Passion: Born With or Blessed With?

Make Your Mark. That's the theme of the sermons right now at the church we're attending here in Alpharetta. Make your mark, impact something, make a difference, find your passion and pursue it. The challenge, of course, is figuring out what your passion in life really is. It's not the same as finding things you really like to do, or finding things you're good at, though those are usually good indicators of what your passion might be... but your passion in life is the thing(s) that give you energy, that make you who you are, and that you can't imagine yourself not doing. I struggled with this for what felt like weeks. I wasn't sure if everyone was born with a passion or if only certain people were blessed with a passion. Am I really passionless?! I don't have time to be passionate about anything - I have kids to take care of! I used to be passionate about teaching, but I'm not a teacher anymore, so what does that mean? I thought and thought and thought about what my passion could be. My sister, half-jokingly, said that my passion was blogging. I just thought, 'I hope not! That's a pathetic passion!'... but the more I thought about it, blogging is just one way that my passion plays out. You see, YOU are my passion. MOMS are my passion. I feel strongly about making connections with other moms so that none of us feel alone in parenting. I want to bring resources and ideas to you so you don't feel isolated during this time when it's easier to stay at home, alone, with your kids than bundle them up for the cold and drive somewhere that they can potentially get sick for the next two weeks. I love playgroups and Mops and blogs and meeting other moms because I love the feeling of community and feeling connected when there are so many days that I just need someone to talk to. My goal is to stay connected to other people, moms in particular, while my kids are growing up so they don't leave me one day and I realize that my whole life just left for college at the same time. It's important to stay connected, feel supported and reach out to other moms, so they don't feel alone too. The more I thought about it, people are born with a passion. The trouble lies in discovering what your passion is, especially as you go through different phases of life. How can you use your gifts to help others, help your family, or help the world? And to end, here's a quote from Dear John by Nicholas Sparks: "It can be coins or sports or politics or horses or music or faith... the saddest people I've ever met in life are the ones who don't care deeply about anything at all. Passion and satisfaction go hand in hand, and without them, any happiness is only temporary, because there is nothing to make it last. I'd love to hear your dad talk about coins, because that's when you see a person at his best, and I've found that someone else's happiness is usually infectious." Have you figured out yet what your passion is? Have you ever even thought about it before? What is it, and how can you apply your passion to your life right now? Leave a comment, I would love to hear what really charges you with energy - even if it's hard to apply right now! (If you've noticed the changes along the right hand side of my blog, you're probably wondering what all the home school info is about. Well... you're just going to have to wait until my next post!)