Each of us is created to fill a calling.
First and foremost, we were born to be really good moms.
We weren’t born to be mothers who are thin, rich, smart, who drive a lot, buy our kids great clothes, or get them into good colleges. First, we were born to leave a mark in our world. And usually, that mark is made on our kids and then on others’ lives.
Sometimes our “mark” is made because of something we have done for other persons, and other times it happens because we were with them. We are beings—mother beings. We are human beings, but we focus so constantly on the doing of life that we forget how to be.
Our deeper purpose in life flows from a sense that our presence is important to another person. We have something to share with another and sometimes this takes work, and sometimes it means simply being who we are in the company of another.
Secondly, in addition to fulfilling our purpose as good moms, we are born to do more—in time.
At the risk of sounding overly philosophical, I would like to assert that we have lost this sense of being because we are afraid of what lies beneath the superficial in us. If we set aside the energy we put into fitness, dieting, trying to be a better mom than the next mom, then, What is left?, we wonder.
What we find below the dieting, working, running around in the car, and exercising, is a deepness that has been undiscovered. The tricky part about discovering our giftedness is that it may be in an area that feels unexpected. For instance, one mother I know does humor therapy workshops for abused women and children. This isn’t her career (she is a nurse practitioner), and it falls outside of her call as a mom.
But she has told me repeatedly that she was “born to bring healing through laughter.” She does a great job and women and children come in droves to her.
What is your deeper purpose?
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Find more encouragement in my book, The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers