Latest / The Entrepreneur's Wife: Finding Purpose as the Helper of a Small Business Owner in a Feminist Obsessed World / How to Find Your Purpose in Life (Even When You Feel Lost)

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How to Find Your Purpose in Life (Even When You Feel Lost) · The Entrepreneur's Wife: Finding Purpose as the Helper of a Small Business Owner in a Feminist Obsessed World

• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Hey guys, welcome to the Entrepreneur's Wife podcast.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Carly Rains.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: If you're new here, this is where we talk about finding purpose as the helpers to our small business owners in this feminist obsessed world.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: And today we are talking about purpose.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: And this is a huge topic, I feel like, especially with the younger generation, trying to figure out what has God called us to do.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what job should I take.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: If you're confused about that, we are going to dive into a lot of conversation between that today.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm honestly gonna use a lot of scripture and personal testimony about how the Lord just has shown me how he reveals his purpose and what I truly think when we talk about godly purpose, like what this means for us as humans, and like what God intended when we go back to the Garden of Eden.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm really excited to dive into this topic.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: This is the framework of this podcast.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like this is literally called the Entrepreneur's Wife podcast, and our mission is finding purpose as the helper to our small business owners.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm super excited to dive into this.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: What kind of brought this on was, and I'm sorry if you hear my baby, she's right next to me, um, fighting, falling asleep.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: But what really like brought this on was I was um I was reading Proverbs.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: I've I've been reading a Proverbs recently, and so I try to read like a Proverbs a day or half of Proverbs, it just depends on my kids and like when I actually sit down and read it.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: And last week I read Proverbs 20, and in Proverbs 20, there's a verse that says, it's verse 5, it says, The purpose in a man's heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to really dissect this verse because when I read it, I mean, I don't know about y'all, but there have been moments where scripture just literally like jumps out on the page, or it's I I feel like God is just like, hey, pay attention to this word or this verse or this phrase or what's going on here.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: And if we don't sit and meditate on it, we can miss what God's trying to show us.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so this was a verse that really popped out.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: I just felt like God was like, pay attention to this verse, and the more I sat on it, just the more I just got revelation for it.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope that this is gonna be helpful for you because for a long time, especially when I got married to a guy who was very vision-focused, who knew his purpose, who is very clear and direct, I felt very lost in my own purpose and like what God intended for me in my life.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: And this verse just speaks so much to that.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to start by saying that Proverbs is an illustration between a foolish man and a wise man, and a foolish woman or the woman of folly and the woman of wisdom.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: And if you read, it constantly is comparing and going back and forth between these two humans, these the two women and the two men.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: And it's very important to pay attention to that because I think a lot of times we assume that we're one or the other, or we assume that we're in the middle.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like sometimes I'm wise, sometimes I'm foolish.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: And even though that's true, I want to clarify that you're either being foolish or you're either being wise.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like when we read Proverbs, there's there's not a lot of gray areas.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to encourage you that a that what this verse is saying is that a man of understanding, a wise man, is going to sit on his purpose.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: He's gonna search it out, he's not gonna quit early, and he's not going to expect God to immediately give it to him.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and if God doesn't give it to him, then he doesn't go on his own way to find it.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so when we start, it says the purpose in a man's heart is like deep water.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I just want to take this illustration for a minute.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a very visual person.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, like when I write stories and stuff, I just love illustrations.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so whenever I read that, I really thought of the ocean.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: And if you think about the ocean for a minute, the ocean is very vast compared to us small humans.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's huge, it's beautiful, it it's it's deep, right?
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like it goes on for who knows how long.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it's it's unknown and it's kind of scary, right?
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like there's both positives and I don't want to say negatives, but it's just so big.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's like deep water for us humans.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: And so when I read this, I immediately thought of the ocean.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: And it says, but a man of understanding will draw it out.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: He's drawing out his purpose.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so to me, I got this illustration of like a well or like a fisherman, right?
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna cast your net, you're gonna cast your bucket, and he's he's drawing it out, which means it's taking time, he's having to over time, you know, take water out, take the fish out.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I just got this illustration of it's not immediate, and that's okay.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so if you're sitting here and you're like, you know, I'm really confused about my purpose, I don't know what it is.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the biggest thing is what I've found is that when I have changes in my seasons, when seasons change in my life, that's when my identity and my purpose are like put to the test.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's like, well, do you really put your identity in Christ?
