Latest / Arise Women of God / Does Life Require a Purpose and a Goal?
Transcript
- 0:00Have you ever looked at your life and wondered if you're just meant to exist or if there's something deeper calling you forward?
- 0:07We often get caught in the trap of thinking that goals are just for overachievers.
- 0:12But for a Christian woman, having a direction isn't a personality trait.
- 0:18It's a divine blessing.
- 0:20Today we are answering the fundamental question, does life require a person, purpose and a goal?
- 0:27And by the end of today's episode, you'll understand how the drive to grow is actually a spiritual inheritance from God.
- 0:35And we're going to help you solve the pain of aimless existence by showing you how a single purposeful step can turn your frustration into fire.
- 0:46We're moving from just being to intentionally becoming.
- 0:51Stay tuned.
- 0:52Ordinary women Extraordinary faith When God calls, we say yes.
- 0:59The Arise Women of God Podcast hello, and welcome to another episode of the Arise Women of God Podcast.
- 1:07I'm your host, Tamara K.
- 1:08Anderson, and joining me today is Amanda Powell from our Women warriors of Light Advisory Board, and she is also an expert in goal setting.
- 1:17And we are looking today at the very DNA of our human experience.
- 1:23First, we're going to discuss why the desire to move forward is divinely inherent in each one of us.
- 1:30Second, we're going to talk about the frustration of the pause, why sitting still is one of the hardest things for our spirit to do.
- 1:38Third, we're going to explore the parent lens of growth and why God cheers for your progress like a mother will watching her child learn to walk.
- 1:49And finally, we'll look at why surviving is sometimes a valid purpose and how to know when it's time to move from survival to working towards a mission.
- 2:00But first, Amanda is going to help us dive into looking at this divinely inherent drive.
- 2:06Why do we do it?
- 2:08Can't we just live life without it?
- 2:10I don't know.
- 2:10That's the question I feel like is kind of undertoning this.
- 2:13Thoughts?
- 2:14Yeah, let's think about that for a minute.
- 2:16I would love to just go there.
- 2:17Could we live life without it?
- 2:19I don't think I could.
- 2:20I am too much of a doer.
- 2:22I have a little bit of ADHD in me.
- 2:24And so the thought of sitting still and doing nothing would probably drive me absolutely batty.
- 2:30So I couldn't do it.
- 2:32I don't know if any of us could do it.
- 2:35Like, that's why I asked you that.
- 2:36Because even my young, young adult children, right, they have always had a goal.
- 2:41Mom, I'm going to hit the ball over the fence.
- 2:43I'm going to have my first home run hit, right?
- 2:46Oh, I'm going to run and I'm going to run so fast, I'm going to run this mile in four minutes, right?
- 2:51Like, so at the age of little, like even my grandson, I'm looking at my grandson, who's five and even he has goals.
- 3:00I'm going to come in first place when I play this game with my dad, right?
- 3:05So I'm kind of looking at that and I think, is it because it's divinely inherent in us?
- 3:11I mean, even our father has a goal, right?
- 3:13To bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.
- 3:17Maybe it's something that is within us and you remove the goal, right?
- 3:22You remove us from being goal seekers and goal doers and goal achievers to not having goals.
- 3:28Then what are we doing?
- 3:30So I almost feel like there is a purpose to having goals.
- 3:34It's something inside of us that makes us want to become something better.
- 3:39You don't become without a goal, we literally cannot help but reach for more because we are patterned after a God who is constantly creating and progressing.
- 3:50But because the drive is so strong, when we can't move forward, it sometimes feels like we're stuck in a waiting room.
- 3:57And you know how frustrating that feels?
- 4:00Feels like our soul is kind of being pinched.
- 4:02That limbo is actually proof that you are made for movement.
- 4:07And I, I look back on the times in my life where we.
- 4:11We all have times in life when it's like we're on pause and we're in limbo and we're waiting for something to happen so that we can take that next step.
- 4:20And I will say those are some of the most frustrating points in my life.
- 4:24I look back and I just, I'm like on, hurry up already.
