Feel Like You’ve Lost Your Purpose?

Today, I am so happy to share a post with you from my friend and volunteer-assistant-extraordinaire, Bonnie Wallace. 

When a Mama Feels Like She’s Lost Her Purpose

Then the One seated on the throne said, “Look! I am making everything new.”

Revelation 21:5 (HCSB)

 My soul feels so thin I think I am almost invisible.  It seems I am fading; fading into nothing.

My days used to be grounded in the joy of defined purpose; to meet the needs of ones too small to do for themselves.

The goal of my heart has come; they are learning to live their full potential.  All that I have given up has become their gain.   This pouring of my life has been more than worth it but it doesn’t seem fair that the one who gives all she has ends up with nothing.

They are learning to fly but I am left behind.

They are eager for the dreams that lie ahead but mine are, with them, stuck in the past.

They are equipped with an army of people who love them and I am alone.

It hurts.

Somewhere between the day I birthed them into the world, and the last argument with that teen, the joy of purpose has been lost. The need for meals, clean clothes, play dates and homemade goodies are gone.   I have so much to be thankful for; children who are healthy and with a bright future and I am angry at myself because feeling robbed is the opposite of grateful.

I beg and plea for God to fill me again with the joy of purpose.

He speaks to me and says,

“I am making something new.” 

“You must learn to walk before you run.”

Jesus is teaching me that entering the next season of my life is a process.  I, like my children, am learning how to live full with His potential.  God is pouring His life into me and teaching me the Way: the One that always overflows with joy in purpose, the One that fulfills His goal of glory.

The Truth of my life is

I am not alone.  I am walking with the Savior of the world.

I am not left behind.  My life is always moving toward Him.

My dreams are not in the past.  The best is yet to come; the day I see His face

All that He has given up has become my gain.  And the one who gives all she has ends up with everything. 

Lord, I pray for myself and the mamas that are struggling to find their purpose.  I pray that You will continue to pour Your life into ours and that You will find us, on our faces, seeking Your purpose.  Teach us to walk so we can run and give us the comfort of knowing the best is yet to come.

I pray you Live Like You Know… where you are going.

Lynn

12 Comments

  1. Awesome Word and thanks for sharing!

  2. “My dreams are not in the past. The best is yet to come; the day I see His face.”

    The best is yet to come Lynn! Thanks for you post – AND thank you for leading our group in She Speaks.

    1. Lynn Cowell says:

      Sue…won’t that day be awesome!

  3. Thank you so much for posting these words. For the past two years I’ve been fighting the same feelings as our children are now done with college, finding jobs and moving out on their own. Good to know I’m not the only one that has felt these feelings.

    1. Lynn Cowell says:

      Sue, there are days when we all wish for the days when our kids “needed” us. So glad God is there with us through each transition!

  4. Thank you so much for this post…it comes just as my daughter is turning 13 and my son is beginning his sophomore year in high school. I have been here with them every day and yet I wonder how we got to this place where they are becoming every thing I had prayed for while I am still ‘yesterday’ when my daughter could cuddle in my lap and my son was running around my bedroom in his superman cape. I know we have some years ahead to navigate and it is all good but there are days when my heart cries for the little people that used to run around my house. Thank you for the loving reminder of the purpose I am called to as I my children continue to grow and mature into a young man and woman who follow hard after Jesus.

    1. Lynn Cowell says:

      Wanda, Bonnie did a great job of putting to words what so many of us feel as our kids are going up. You are not alone!

  5. I really needed to read this blog. This is exactly what I’ve been feeling and going through the last couple of months. We’re getting ready to send my oldest off again for his second year to college-the difference-he’s moving into his first apartment and taking all his belongings from his room. Our second, a girl, will be leaving for her first year in the opposite direction. We still have three more children at home however they are all teenagers with active social lives and I’m beginning to feel left behind. I know that I’m not alone and that my Savior has a plan for me.

    1. Lynn Cowell says:

      You are not alone, Amanda! My girl and I laid in her bed and cried together, looking at her empty room. This season of transition is so hard. I am so grateful for the peace that God gives me, knowing she doesn’t go alone!

  6. Rhonda in MA says:

    I really needed this!!! My girls are 12 and 13. I know I have a few special years left with them still. This is what is tearing me up. I feel like now more than any other time in there lives, that I should not be working but be home for them!!! I was able to not work when they were born until they went to school. I started working just the hours while they were in school. Then I got more hours and more hours and now I am a full time 9-5 working girl. I have been fine with this arrangement all along…that is up until now. I need some godly advise . Do you ladies think it crazy for me to leave work now to spend the teen years with them. (I know people are like…well now they want to be with friends not with you, so why not work) But I feel like now is the time they need me around to make sure I know where they are and who they are with. Thanks your your input ladies!!!!

    1. Lynn Cowell says:

      Rhonda, I think you are very right in your thinking! I know so many cannot afford or make a way to be at home, but I know that for me, I did all I could to be here for my kids when they got home from school in middle school and high school. This window of time is very short and many children, out of boredom and loneliness, fall into many unwanted traps in that time between after school and parents getting home. Working from home has worked well for me so I can be here.

      I just don’t think, if you can do it, that you would ever regret making the decision to be there for them.

      What do you other ladies think?

      1. Rhonda in MA says:

        Thanks for you thoughts on this Lynn!!!! This has been working on me for such a long time. Getting advise from good Christan parents who share my values is such a tremendous help,. I have been following you Lynn for a while now and want to let you know what a valuable “light to my path” you have been. Thanks you and may God Bless your ministry

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