However, I have a unique life situation that falls somewhere in between there, and I think as a human, we all struggle with purpose in life, which is what the burdens all come down to anyway. I often look at my life and wonder about my purpose. As a Christian, I know it is to bring honor and praise to my Lord in everything that I do and to work for an eternal purpose of telling other people about Jesus in order to expand his Kingdom and save lives from hopeless and horrible eternal separation from Him.
However, the reality is that we live in a day to day life. We have to run errands. We have to raise our kids. We have to make money. We have to eat. We have to budget our time. Etc Etc Etc. We are blessed to live in a first world country, but along with that blessing comes the curse of decisions, decisions, decisions...because we have so many resources which creates so many options which subsequently creates so many distractions from our true purpose.
So being purposeful...that's been rolling around in my head lately and I've been wondering what that looks like in my life. The last thing I want to do by "being purposeful" is to add stuff to my plate of things to do. I already have a full time job, a husband, a child, a kitchen that requires time every day, a laundry room full of clothes, a house to clean, dogs to walk, a body to attempt to take care of etc etc. I guess the question is how do I be purposeful with my free time to accomplish things that make me feel....accomplished. And not just spinning around in circles letting days go by feeling cruddy about myself.
I don't have the answers. My life isn't nearly as balanced as I'd like for it to be. My body is dying to be on a regular work out schedule which includes playing competitive sports (because I'm really bad about desiring to work out just to work out...I like having a "purpose" in my working out :-)
I don't have it figured out...My life is full of baby steps of learning...but I have made 2 recent baby steps that have brought a lot of joy and purpose to my life so I thought I'd share and I'd love for you to share anything that you've done to bring some clarity and purpose to your life.
1) For a few years, its been on my bucket list to sponsor a child through Compassion International. Its an organization that's been around since the 1950s that ranks in the Top 1% of charities every year because of its professionalism, legitimacy, and effectiveness. Growing up, my family sponsored a boy named Donald from Kenya. I remember writing and receiving letters and photos from him every year. I wanted to do the same for our family. So several months ago, I started researching and I got totally overwhelmed. There were so many faces staring back at me on the screen. I felt like if I chose any one of them, it'd be like rejecting all the rest! I couldn't decide so, sadly, I walked away from the whole thing. I think it may have been meant to be though because I was re-inspired a few nights ago and we found the PERFECT child. His name is Sabirou and he is from Burkina Faso in Africa. He's 6 years old and the best part is....he shares a birthday with Rhyder! This is going to be the coolest thing ever...as Rhyder grows up, he will get to be a part of preparing for Sabirou's birthday along with his own. We will get as creative as possible in sending him something special for his birthday that is within the very strict limitations of what we can send through the program...but still...if bookmarks, stickers, coloring book pages, and bandaids light up those kids lives...we will be sending 'em! Being a family who's income was cut in half and expenses increased due to a new business startup, the financial commitment was scary, but I just shuffled money in our tithe account to make the sponsorship money available so we didn't have to increase our budget. I am so excited about being Sabirou's American family and writing him letters as he grows and allowing him to be a part of a program in Africa that will help keep him healthy, nourished, educated, and most importantly knowledgeable about our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! If you're interested in doing this, you can find out so much more at www.compassion.com.
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| Blog friends, meet our new little boy, Sabirou!! He's 6 and precious and I can't wait to find out more about him! |
2) The 2nd thing I've done recently that I think would be beneficial for a lot of people is creating a "Things That I've Done!" board on Pinterest. If you're like me, Pinterest is a black hole of time. "It is the site that never ends...it goes on and on my friends. Some people started playing it, not knowing what it was...and they'll continue playing it forever just because it is the site that never ends...it goes on and on my friends...." You get the point! The other day as I was pinning new ideas, I realized it was a worthless hobby to identify great ideas if I never DID any of them! So I quickly made a "Things I've Done!" board and in order to feel accomplished, I went back through my existing boards and moved everything over that I'd actually done into it. Again, if you're like me, the list was pitifully small. So I determined to pick a project in one of my existing boards and actually do it...and repeat...and repeat until my accomplishment board grew. I'm early on in this so don't go looking at my board to grade my progress :-) However, I wanted to bring purpose to the fun hobby of "Pinteresting"...I felt like this gave me a pick me up kick in the pants I had been needing. They are all great ideas and so fun and so creative but often spending time on Pinterest just frustrated because it got my creative juices flowing but then nothing actually came of it which made me feel overall inadequate and unaccomplished. So I wanted to change that!
Welp, that's all folks. Just a couple of things that have brought me joy and purpose in the past couple of weeks. Would love to hear your ideas! Stay at home moms or otherwise...we're all in this together and we all feel the same things! Keep your chin up, commit to something that is bigger than yourself, and I guarantee you it will make ya feel better!
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