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because if this is taken away, for instance, college athletics, you are a college athlete.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, you graduated, you're no longer a college athlete.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: So if you put your purpose in college athletics and then now it's gone, well, now who are you?
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Now what is your purpose?
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: You know?
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if you had an injury or if you had a job change or, you know, what whatever it is, like I think we can find ourselves so tempted to put ourselves in worldly things that God uses as blessings in our life.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: But if we're not careful, we can try to find our purpose in it.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm a mom, I'm a wife, right?
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: These are titles, these are positions that I carry.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: And if I'm not careful, I can really start putting my identity and my purpose of, oh, well, I'm a mom.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: And that that's just that's my whole purpose, right?
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: And what we're gonna get into today is that purpose actually isn't necessarily the job that you have or like what you do.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: And we I hope you see this verse time and time again as I explain this.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: So um the first thing I want to say is that purpose isn't something we do.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, purpose, what you're called to do, is someone we become, and that someone is Christ.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I I truly believe God has revealed this to me um over the years.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I thought, okay, my purpose is this job, or my purpose is to be an evangelist or a pastor or whatever, right?
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like these positions.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like God might call you to do those things, but God is not going to call you to something that can be taken away.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like your purpose isn't something that can be taken away.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: So if it's something that can be taken away, it's not your purpose.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: It might be an assignment and it might be a task that God has called you to do.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: But essentially, purpose isn't what we do, it's it's someone, and this is a capital S, it's someone we become.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: And it's really God calls us to love Him, become like Christ, and to love others.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: I remember um I was I had graduated college, I was in grad school, and up until this point, you know, I had only made like a few decisions.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: I pretty much made what college I went to and I what major I'd picked.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I knew I had made those decisions right.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: I knew I'd made the right decisions.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: So now I'm in grad school.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: I know God's called me to go to grad school, and I take a job that honestly I didn't pray about before I took the job.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: So then I'm sitting in the job, and I left a job that I had loved.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: But this new job was more pay and it had better benefits.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so I assumed that's what I was supposed to do.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: Well, when I got in the job, I realized, oh my gosh, this is not what I thought it was gonna be.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: Honestly, it did not have a lot of my talents and like gifts, and I just wasn't using what I was like passionate about.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: And anyways, it was just I did not enjoy the job.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think the job was for me, to be honest.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think I was very good at the job, to be honest.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: But during that time, I remember thinking, did I make a wrong decision?
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember thinking, oh my gosh, have I like ruined my purpose, if you will.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like I have fallen off the path, and I just remember that was a very pivotal moment because I realized even if I made a wrong decision, even if I wasn't supposed to take the job and I took the job, God still uses our mistakes and our wrong decisions.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: He can still turn them around for his glory.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I like today, this morning, we were in our meeting, and our one of our team members used the verse Jeremiah 29, 11.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: And if you don't know the context of the scripture, literally, guys, this verse is being prophesied to a people who made a wrong decision.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: And God is saying, For I still know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like I still know the purpose I have for you.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: And they had made a wrong turn, they had made a wrong decision and they were reaping consequences of a wrong decision.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: Now they still had to like reap those consequences, but God was saying your purpose isn't done because you made a wrong decision.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so I want you to realize that, like, for me, if I had taken the wrong decision and taken the job and I wasn't supposed to, God made me realize that He still has a plan for us and that honestly, He used those moments to really show me that even when we make mistakes, even when we make the wrong decision, the point in our life isn't like, should I do this, should I do this, should I do this?
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: The point in our life is how am I treating people and and how am I growing closer to God?
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: And yes, God's gonna want you to make certain decisions.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: But what I'm realizing as humans is humans are gonna cut you wrong, like humans are gonna talk negative about you, they might do something against you, and you can't control other people.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: So if so, if a human makes a decision against you, I mean, think about the story of Joseph, right?
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Think about the story of Joseph.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: Joseph, his brothers sell him into slavery.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: That sucks.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's not a very great purpose, right?
