Passion

What are you passionate about?

My little girl, still this side of two, is very passionate. I can see it in her already, even without the beautiful strawberry blonde hair. She often feels she is being wronged (as many eighteen-month old children do) and sets out to right the situation. Recently her brother, almost three years and twenty pounds her senior, wouldn't move out of the chair he had been occupying. She didn't like the fact that he wouldn't budge, so she resorted to screaming (which was a break from the biting she normally uses). Just as I turned to correct the situation, I saw this: from the depths of her toes, with all the energy she could muster, my little girl balled up her fists and screamed at her brother as loud and as long as her precious little lungs would allow. In turn, my sensitive little boy, her big brother, started crying at the shear enormity of the sound emitted from her mouth. I didn't really blame him.

Throughout history we see many examples of what passion has driven people to do: burning men and women at the stake, claiming they were witches; capturing and enslaving an entire nation of people for the color of their skin or their religious choice; wars, marriages, slavery, murder...the list is more than I care to think of. Yet, passion is what drives us. Passion carries us from bellhop to general manager to president. Passion takes us from student to teacher to principal to superintendent. Passion pushes us into the arms of a lover. Passion feeds children and holds the homeless.

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord not for men.” (Colossians 3:12 NIV)

I once confused purpose with passion. I didn’t think I could have one without the other. This is partly true. Here is what I am discovering:

I am a mom. This is one of my purposes in life. Am I passionate about it? No, not really. I love being a mom. I am thankful daily for my children and the lessons they teach me. I wouldn’t give them up nor trade them for anything in the world. I love them with everything I have, yet I know I do not put everything I have into being their mom. I do not spend my days playing with them, tutoring them, training them in the ways they should be. The house has to get cleaned sometime! I am there to guide and direct, but more in a “hands-off” kind of way.

I love writing. I love reading. I love books. I am passionate about all of the above. My home would be filled with thousands of books if I could. I would spend my days writing and pondering and writing some more. I shed a tear every time my daughter tears her board-books apart. (I’m still not sure how that happens. I really thought those things were kid-proof!)

I am passionate about women: I want women to know they are loved. I want women to know they were made with passion for a purpose.

Do you know what you were made for? Do you know what you are passionate about? What makes you get out of bed (besides personal hygiene or small children)? What drives you to get through the day? I urge to find it. Find your passion. Then, on a small scale, fan the flame. Feed it until you find your niche. You are worth it. You are a beautiful Creation of the Almighty and he doesn’t make mistakes.