Live
Your Purpose
By Karen D’Amore
“….whatever
you do, do it all for the glory of God.”
1 Corinthians 10:31b (NIV)
The primary focus of the two-day
work conference was to educate and equip salon owners and employees with
innovative ways to grow their business. With the course material bearing a
distinctively “worldly” perspective, I wrestled to find balance between growing
my business “their” way…and growing it God’s way. After a two-day immersion in semantics
like success….prosperity.…power….and money….I found myself growing resistant to
the material and my attention fading. Fortunately, I perked up and re-engaged
when one presenter grabbed my attention with the exhortation to... “Live your
purpose!”
For days, following the conference,
I pondered that exhortation, while questioning… “What is my purpose?” While
searching through Scripture, I prayerfully sought God’s perspective on the
subject. As I considered our key verse, I recognized that as a Christ-follower,
everything in my life should bring honor and glory
to God. So, in my roles as a wife, friend, family member, employee, co-worker…and
nail technician…my purpose is to glorify God.
“Whatever you do, work at it with
all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you
will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward” (Colossians 3:23-24, NIV).
Relating this Scripture to my position in the workplace, I acknowledged that I
need to perform my job as though I’m working for God Himself. With my
supervisor expecting each employee to incorporate the conference material into
their business plan, I vowed to “live my purpose” by growing my business “God’s
way”! I explained to my boss, that if I attempt to grow my business through
self-focused efforts…God will not get the glory for what “I” do. However, if I
exercise faith in God and strive to glorify Him in every aspect of my job,
growth in my business will be unexplainable…except for Him.
While coworkers stressed to shine
and hustled to produce with implementation of those conference growth
strategies, I worked to exercise faith in growing my business God’s way. Praying
for empowerment to do the “unexplainable,” God exceeded my requests, enabling
me to defy logistics and produce record personal sales. When asked how I did
it, I threw up my hands and replied, “Jesus!” Aware of my personal limitations
and weaknesses, I was strengthened as I experienced God’s power and
accomplished that which I deemed impossible. Glory to God for making the
impossible Him-possible!
“By this my Father is glorified,
that you bear much fruit and so prove to be My disciples” (John 15:8, ESV). Christ-followers:
what’s your purpose? To bring glory to your Heavenly Father! Now…GO…be His
disciples…and live your purpose!
GOING DEEPER:
1. Are you living His intended
purpose?
FURTHER
READING:
Married to Dan,
Karen, a retired police officer, currently works as a Manicurist at Craig Berns
Salon and a Foot Care Specialist at Shorehaven Senior Facility.
