Purpose

Sometimes I have found about myself is that I have a lot of vision. Sometimes it comes across to others perhaps as silly ideas or an indecisivenes, and in some ways they might be right. Sometimes the things I have dreamed of doing or being have stemmed from pride in wanting to accomplish something that is exciting. There is a place for vision, but along with vision it is wise to make sure you have an over-arching purpose in mind. Our general purpose in all we do should be to glorify God, so of course vision that stems from a pride in accomplishing something would not glorify Him. If you find that you have a prideful purpose in mind this does not mean that you should not consider doing the action. It means that you need to adjust your purpose to glorify God. You would think as I have gotten older and now have a family that some of that vision would go away, and in many ways it has, but in some ways God is making many of those visionary ideas apply to my life as it is. I have always loved the medical field and research. Although it was not how I necessarily wanted it, He has dropped this in my lap by giving me 2 miracles who needed medical attention at birth. With Trenton now it will likely be difficult, but thankfully the Lord already gave me that desire to work in medicine even though I have never been able to do it professionally. Art is another area that has been an area of vision for me, but I have often put it on the back-burner after times of really getting into it. Having a child in the hospital has been a good time to get out my sketch pad and pen and start using my God-given ability. When we found out that Trenton may not be able to see it convicted me of the need for me to use this gift that I've been given with the use of my eyes. I admit there is a lot of pride that goes into being an artist. That does not mean I should not do it though. It just means I need to let the Lord adjust my purpose to glorify Him in it. Writing a book has always been a desire. I think some of the desire stems from a romanticized idea of writers. I have always thought that being able to work from home as a writer would be fun and you could make money in the process. My desire with this has not always had the right focus, but once again there is nothing wrong with vision as long as the purpose is in the right place. I did write a book at one point that I thought would help others. It was not published, but I hope it was an encouragment to those who read it. When I wrote it, I was dating someone who told me that maybe I needed to wait to write until I had more life-experiences. At the time, this hurt my pride, but today I see that although there was a place for what I wrote at that time, I cannot imagine all of the things ahead of me in my future that God will use to help others that He may perhaps allow me to write about. There are other areas of vision that I still do not know why I have the desire, but in time perhaps God will allow my husband and I to see. Right now my responsibility is to my family. I have 2 little boys who need me to do as Proverbs 22:6 says to train my children in the way they should go and they will not move away from it. I had always thought this was a guarantee that your children would turn out godly if that is how you trained them. It confused me some because so many Christian parents have kids that do not necessarily follow the way they were brought up. In college I learned that it could actually be talking about helping children have direction and purpose in what they will do with their life. With a primary focus to glorify God, it is okay for parents to see gifts that God has given their children and encourage them in it. It could be musical talent, artistic talent, an outgoing spirit, an abiltity to work well with their hands, the ability to encourage, or help the hurting, etc. So many of these translate into careers that can be used to glorify God. As parents, sometimes we will be able to see what our children cannot. It is important to not have goals for our children that are what we desire for them, rather our goals for them should be to encourage them to glorify God in an area where there is ability that God has given. We sometimes have the incorrect notion that "full-time ministry" as a pastor or missionary are superior to other careers. It is important to teach our children that they are in "full-time ministry" every day of their life no matter what their career as long as their purpose is to glorify God in all they do.