For Showing Me Purpose

Don't you love it when God gives you the words you needed to hear just at the time you need to hear them?  On this particular day, the words I read spoke to me in a reassuring, uplifting way when my physical strength was not where I wanted it to be.

It had been a packed weekend to say the least.  I found myself stumbling about in my robe on a Sunday morning, feeling as if I could not get going. In my family, we just don't miss church unless you are sick, working, or a valid reason.  Not that I have to go by a strict rule, but I do miss church if I miss church.  Not go to church because I am too tired?  That seemed like a lousy excuse...

There were things that had to be squeezed in my calendar, and this was the weekend that worked out for two important must-dos.  We had already had to cancel an earlier ATV Safety Rider Course due to bad weather months before.  Then, I had the photo shoot I knew I had to squeeze in at Photogenic with Clay Spann (did not want to miss this opportunity), and open dates on both our calendars were limited. 

So, I keep my booked date to head to North Mississippi to speak at an elementary school on a Thursday.  It was great to work with a local Pilot International member/leader, and teen Anchor members while speaking to the kids during the Safety Week they had planned.

The following morning, I head out bright and early, with my good friend and hair stylist, Heather, to Dothan, Alabama for the much anticipated photo shoot.  Heather and I both had an amazing time watching Clay do his make up magic, and that made the more than twelve...yes, 12 hours traveling that day worth it.

After getting in bed sometime after 2:30, I am up later the next morning getting ready for the 4-H ATV Safety Rider Course.  I am happy that it worked out for a committed 4-H mom and extended family to take part in the hands-on riding course!  It is a great refresher course for me as well, and I knew it would be fun. 

Then, as I sit in my robe on Sunday morning, I resign to stay home, read my Bible, and go back to bed while my husband and our kids to church.  I open my Women's Devotional Bible, still exhausted, and not knowing what I am going to read.  It opens up to the book of Isaiah and a devotional titled "For Showing Me Purpose".    It begins....
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"I AM grateful, God, that I have finally come to realize your purpose for me.
Just when or how this came about I can't say....Maybe because life is so filled with defeat and heartbreak, we find ourselves turning to you, yielding ourselves to your will, fighting less furiously for selfish, often empty goals. And when this happens we find that you have turned our sufferings and our failures into little stepping-stones.

Looking back, we see them ...and looking about, we see there are results. There are signals, heartening little affirmations, unexpected proofs.

However humble our circumstances or undramatic our talents, our true purpose has been revealed. We were meant to be this person at this time and place. Not only for ourselves, but for you and other people- we were meant to make this particular contribution to the world.

And so we must do it well. Do it with faith and patience, with all our strength and passion. And in so doing discover who we really are."

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From the book of Isaiah:
...I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go. Isaiah 48:17

I pray this is an encouragement for you, and a reminder to you of your purpose at this time in your life. Whether a lifetime of teaching children, or a short time of being a neighbor to someone who needs a friend.  No matter what it is, do it with faith and patience, with all your strength and passion.

Blessings,
Traci

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