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: But he has this dream of this great purpose that God's gonna call him to.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: Well, now because of his brothers, he's sold into slavery.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then he is, you know, the assistant to Potiphar's house, and the woman tries to sleep with him, and then he gets thrown in jail, and he gets falsely accused of a crime he didn't do.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so all these people are making these decisions, and it's it's negatively affecting his life.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: And still, God had a purpose for Joseph, and those bad decisions, those wrong decisions did not sway Joseph off the path.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like God's still such a big God that He can fulfill Joseph's purpose.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so I want to encourage you that whether you make the mistake, you make the wrong decision, or somebody else makes a poor decision that affects you, that's not gonna affect your purpose.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because at the end of the day, like Jeremiah 29, 11 says, after 70 years, God's gonna return you to the land of milk and honey.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: I I encourage you to go read the book of Jeremiah, it's it's an amazing book.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: So um, purpose isn't something we do, it's who we become.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: I want to go back to, I feel like I constantly refer to Joseph, but it's just like the best example because this is a man who went through crap and he his character was built.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so I want to encourage you that if you're sitting here and you're like, I don't know my purpose, like I don't know.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: Am I making the right decision?
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: Am I not making the right decision?
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: Am I doing what I'm supposed to do?
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: Am I not?
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what I want to do, I don't know what job I want to have, I don't know what my mission is in life, like I have no idea.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to focus more on, well, who's my character?
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like, how do I love others?
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: And where is my relationship with God?
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: Am I growing closer to the Lord?
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: Am I developing a more Christ-like mentality, a more Christ-like character?
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: And how do I treat other people?
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because I promise you, if you focus on who you're becoming and you focus on the Lord and your relationship with the Lord, He's going to show you your purpose because that is your purpose, and he's gonna direct you in the right steps.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: So that is what making that wrong decision for that job taught me of like, yeah, this is a sucky moment, and you probably shouldn't have taken that job promotion.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what are you gonna do about it?
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: Well, now I'm gonna focus on having joy in moments that I don't enjoy, for instance, and I'm gonna focus on how I can love these people and what I can learn, and God can use it for good.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's what I want to encourage you with is God can use your mistakes and the mistakes that other people have made against you for good.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: And Joseph is a great example because he still fulfilled the promise, even though he was put in crappy um situations.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the first thing.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, the second thing is is um I do not want this blanket.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, are you laughing now?
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: Huh?
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: Are you laughing now?
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: This is gonna be an interesting podcast to say the least.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: But you know what?
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: This is mom life.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, okay, so the second one is God assigns us tasks based on our unique personalities.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: Our purpose is to become like Christ and love others.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: So this is pretty much what I've learned.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I stand firm on this, okay?
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: We all as humans, we all have the same purpose to love others and to love God.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's our purpose, okay?
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: That's our purpose.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then out of our purpose, God gives us assignments and tasks and positions based on the gifts and the qualities and the unique personalities that we have.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I I don't think we should be asking, what is my purpose?
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: I think we should be asking, okay, God, in this season, because this is where I got it all wrong, guys.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: When I was in um youth group, when I was in middle school and high school, I'm on that borderline of millennials versus Gen Z.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: I was born in 1999.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: So, like some people thought I was millennial, some people think I'm Gen Z.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so we get both.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: So when I was in youth group, a big question was what's your identity and what's your purpose?
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought from those two questions, I thought, okay, God has called me to one thing.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm called to be a pastor for my entire life.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: That is my one thing I'm called to do.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: Or I'm called to work as a creative for my entire life, and that's my one thing I'm supposed to do.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: Or I'm called to write books my entire life, and that's the one thing.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I've just realized, like, I'm only 27, but I've just realized that's not true.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like Ecclesiastes 3 is a great example because literally he says there's a time and a season for every activity under heaven, and there's a time for this, and there's a time for this, and there's a time for this.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so honestly, I don't like maybe some people are called to one thing, and that's what they do their entire life.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: But for most people, I honestly, if we're really following the Lord and we're really being obedient, being faithful, being sensitive to the Holy Spirit, taking the steps, surrendering our life, you know, being spirit-led, I don't think we're gonna do one thing our entire life.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: I think we will have seasons of positions and jobs and just duties that we're called to do, like motherhood.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like I'm gonna be raising them for 18 years.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I'm still a mom after that, but they're only living at home for like so many years, right?
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that, you know, God's gonna assign things in seasons.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's important to have that perspective because we can get ourselves so caught up in what's my one thing I'm supposed to do?
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what's my one purpose?
