Finding Purpose

Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.

Proverbs 19:21

One of the most frustrating and daunting tasks in anyone’s life is to find purpose in it.  When I was younger, purpose meant finding a meaningful job and making enough money to live well at it.  When I married, purpose took on another, very different meaning.  I helped support the house financially.  I was a partner to my husband, and we sought to grow spiritually as a team.  Then the children came.  The purpose was right there in the tiny, infinite eyes of an awe-inspiring being.  I was terrified.  I’ll admit that I was terrified until they grew and left home and I still live hoping that I give them the correct advice that they need.

I wanted everything for my children.  I wanted them to be everything good, kind, and wonderful.  I didn’t care if they were very successful monetary-wise, I just wanted them to be people who would be good to others and be a positive influence on the world.  I left my job.  Paul and I made things work with one paycheck and we never were able to go on big vacations and have the latest and greatest of video games and such.  What we did have were so many trips into places that most other kids’ parents never thought of.  They met children different from themselves and learned a lot.  I learned a lot!  As they grew, I saw how they treated others, how they treated their father and me. I am so proud of them.  They are each so unique, but all have that love embedded in their hearts.

So now.  I am handicapped in several ways.  I often feel useless.  What could my purpose be?  I search my own life with the criteria I used when I raised my children.  I use the skills God gave me and I stretch myself.  I am excited that my writing is reaching more and more people.  I only have 10 followers, but that is 10 more than when I started!  I have many more who are reading.  It amazes me when I look at the map on my website and see how many countries my writing has traveled to!  If I have helped one person, my writing will have served its purpose.  As with the rest of my life, I can have many purposes at once.  I try not to see my handicaps as limitations but as opportunities.  I have time to do new things and I get the opportunity to speak with others who share my infirmities.  Wisdom travels in both directions there.

There is no such thing as having no purpose.  If we are alive, we can dig down and find the gifts God has given us.  That will show us the way to our purpose, the one we don’t even know we have yet.