Women in Purpose

I admit — excellence has not always been my strong suit. Not that I didn’t desire excellence in my life — or to be excellent for that matter. But somehow, I’d equated it with perfection. And instead of pursuing excellence, I chased perfection. How many of you know that perfection isn’t an easy capture? Being perfect meant having no flaws or defects? Hello – we are humans; we have flaws, as there will always been room for growth and development. While perfection on my present journey was not an option, excellence was. As I grew in my relationship with the Lord, I realized how valuable it was to desire excellence — to have good qualities as a woman of faith and to have the right heart toward the work; that excellence would be pivotal in submitting to my ordained usefulness, in my personal relationships, on my job, and as I tended to the everyday cares of my life.

We are called to be excellent. To be a cut above. We are called to put forth our best effort in achieving the tasks that God has given us using what God has placed in us. Putting our hands to the plow — doing the best we can with what we have in all situations — is the expectation that God has placed on our shoulders as His children.  He has an expectation that whatever we put our hands and heart to do will be done with excellence spirit, an excellent mind, and excellent hands; that we would always strive to put excellence on display in each situation that we encounter.  Conversely, not doing our best will impede our efforts to successfully walk in purpose.

I wish I could say that excellence costs little or nothing. Or that there is minimal investment involved. Or that once you reach excellence in one area, it would be sustained across all others. But Excellence costs. It costs effort. It costs discipline. It costs time. And excellence costs a tremendous investment. But the gain from being rooted in excellence early on far exceeds any investment that we will ever make.

As each of us continues on our journey to purpose — using our God-ordained usefulness to fuel our motivations and inner desires — we must have a commitment to be excellent; to do exceedingly above our own limitations with the right heart, the right motivation, the right values and having our priorities in order.  And while our journey will differ from someone else’s, each of us is headed to an eventual destination, which give us an opportunity to put excellence on display.

You may still be on the road right now. You may not be able to see the end of the road. You may not be able to see in front of you. Wherever you are today, you have a choice to be excellent. You have a choice to lay a foundation so that the rest of the road would be paved with excellence; that from this point on — you would have a desire to be good (internal) and to act with excellence so that God would be pleased.

Excellence brings us closer to successfully fulfilling our purpose.