- 4:30It's like holding still, even metaphysically, is so hard.
- 4:37It's so hard.
- 4:39So I think the purpose of setting goals is growth.
- 4:44Our growth.
- 4:44Whether it's spiritually, physically, emotionally, whether it's financially.
- 4:49I mean, there are so many different areas in which you can set goals.
- 4:53So the purpose of goals is growth.
- 4:55It's experience, it's knowledge.
- 4:57It's becoming better than we are right at this point in our lives, right?
- 5:05Growth is the purpose.
- 5:07But remember that God doesn't expect you to be done yet.
- 5:11He looks at you through the parent lens.
- 5:14Just like you aren't disappointed when a toddler stumbles while learning to walk.
- 5:20God isn't disappointed in your messy middle.
- 5:23He is honored by, by your effort and excited for your growth.
- 5:28And I think as a parent, I can See, just little snippets of that in myself.
- 5:35God talks so beautifully in the New Testament about if we as parents know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more does he know how to give good gifts to his children?
- 5:44And so I have to kind of put that lens on goals as well.
- 5:48Do I want my kids to grow and progress?
- 5:50Absolutely.
- 5:52And if I, in my imperfect parenting practices, do my best to give my children good gifts, opportunities to grow, helping them, coaching them through struggles that they have, doesn't God want the same thing for me?
- 6:10Doesn't he want me to grow in my confidence?
- 6:12Doesn't he want me to grow in my capacity?
- 6:16Life requires a goal, because without one, we stop growing, we stop becoming.
- 6:22However, sometimes life is so hard that our goal is simply to survive.
- 6:28I've been in seasons of my life where my only goal was making sure my kids and I made it to bedtime.
- 6:35We need to give ourselves permission, let our purpose shift as our lives shift.
- 6:42And I'm going to also pause and say, just because you have one purpose at one point of life doesn't mean you can't change to something else.
- 6:50Right?
- 6:50Right.
- 6:51Because I think of, like a young Tamra.
- 6:54For a while, my purpose was I'm going to graduate from high school.
- 6:57You know what I mean?
- 6:58And then it was like, oh, I'm going to graduate from college.
- 7:02And then it was, I was got married and I had kids.
- 7:05And my purpose, honestly, especially with four littles and two of them on the autism spectrum for a while, my purpose was I'm going to survive.
- 7:15Yes.
- 7:17And I'm going to survive, and my kids are going to survive, and we're going to make it through them.
- 7:23Growing up and all this stuff, it was seriously, it was survival.
- 7:28Just barely scraping through every single day.
- 7:32And now that they're all adults, that purpose has changed again.
- 7:36And so I think purpose can change throughout life.
- 7:40And we are growing throughout life.
- 7:42So it's okay for a purpose to change.
- 7:44You don't have to have it set in stone and, oh, that's never, ever, ever going to change.
- 7:49Pause and think.
- 7:50Have you changed in the last 10 years?
- 7:53Yeah, I sure have.
- 7:54You know what I mean?
- 7:55And so it's logical that if you have changed in the last 10 years, then your purpose has changed who you are.
- 8:02The goals that you have in front of you are going to change.
- 8:05Right?
- 8:05Right.
- 8:07So, my friends, does life require a purpose and a goal?
- 8:11Yes.
- 8:12Because your soul was designed for the stretch, whether you're in a season of survival or a season of massive growth.
- 8:20Progressing toward a Divine Mission Having the next Right stick step inspired by God is what keeps your light burning and your motivation moving you forward.
- 8:31If you feel like you've lost your direction or you're ready to reignite your divine drive, go check out our Free A Guide to Goal Setting for Christian Women.
- 8:40It features the sacred brainstorm to help you distinguish between the shoulds of the world and the purposes God has placed on your heart.
- 8:51And if you need a community of women to help you through the limbo phase, join our Women warriors of Light Accountability Group.
- 8:57We will help you find your fire again.
- 9:00The links for both are in the notes below.
- 9:03Find one thing you can do today to move you forward, and it can even be something small and until next time, may you arise.
- 9:10Do it God's way.
- 9:12God Strong.