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: And our mission statement is finding purpose as the helper to our small business owners.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to go back to the Garden of Eden because for us it's a unique position because we are literally doing what the Garden of Eden did.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: If you think about it, right?
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: God created Adam, He gave Adam a vision.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, you're gonna you're gonna take care of this garden, you're gonna take dominion over it, you're gonna multiply, right?
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: And then he said, I'm gonna give you a helper.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so he gave him Eve, and then he said, Be fruitful and multiply.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I, whether you like work in your husband's business or not, that's an assignment that you're given in this season.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I am I am given this assignment, whether I work for Texas Atlaw or not, I'm given this assignment to help Briston with Texas outlaw.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: He's taking dominion of this garden of trail running and of this garden of running.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: And my job is to help him in whatever way that he needs.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: And he like God gave him the vision.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the biggest thing in our culture, you know, this is why it ended the mission statement with feminist obsessed world, because people look at that, oh, you're a helper, oh you're you're you're less than, like your value is less than if you're a helper.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the biggest thing, is because if our purpose is in positions, is in certain jobs, then we will look at the helper, or we will look at an assistant, or we will look at certain jobs as, oh, these are superior, like if you're the boss, you're superior, and if you're the employee or the secretary or the assistant, you're inferior, right?
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: We will see the value of them like this, because our culture sees value with a paycheck, and CEOs get paid more than um assistants and secretaries.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: But from God's perspective, if we apply purpose to loving others and loving God, then our value, no matter what position we hold, our value doesn't change.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's the biggest thing is I can be a helper, and this is so hard.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like I'm an achiever, so this is hard for me, okay?
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: But my value is not less than because I don't bring in finances to our marriage.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because if if it were flipped and we were to look at how much home activities I do, how much I take care of the kids, how much I do stuff like that, uh person would be like one or two, and I'd be 10.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then if you look at, you know, bringing in money and stuff, it's flipped.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: So your value can't be on like your value cannot be based on what you do.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because you're never going to it's just not it's just not proper.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um honey, honey, I'm making all sorts of noises, and it's so hard for me to concentrate when you're making all sorts of noises.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: So God assigns your tasks based on your unique personalities, okay?
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, purpose is universal, our assignments are individual.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: I I want to read you this.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um this is like a very all over the place podcast, but it's okay.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think sometimes we read stories in the Bible, like Joseph, Jesus, the disciples, Esther, and assume that they knew from a young age the purpose and calling God had on their lives.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: But I think they were just like us, figuring it out along the way, trusting God with every decision and seeing the big picture in hindsight.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: I think about the story of Esther.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think when Esther was a young girl, she necessarily knew that she was eventually going to be queen.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: I think God put assignments and positions in her life to equip her for that position.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: Just like I think right now in our country, there are young leaders who eventually are going to go and run for being president or run for Congress or run for, you know, hey, hey, you're fine, you're fine.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: But I think that I don't think that they knew.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think Joseph knew.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I don't think Joseph knew his purpose necessarily, like, like that he was gonna be second in command in Egypt and do all that.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: I think he just saw, okay, God's gonna do something in my life.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: What Paul says, we're we're looking in a mirror dimly.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like we don't he talks about this in First Corinthians with the gift of prophecy, because that's what that's what Joseph had.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: He had a prophetic vision.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says when you have this prophetic vision, you you don't see it all.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: You only see partly.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I think sometimes when we're reading these stories, we just assume, oh, they just knew their purpose.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: Oh.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: they just they just knew like what God's calling them to do and my encouragement for you is anyways guys so my point in all of this is I'll just cover you up like that my point in all of this is that you have to draw out uh your purpose you have to it's it's a daily surrender every day waking up asking the Lord am I where you want me to be am I doing what you want me to do like that's just that's how life goes and as humans I think it's so tempting for us to just have control to know the big picture to know the end result and that's just not realistic in the Christian walk and so you know my encouragement is like he draws it out so you know if you think about God's purpose for your life is like the ocean and there's gonna be times where you cast your net of prayer and you're asking the Lord Lord what do you have next for me like I I need my next thing right and then he gives you that next assignment but he doesn't give you the whole ocean of fish because if he gave you the whole ocean of fish your butt would sink and you couldn't handle it.