I started doing a devotional with my mom and my Aunt Paula. It seems that me in my early 20's and them in their "older" years, still have trouble with finding our purpose in life. It's a funny thing about life - you can make plans, have an agenda, and set goals, which all greatly attribute to success but success and finding your purpose are not the same things. I think I have had a really hard time realizing this until I started working through the 40-day devotional. "The Purpose Driven Life" by Rick Warren is the study we are doing and I feel like I've already achieved a great sense of peace in my mind in just the few days I have been participating.
Already, I feel humbled. I have always believed that God is the Creator of all things and that all things are possible through faith in him. I believe that he created the world, that he created me, and that he created every living thing for a purpose. Including ME! I guess what really popped out in the book to me, thus far, is this analogy:
If an inventor came and handed you his new invention it would be of no value if you did not know how to work it, what it was, or what it's purpose is. The same thing is us as humans. God created us and if we want to know who we are, how to be, and what our purpose is.. then we need to ask God because he is our "user's manual" and "instructional packet". We're gadgets at the hand of God, and we need to seek him in order to seek ourselves.
I got to thinking about relationships after I read this. Friendships, romantic relationships, familial relationships, all of it. There's an old saying that says "a woman's heart should be so on fire for God that a man should have to seek God in order to love her heart." How wonderful is this in any of our relationships? I would not have the loving relationship with my mother, father, sister or brother-in-law if I did not have a relationship with the Lord. My dad is so disciplined by the will of God that in order to understand him and live a successful life that he has so greatly been an example of, I stay true to the Christian values and morals that he taught me over the past 22 years. Same goes for my mother. She is a God-fearing woman who has exemplified the kind of sacrifice and love that only a mother and a Savior could ever show. She is Christ-like in so many ways when it comes to love - the UNCONDITIONAL love - that she pours out into the lives of everyone around her. My sister, well, if you have read my blogs than you know how deep my adoration and admiration go for her. She's a wonderful human being who is compassionate in work, life, and leisure. She is one of those women whose on fire for Christ and the best relationship/friendship you can have is with someone like that. She challenges me to give my life over to God so that I can live a blessed life in so many ways. My sister and her husband are the prime example that life with God being a top priority is such a beautiful thing. It's not as dark and gloomy in their world because God is in control.
That is my challenge in life now. I'm humbling myself and admitting that for a while now, God has not been the one in control of my life. I've tried to decide my fate, chase down my destiny, and MAKE everything fall into the place that I want it to. I have ignored the fact that God is in control of my life, he knows my plan, and in order to discover myself as a person, I must turn to him because he knows me, my thoughts, my heart, my dreams, everything - he knows everything about me. The past, the present, and the future. Why would I not want to draw myself closer to the higher being that created me and all the wonderful things around me?
He created the ocean and the sandy banks, the mountains and their mist, my boxer pup and all the other precious creatures, the palm trees in my front yard in Florida, the loving family and amazing friends. All of the things that I love most in this world are made by the hands of God.
So, as so many philosophers say and I've come to realize, we really are just a blank canvas that God has made into a masterpiece. We have to love ourselves and love our God so that the masterpiece stays that way and doesn't turn in to some worthless, faded, old mess of a painting. To keep things beautiful, and to spread the beauty around the world, we must turn to God and discipline ourselves to live by HIS will and not our own!!
For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible... everything got started in Him and finds its purpose in Him. -Colossians 1:16
Peace & Love & Blessings from God
Bjj
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