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This article is from Today's
Native Father, issue #134, July/August, 2004. Related articles from this issue: |
Choosing to Live With Purpose A letter to mothers by Ilva Hertzler |
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Dear Moms, I remember this humorous story from long ago. In those days, they didn’t have the fancy dolls they make today. Mom would cut and sew fabric together, use buttons for eyes, embroider the mouth and nose on the face and do other things to make it look real. This particular doll was filled with popcorn to make it feel lifelike. Well, one day brother started teasing sister, picking on her and grabbing her doll. In this scuffle, the doll was dropped in a mud puddle. Of course it got wet and dirty. Sister went crying to Mom, and brother was talked to. Mom tried her best to clean up the doll, then put it on the back of the wood cook stove to dry out. Later, during supper, the family heard some strange noises, “Pop, pop, pop.” And what they saw was even more amazing. This little doll was back there on the stove, jerking and making noises like no doll had ever done before! Everyone was puzzled until Mom finally figured it out. The popcorn was coming to life and popping away as it was supposed to. Everyone enjoyed a good laugh. This gave me something to think about for my own life. When the “heat is on,” or when things get tough in life, I can just sit back there on the stove, jerking around and making noises. It looks lifelike, but is it really? Many of us are like this doll. There are controlling forces which drive us to do things which are cheap imitations of what is real and life-giving. Get the picture? So what does drive your life? What controls it? Everyone’s life is driven by something. There is a force which directs what goes on in your daily actions and thoughts. A book, The Purpose Driven Life, by Rick Warren, has given me some good help in understanding this. Many people spend their lives running from guilt and shame. Their past controls the way they live in the present. They hold on to anger because people have hurt them. Bitterness shrivels them and makes them hard. Fear prevents many from venturing out and experiencing great opportunities. Greed, always wanting more, makes false promises of happiness. More possessions provide only temporary happiness and lead to permanent boredom. Many people are driven by the need for approval. Peer pressure, trying to please everyone, is a way of getting lost in the crowd. These are only a few of the forces that could be driving your life, that could be making you go pop, pop, pop and do knee-jerking exercises, getting nowhere. For me, the force in my life, the Person in my life that gives me purpose, is Creator God. There is nothing else that matters as much as knowing God, knowing what He desires for my life. Everything else is pointless. With God as my Father, Jesus as my Saviour, the Holy Sprit as my Power Source, my life is not doll-like. It is meaningful and full. It is going somewhere, moving ahead, not lying around, jerking and making noises. It has purpose. Knowing my purpose in life keeps me focused on what is important. It prepares me for my next life in Heaven. I’m going to be spending more time on the other side of death than I ever will here on this earth, so I want to live the way God has made me to live here and now. How about you? Living with purpose and enjoying it, Ilva |
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