An excerpt from The Passionate Mom Chapter 7 – Purpose
Passion + Purpose = A Plan
These three—passion, purpose, and planning—have a special relationship and, it starts with passion. Without passion you won’t have the drive to develop a purpose, and if you don’t ever find a purpose, you surely won’t see the need to have a plan. …
Nehemiah had a very narrow focus for his passion—God and the Israelite people. And I can relate. I was exposed to eternity for just a breath of time when my heart stopped, but everything that I loved had time to flash through my mind. God and the people I love: that is all I saw. When your heart stops, your mind will freeze where your heart left off—with those you love. I don’t really believe you can “love” stuff—houses, careers, money. You may desire it. You may think you love it, but that is your eye trying to trick your heart. When your heart stops, your eyes will close, and what you really love will be as clear as day. That is your real passion.
Nehemiah had passion, and he applied it to his vision and developed a purpose—to protect his people from all harm. Then he added more passion to his purpose and came up with a plan. He refused to be distracted, frightened, or discouraged from the plan to fulfill his purpose. There was opposition, lots of it, and it was not easy, but because Nehemiah had focused passion, he was undeterred and overcame all obstacles.
Nehemiah fixed his purpose—he knew exactly what he needed to do. You have to know your target before you shoot. What are you shooting your child toward? Could it be that failure to launch in young adults is a phenomenon because they never had a target? We must focus our passion and fix our purpose— so what is your goal for your child? It takes great determination to focus your passion and fix your purpose for the duration of your child’s maturation.
Unfortunately, there are so many beautiful, fascinating, and downright cool things to take our eyes off what we love. Also, I know many of you not only parent but work and serve others. Your time is limited, and your energy wanes at times, but with determination, you can fix your purpose.
I believe that every mother has passion for her child. Some moms have been distracted from their passion; some are sick or weary and their passion is drained low, but it is in there somewhere. But do we all have a vision of where that passion can carry us, a goal for our child that is so big and intimidating that it is impossible without God? I think we need more moms to ponder, to pray, to catch a vision for their children, to add in more passion and turn the vision into a purpose; then and only then can we turn our purpose into a plan.
“If the size of the vision for your life is not intimidating to you, then there is a good chance it is insulting to God.”—Steven Furtick
