What is my Purpose?

When I consider what my purpose in life is, I think first about the roles I play.  I am a daughter and a sister.  I am a wife and a mother.  I am a friend.  As the years have gone by, these roles have shifted, morphing to fit the age of my parents and my children as they all grow older and their needs and my interactions with them change.  Friends have come into and gone out of my life along the way.  But, I try to do my best in each of these roles to meet needs and to have genuine, connected relationships with all of these people who are important to me.

I also find purpose in my profession.  I strive every day in my work to offer the best care possible to my patients and to make a difference in their lives.  Throughout my career, I have had the beautiful privilege of being with families for their baby’s first breath and also the painful privilege of holding families through their child’s last breath.  I do believe that I am doing the work I was meant to do, but I still question whether all of this is enough to make a meaningful life.  I know that I fall short in all of these roles.  I make mistakes, miss opportunities, say the wrong thing, choose myself over others, and in a thousand other ways fail to be the person I think I should be.

So where does that leave me as I consider my life and its meaning?  The only thing that saves me from myself and my faults is my purpose as a Christian.  As a faithful child of God, I know that my ultimate purpose in this life is to love God, love others, and do what the Bible tells me to do.  I am thankful every day that God doesn’t expect perfection from me.  He just expects me to follow His commandments and to keep trying every day.  “His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning” (Lamentations 3:22-23, ESV).  Every day is a chance to try again to be the daughter, sister, wife, mother, friend, and professional I strive to be.  Every new day brings another opportunity to make the most of the time I have on this earth.

I hope that when I die, my legacy will be that I loved well and made a difference.  But, more than that, I hope that when I enter eternity, I will hear “Well done, good and faithful servant.  Enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:23, ESV).