep Your Faith After High School (Core Christianity, 2023). Kendra is passionate about helping people live in view of God’s mercies: united to Christ and anchored in the Scriptures. Her work has been featured at The Gospel Coalition, CT Women, Core Christianity, Modern Reformation, and Risen Motherhood. You can find her at kendradahl.com and on Instagram (@kendra_dahl_).