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Purposeful Living

It is said the average person spends nearly 1/4 of their life waiting in some capacity; whether that be waiting in line, for a phone call or in traffic. If we spend approximately 19.5 years waiting I pray we are doing something useful and purposeful while we wait (statistic based upon 78.2 yr life expectancy)!

In our line of work, we tend to do a lot of waiting! Our every job depends on the next contract...and we spend a lot of time waiting for that next contract overseas. So here we are again....waiting....with so many other basketball families. 

Even though we are still here there has never been a point where I said, "I guess it is over, I guess we are done" and there has never been a point I have not though Josh is not good enough and no one wants him...I know he is an asset to any team he is a part of...It is just a season of waiting for so many of us basketball families.

So, as we have been waiting I have been thinking: Are we just waiting for things to fall in our lap or are we pursing the purpose in which God created us for? Many other years, as I look back we waited idly. We waited without purpose, we waited and fulfilled ourselves, but not our purpose. This year must be different. We have to choose to live a more purposeful life while we wait. I do not want to look back and realize I just spent 19.5 years of my life waiting and doing nothing productive while I waited!

I have spent the last 3 years not getting involved in things back home at the level I want to because I always knew eventually we would leave again to go abroad. I spent 3 years not living my life to the fullest, not living my life purposefully because I didn't want to be in things "halfway". What I didn't realize is that by not being in them at all I was not fulfilling my purpose. I could not allow myself to do that any longer, especially now as I have a daughter who will be watching my every move. So this year I made the choice to live more purposefully.

How am I doing that: I am reading with every millisecond of my spare time, I am involving myself in the ministries of my church that I shied away from in the past knowing I would only be leaving, I am taking time to build relationships with my neighbors (that I never wanted to know we were gone most of the year), I am enjoying Bible studies knowing that any day we could up and leave....I can't stop living just to wait! Let me say that again I CAN'T STOP LIVING JUST TO WAIT! Don't quit living while you wait....wait while you live!

God created you for a purpose, and your purpose is not to wait, it is to live and fulfill that which He created you for! So I challenge you with the challenge of another blogger: "What if the majority of our waiting time was spent waiting on God? Our strength would be renewed. Life can be too busy to postpone taking time to think about God and converse with Him. Take hold of all that waiting time, and see if you find your strength being renewed and your stress diminishing."

D&J

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