my purpose

We've been studying the shorter catechisms as a family this year. Don't freak out on me, catechism is just a fancy word that involves teaching with questions and answers. You do it all the time...When you're at the dinner table and your little one asks for dessert before he's eaten all his vegetables, you say, "When are you allowed to have dessert?" and he (hopefully) responds, "I can have dessert when I eat all my vegetables." That's what catechism is...a question and then an answer. Our goal in teaching with the catechisms is to learn foundational truths and have basic Biblical truths instilled in our children. If we don't purposely teach our children what a Biblical Worldview is, they will develop a worldview on their own. We really want to make sure that the worldview that they take with them is a Biblical one. So we've been working through the shorter catechisms talking about them and learning them as a family. The first question is "What is man's primary purpose?" The answer. "Man's primary purpose is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever." That's been rolling around in my head for weeks now and it has been life changing. You see, I don't have to try to be something I'm not in order to fulfill my primary purpose. That's so easy to think when you compare yourself to others. But the fact is, I just need to glorify God - (take every opportunity I have to acknowledge Him and give Him the praise and honor He is so worthy of in my life) and enjoy Him - that's the part I kept skipping. I was so busy doing for Him and for my family; checking things off my lists that I missed the "enjoying Him" part. I was missing my primary purpose and I was focusing on those things that should be secondary. I saw this truth when we went to the zoo on Monday. John took off work and we all took a field trip to the National Zoo. We took the Metro down. It was a great time to go, the temps were cool but not too cold and the crowds were non-existent. The animals were out playing and gave us some really good shows. But what I noticed was that we enjoyed the animals because they were doing what animals were supposed to do. They were just being what they were created to be. I think God gets that same kind of pleasure from us when we are doing what we were created to do - when we glorify Him and enjoy Him. Those two things are so much easier for me to attempt each day than the list I had in my mind prior to learning what my primary purpose was.

So enjoy your weekend and make yourself a new to do list: 1. glorify 2. enjoy! oh and 3. laundry