Five Minute Friday (on Tuesday) - Purpose

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One word. Five minutes to write about it. This is the idea behind Five Minute Friday and this is today's free-writing post.

finding purpose

purpose-driven

what's the purpose?

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I've been low-key struggling to get content up on the blog the last couple weeks. Mostly it's because I have not had (or made) time - our basement flooded on September 1st and it's been crazy trying to clean up. School has started which means I've been teaching, including a new teaching job two mornings a week, and I'm still scrambling to figure most of that system out. So yes, a LOT of my failure to post is due to time constraints, but some is also related to the current word prompt for Five Minute Friday - PURPOSE. 

I built this little homeschool blog over many years, but now I'm not really a homeschooler any more. I am still connected to the homeschool community in many ways, but I'm not teaching my own kids. It makes it a little harder to keep up with relevant articles here. I've started adjusting, but I haven't got a sharp focus yet. I still write some homeschool relevant stuff, but not weekly, so I feel a bit at loose ends.

Which isn't all that different from my real life situation when my youngest student graduated from our homeschool. We celebrated her achievement and realized that I was "semi-retired" but it felt very odd to be a former homeschool mom. I needed a new purpose.

It's been two full years since my semi-retirement. I'm still waiting for my retirement party too. During the past two years I continued teaching at a homeschool co-op, and I had a little more time to work a part-time job and do a few other things. But of course there was covid to interrupt whatever course our world would have followed. My daughter has been living at home and attending college, and for a good portion of the time her classes were virtual so she was sort of home-schooling. One of my sons got married, and they continued to live with us for the past several months. They will be moving into their own place in a couple weeks, and then I'll actually get the empty nest experience. At least start the experience - I'll still have two adult kids at home for a bit longer. 

And will my purpose change? In the big picture, it doesn't. The big picture is that my purpose is to glorify God. Living out his purpose meant doing my best to raise my kids right, and that role is almost complete. It included homeschooling them, and I did that. It's meant teaching and mentoring and caring about other young people as well - putting in time as a youth leader at church, teaching at co-ops, opening our home and lives to our kids' friends. That's shifting a bit as they have their own homes and are building their own adult lives. Of course they are always welcome here! I'm doing my best to be a loving mother-in-law, which is a relatively new role. I'm loving my role as Nonnie (grandma!) and I'd be delighted to put in lots more time doing that! 

I think I'll have more time to focus on my role as a friend and in the community of believers. The purpose is still to glorify God in all I do, but the details of how I'll do that in the everydays ahead of me aren't always clear ahead of time. Especially in something small like what I write for this space. I suppose I'll figure it out. And it may continue to shift for a bit before it settles. Like many other things do during this season of life. 

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Believe it or not, I did write the above in not much more than five minutes. It's a little different from what I usually do though. And sadly, it did take me until Tuesday to post a Five Minute Friday article. I've got to get back on some kind of a schedule. 

 

This post is linked at Five Minute Friday for the word prompt "Purpose".

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