Purpose

I am a Christian. Why? Because God, though I did nothing to deserve it, called me out of death and into eternal life. I am His and He is mine. Forever. Because of this marvelous grace, I strive to live my life as He commands. It is an impossible task, because He is perfect and I am not (hence the grace). But I still purpose to glorify Him in everything I do. I also identify myself as a Calvinist. My personal beliefs have aligned themselves with the Scriptural teachings of John Calvin. I am aware that most Christians do not hold the same views that I do. I will gladly and enthusiastically enter into a theological debate with you about what I believe and defend it with Scripture, but it is not my calling to make Calvinists of all nations. It is my calling to make disciples of all nations. My non-Calvinist colleagues and friends are no less-saved than I am.

I am a daughter. It is my responsibility as such to respect and honor my parents. I am expected to follow every rule, command and advice from my parents. You would think that seeing as how I have the most wonderful parents in the world, it would be ridiculously easy for me to do so. Unfortunately, this is not the case. God knows I have pushed (and broken) their boundaries countless times. But at the end of the day, I know that they still love me, I know that I love them, and that is enough for me to try my hardest not to make the same mistakes again.

I am a sister. I have been blessed with the eight most fantastic people ever as my siblings. We have our disagreements, of course, but we are each other's family and best friends, and I owe it to all of them to love them unconditionally and forgive every flaw. It is my privilege to be there for all of them when they need me, to buy them a drink, to bring them a bowl in which to vomit, to aimlessly chatter with them, to defend their names to others and to babysit their kids.

I am a friend. Although many times I'm bad at deserving them, I have some amazing friends. As a friend, it is my job always to be there if you need to talk, laugh, cry, curse, sleep or hug. It is my job to be honest with you, about the positive and negative. It is also my job to let you be the same for me. My most treasured friends are the ones who love me enough to tell me when I am wrong. Like I said, I don't really deserve these friendships, but since I am blessed enough to have them, I strive to be as good a friend to you as you are to me.

I am a musician. God gave me talent. I am not afraid to admit that. He gave me the ability to sing and play piano. I was not given talent to squander. I was purposed to cultivate it, to discipline myself and to use it all for His glory. My music is to be for no audience but Him. As such, I strive to be the best musician I can, because I am playing for the King of Kings.

I am a person. This may sound arbitrary, seeing as how we are all people. That is exactly my point. No two people are exactly the same, so stop trying to imitate someone else and try creating someone you. I have a responsibility to myself to be true to myself. It would be an insult to my unique character if I were to emulate another unique character. I am me.

Whatever you are and whatever you do, be purposeful. Leave nothing half-fulfilled. If you're going to do something, do it really, really well.

Love, Shelley.