Today at church Ernie talked about passion. He described passions as God-given gifts that are unique to individuals. They are given to us from God so we can use them for God. Each person's passion(s) is their primary way of impacting the world for the cause of Christ.
Ernie asked us to think about what our passions are and whether or not we are using them to show the world Jesus. Two passions came to my mind: writing and digging into the Word of God.
I discovered my love of the Bible shortly after my conversion at age 16. I surrendered to God in the summer of 1999, and my Christmas present to myself that year was a Bible. I accepted that Jesus is the one and only God because I saw how others were impacted for the better by him, and, ultimately, because I experienced firsthand that he could be trusted. As C.S. Lewis puts it, "I gave in and admitted that God was God." And upon admitting that, I found myself wanting to know everything about him. So much so that I decided to major in Biblical Studies and Theology. I could not think of a better way to spend my time than learning more about God and how to communicate those truths to others.
I have always been a writer. I was reading when I was 4 years old, loved books growing up, and started writing my own short stories somewhere around 8 years old. I moved to writing song lyrics/poetry during my I-hate-everyone-and-everything stage in my early teens. My first year of college I wrote a series of devotionals out of a need to think through the Bible while studying at a school that would rather have me throw the Bible out the window. I've also written in blog format for several years, sharing stories about my family, observations of life in general, and testimonies of what God is doing in my life.
I've felt for a couple of years that God wants to use my two passions in a big way, I've just never been clear on the details. And I certainly have a lot of obstacles preventing me from fleshing that out right now. For one thing, time is not a luxury I have. Raising two small children affords me about 30 minutes/day of solitude. There is a lot competing to fill up that half hour. (In fact, I was just interrupted by my 6 month old.) I can choose to meet with God, exercise, write, rest, read, watch TV, or, God forbid, clean when I finally get time to myself. But I can't do ALL of those things everyday. That being the case, I struggle finding the time to develop my passions and to actively pursue using them for God. I don't know what the solution is, but I'm guessing it doesn't involve putting my passions on the back burner until my children are older.
3 comments:
I KNOW there is a way to use your passions for the Lord... and I KNOW you'll find a way to make it work with all the time constraints too.
I'll start praying for that... for God to reveal a way.
Hey Kelly, Heather sent me your blog and asked me if I had any words of encouragement. Well, I can totally empathize and I only have one. Given, it is a little easier now cause she's older. It's basically time management for me.... Maybe you could wake thirty min. earlier for a quiet time before the kids get up or around your baby's mid morning nap have your qt while your oldest watches a movie or put her in her room to play and give her some alone time, if you don't want to wake earlier. And at their aftn nap time, you can sleep, write, read, and like two to three days a week exercise during that period. This is given your kids are on a good schedule. Thats how I've always made my life easier and with some discipline, got things done. The next baby, I will synchronize their nap routine, cause mommys need their time and the kids need alone play time as well. I atleast try and have some play time with Ava one to two times a day. The other time I'm cleaning doing stuff around the house and I try to involve her in this. I rarely clean house while she naps. That is my time. :) For me, it basically comes down to discipline and making time. I know it is more challenging with two, I don't deny that, but the only way you can get things done is to plan routines. I make a list of whats gonna be done days ahead and am going over it the night before in my head, so it GETS done. I'm a problem solver, so if you wanted to sit down with me and tell me your routine (we all fall into some pattern, whether we like that pattern or not) I could help you figure it out. It's all about making wise use of your time, which is more challenging with kids. But it can be done.
I do feel your frustration tho, and know I will be especially feeling it in the next year when we have another one! Lol. Hope that helps.
Thanks, Kristi! Definitely some good tips in there. Maybe I can make something work with a little more planning...
Post a Comment