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's just my encouragement for you um I hope that this was helpful and not a chaotic episode it probably was a little bit chaotic but just over I I will end with this I married a husband who was very clear and knew what God wanted him to do.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like he he knew he wanted to be an evangelist he knew he loved evangelism he knew like entrepreneurship he wanted to be an entrepreneur and for me it was very hard because I was sitting there like well I know I want to write books and I know I want to spread the good news and be a Christian and be a light but I didn't a lot of my passions honestly guys came from trial and error like graphic design.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like I remember entering college and I thought I wanted to be like a communications major and I took one graphic design class and I fell in love with it.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then I remember praying about like should I change my major like should I change this thing and that was the right decision.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like it was so much fun.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: But it took me taking a class for me to realize like oh this is something that I enjoy and this is this is a gift that the Lord has given me and then you know college athletics like running like endurance running I had to try that oh I I actually enjoy that you know philanthropy I that's what I got my um master's program was all about philanthropy I had to do Vista AmeriCorps Vista and and I didn't even know I was passionate about personal finance until I started developing a financial literacy program.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then I was like oh I actually enjoy this and doing this stuff writing books like so you know I just want to encourage you to try stuff like don't be afraid of you know don't sit there and say you know what is my purpose what is my purpose and never try anything.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know my encouragement is try try a job if you don't like it okay great clearly God's not called you there.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: Try something else you know um there's a poem called try try again and it's by a Christian and he's saying he's saying don't stop trying like when something fails or when something doesn't work out like keep trying this is like a man of understanding draws it out.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like he continually seeks it and it's deep water and it's like a well and he's going to continually put that bucket down in the well and draw the water out and that that's our purpose.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so your purpose is something that you continually seek.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's something that God continually reveals to you through you know assignments how we treat other people positions that we have and so I just want to encourage you to not be so you know bogged down on I don't know what my purpose is um you know I know we think before we do but sometimes we just need to do and then we need to evaluate oh did I enjoy that you know was that life giving did that include my passions and my gifts and that's an easy way to figure out like probably what God's called you to do just sit down and write down what am I good at?
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: What do I enjoy?
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know what's a passion and a gift of mine okay write then and there.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: Okay now try stuff in that those areas and see you know if something clicks and I just think you know being sensitive to the Lord asking the Lord you know through prayer to continually be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and reveal his will to you is just that creates peace and that's a great way to know like am I doing you know what I'm supposed to be doing in the right season and things like that.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: The last thing that I I want to say is when you're seeking out your purpose we really have to be careful when we're listening to outside voices because like for instance sometimes I feel super cringe doing this podcast because it's awkward and I don't have that many listeners.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: I have like maybe a hundred and you know that's not a lot compared to other podcasts.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: And but I sit here and I'm like you know what like this is a testing season.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like God is refining me through this and I want to be faithful even in these small seasons.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so I if I feel like God called me to do this I need to be obedient and doing it and I enjoy doing it.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: That's the thing is is I personally enjoy doing this but I will hear outside voices oh everybody's got a podcast and everybody's trying to you know blah blah blah blah and and stuff like that and it's like okay yes but it's like if God has called me to do this and to help others and you know use this as an outlet to be a light then I want to be faithful in that and that's the that's the biggest thing that I would encourage you with is your purpose is going to align with spreading the gospel and being a light.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so as long as it aligns with that you know God God's got the green light like he's telling you yeah go for it you know um and don't listen to outside voices.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure to to really you know caution your ears on who you get advice from especially when it comes to your purpose um a lot of people will answer with I want to make the most money and they're so money driven and the scary thing about that is you might hate your job but you're focused on she's she's teething but you're focused on money and it's it's the wrong motive and it it's probably not going to make you happy and you're probably not going to have joy.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: And um you know people can discourage you people can get jealous people people cannot see the vision that God has for your life that maybe you do see.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know think about Joseph's brothers they got jealous think about Cain and Abel right Cain literally kills his brother and so really I would encourage you to drown out drown out the voices that aren't inspiring you they're not encouraging you um tune them out.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: They're not gonna be helpful um you need to listen to the word of God you need to listen to people who encourage you who believe in you and who even if you fail even if you try something and it doesn't work out you need to listen to people who are gonna say you know what get back up and try again like let's do this.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I hope that this was an encouraging podcast.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like it was okay audience.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: But you know what this is right now.