Purpose vs Goals

The goals we set should help us to fulfill our purpose.  However, our goals are for us.  Our purpose is emotional, not logical and is not about us.  It is about others and mankind.  

As I was setting my goals for this year I reread some of my earlier blog posts, specifically where I was at in my thinking at the start of the previous years.  What I found amazing was that when I read My Heroes post, it was when I read about my kids that once again the tears flowed.

I wanted to make a difference so that when I leave this planet my legacy will be visible in the lives of my children and future generations of servant leaders.  My goal was to become the best Mom, wife and business women I could be.  I am a good Mom.  My 22 year marriage failed and I am winning as a business woman.  Throughout the success and failures of my life I have not loss track of my purpose.  I have not always waited for God's timing and instead charged full steam ahead on my own thoughts/plans and this did not bode well. 

Now I am learning to wait on the Lord, his timing is perfect. How do you do that? By valuing God’s will more than my own and trusting in His timing which is revealed through the peace that passes all understanding.  

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;

⁶ 

in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.(Proverbs 3:5)

God's timing involves our character development.  We don't always understand waiting once we have a vision or defined a set of goals but He is more interested in our character development than our comfort.  Therefore, we must seek to be able to live out the character qualities of Christ as described in Scripture: 

 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23)

These principles keep our actions within boundaries; honesty, integrity, the golden rule, helping others. I was put here to lead as many people as possible to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ by using the gifts and talents I've received from God for His glory.

Setting purpose driven goals requires having the end in sight.  What is your purpose?  Do your goals line up with the bigger picture?  Have your developed the principles necessary to achieve your ultimate purpose?  Your purpose is what keeps you alive and the sparkle in your eye.

We will find a vehicle that will be used to accomplish our purpose. The vehicle may be a job, business or cause where you volunteer.  Regardless of your vehicle it will involve people and this is where you make eternal deposits.  Your God given purpose will affect others.

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 
(Matthew 6:19-20)

Have you found the vehicle to accomplish your goals?  A purpose gives you meaning and you will get passionate and enthusiastic enough to complete your purpose once you find the vehicle to get there.  Passion is the multiplier of your efforts, if you do not have confidence in your vehicle you will not get passionate about driving it.

As this first week of the new year is underway I pray we are focusing on new goals and character development that lead to the fulfillment of our purpose here on earth.  

2013...the end of an era and the beginning of the next chapter

This is the year I put into practice all the wonderful knowledge my dear God has bestowed upon me. I've often thought (as Joyce Meyer puts it) that "we are equipped beyond our level of obedience". This has been true in my life.

As I look at the bookshelves full of wonderful materials, the google reader full of subscriptions to great blogs and the volumes of audios CDs I own....the question is does my life reflect these great concepts.  As I've entered a new relationship this past year I've become acutely aware of something my children taught me.  "Not everything is a lesson opportunity Mom" is something I heard them say regularly.

Through the amazing people and programs God has brought into my life I've come to know myself well.  I know the good, the bad and the ugly!  One of my gifts is teaching so each new lesson I learn I want to share with those I love. One of the best revelations for me in 2012 was that I can intercede through prayer for those people instead.  This is a vital part of caring for people.  I believe that when the 'student is ready, the teacher will appear' so rather than always sharing my new insights with people, not knowing if they are ready to hear, I'll equip myself and have the answers ready when they do ask.  Spreading seeds of hope via blogging and social media is a great way to expel these new thoughts as I own them.

I also know who's I am.  I was on a quest in 2012 to understand what a surrendered life looked like.  I found this to be one of the most difficult of all questions to answer.  How do we practically live out our faith in a world that is bent on self actualization?

Woe to those who go to great depths

    to hide their plans from the Lord,

who do their work in darkness and think,

    “Who sees us? Who will know?”

¹⁶ 

You turn things upside down,

    as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!

Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it,

    “You did not make me”?

Can the pot say to the potter,

    “You know nothing”? Isaiah 29:15-16

I have voluntarily put myself back on the Potter's wheel daily last year to try to understand how to incorporate God in every area of my life.  I know the messes I can make when I'm leading and truly want to become all that He intended me to be because His plan is so much better than anything I could come up with!

I started reading My Utmost for His Highest Devotional last year and enjoyed the challenges it presented.  Today's message sums it up best for me:

1. My Utmost for His Highest. “. . . my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed . . . .” We will all feel very much ashamed if we do not yield to Jesus the areas of our lives He has asked us to yield to Him. It’s as if Paul were saying, “My determined purpose is to be my utmost for His highest— my best for His glory.” To reach that level of determination is a matter of the will, not of debate or of reasoning. It is absolute and irrevocable surrender of the will at that point. An undue amount of thought and consideration for ourselves is what keeps us from making that decision, although we cover it up with the pretense that it is others we are considering. When we think seriously about what it will cost others if we obey the call of Jesus, we tell God He doesn’t know what our obedience will mean. Keep to the point— He does know. Shut out every other thought and keep yourself before God in this one thing only— my utmost for His highest. I am determined to be absolutely and entirely for Him and Him alone.
2. My Unstoppable Determination for His Holiness. “Whether it means life or death-it makes no difference!” (see Philippians 1:21). Paul was determined that nothing would stop him from doing exactly what God wanted. But before we choose to follow God’s will, a crisis must develop in our lives. This happens because we tend to be unresponsive to God’s gentler nudges. He brings us to the place where He asks us to be our utmost for Him and we begin to debate. He then providentially produces a crisis where we have to decide— for or against. That moment becomes a great crossroads in our lives. If a crisis has come to you on any front, surrender your will to Jesus absolutely and irrevocably.

The crisis is over, a 10 year journey of separation, divorce, going back to work full time from consulting part-time, multiple moves including major scaling down, launching a new business, raising 5 teenagers and encouraging them to pursue God's will for their lives, welcoming three new son-in-laws and a grand baby into the family!  I'm exhausted just writing that list :-)!

Most of all God has been faithfully providing for and guiding me and my family each step of the way.  I am so extremely excited about this new year as I walk out the knowledge God has given me and allow Him to develop the discipline I need to carry my responsibilities to fruition.  Prayerfully, I will intercede for those I love and ask for the wisdom necessary to lead where He places me.

This says it all as 2011 winds down and I prepare for a New Year full of adventure, trials and overcoming!

The Paradoxical Commandments

By Michael Josephson of Character Counts (607.2)

In 1968, when Kent M. Keith was a 19-year-old sophomore at Harvard, he wrote the Paradoxical Commandments as part of a booklet for student leaders. He describes the Commandments as guidelines for finding personal meaning in the face of adversity:

* People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered. Love them anyway.
* If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Do good anyway.
* If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.
* The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
* Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway.
* The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds. Think big anyway.
* People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs. Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
* What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.
* People need help but may attack you if you help them. Help people anyway.
* Give the world the best you have and you may get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.

The essence of these Commandments is that each of us must choose to do what we think we should do, even when we think we have good reasons not to. They remind us that we are capable of rising above common practices that demean our nature and our culture.

We can rationalize distorting the Golden Rule as "Do unto others as they have done onto you" or "Do onto others before they do onto you" but, in the terminology of the '60s, we then become part of the problem rather than the solution.

This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.

(c) 2009 Josephson Institute of Ethics; reprinted with permission. Michael Josephson, one of the nation's leading ethicists, is the founder of the Josephson Institute of Ethics and the premier youth character education program, CHARACTER COUNTS! For further information visit www.charactercounts.org.