Callings Archives

Are you using your gifts for God’s glory?

by Robyn Graham | Aug 22, 2023 | Callings, Faith and entrepreneurship, Podcast

Often, things hold us back from doing what we’re called to do, or what an experience has led us to. It may be fear, doubt, or it may be a lack of confidence from deep-rooted insecurity.

These thoughts and emotions often stem from not being rooted in Biblical truth. And when this happens, using your gifts for God’s glory is almost impossible.

When you are rooted in deep Biblical truth, even though doubt sets in, because you are human, you’ll know where to turn.

When using your gifts for God’s glory, don’t let Satan hold you back

Listen. If you are in a place of doubt and fear, but keep hearing a voice calling you to something, stop and listen. That voice is most likely the Holy Spirit calling you into your purpose.

If negative thoughts are keeping you stuck in a state of doubt, fear, and procrastination, holding you back from acting, challenge the thoughts. Satan is a master of creating doubt and insecurity. But the Holy Spirit is the authority. If you are being called, stop and catch the negative, doubtful, fearful thoughts and challenge them. Are they realistic?

Discovering your purpose

Using your gifts for God’s glory can be difficult if you are unsure of what God is calling you to do.

Venn diagrams can be a simplified way to see something visually. At a foundational level, Rebecca likes to say as a follower of Christ, this side of heaven, our job is to go and make disciples.

Everyone’s life is different. Our communities are unique and we have an opportunity to impact that to grow God’s Kingdom.

The three circles of Rebecca’s diagram are:

What matters to you? Are there things that you do and experience such joy that time flies by?
What matters to God? Search scripture to discover what God wants us to do – for His glory. And then connect it to what matters to you.
What matters to others? Are there practical things that need to be done that you can do through your unique skill sets?

All those three things intersect and where they do, you’ll discover your purpose.

Likewise, as a business coach for Christian business owners, Robyn is passionate about helping others discover complete clarity around their purpose. Robyn’s purpose equation is values + visions + passions, and where the three overlap is where your purpose lies.

A life of abundance – spiritually and financially – is available when you follow your purpose.

Using your gifts for God’s glory is a balance you walk this side of heaven

God doesn’t need us to work for his Kingdom, but he calls us to and we can experience joy through it. We often equate joy to happiness, but our joy is rooted in who we are in Christ and His finished work on the cross.

Through serving Christ we experience joy. And, as a follower of Christ, that path isn’t promised with ease or without suffering or hardship, but in the hard that we experience in our calling, comes sanctification. The process of us being molded and refined into the likeness of Jesus. Through this process, we discover more of Jesus and become more like Him to experience more joy.

Hardships are an opportunity to be molded into Christ’s likeness.

Being a Christian doesn’t mean life will be easy

Verses from Paul that help emphasize the importance of using your gifts for God’s glory

Philippians 4:8: Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Galatians 2:20: I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Hebrews 12:2: fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer, and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Jesus himself experienced rejection, hardship, etc. so that our relationship with God the Father would be restored.

Our hardships often guide us or enable us to lead. They are often necessary to walk through to get to where He is leading us to be.

You shed the light of Christ on everyone you touch, even with just a smile.

Your faith will influence your business.

Using your gifts for God’s glory is an everyday experience

The Holy Spirit, the very same power that raised Jesus from the grave, is us as Christ’s followers. He is with us to guide us, embolden us, strengthen us as we go through hardships, and answer our callings.

In James 1, we learn that God gives us wisdom without reproach when we ask Him for it.

James 1:5: If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.

Pray for wisdom and discernment as you make decisions.

I’m enough, I’m worthy in Christ. But the only reason is because of what Jesus did on the cross and how that act, restored my relationship with God. You can only move forward with this as our foundation. The Holy Spirit will help you discern when you ask him to. A prayer Robyn likes to use when she is in the process of making a decision is:

“Holy Spirit, please calm my heart and quiet my mind so that I may hear you. Share your wisdom and guide me to discern what your will is for me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

Don’t Miss Out by Jeannie Cunnion

Changing your mindset and removing negative thoughts

Ask yourself, is this thought true?

Is it worthy of praise?

Where the big change happens:

What is true, what is worthy, what is pure?

When we ask these questions, that is where God creates the transformation in our thoughts.

Every minute of time is a gift

Rebecca suggests time blocking. Robyn emphasized how much power Satan has on social media to distract us if we aren’t discerning what we consume and relying on the Holy Spirit.

If we were to solely focus on social media, we are building our business on borrowed land. But we can become obsessed, it can become an idol in our lives. And if we were locked out of our account tomorrow, we’d have no audience, no customer base. Create a strategy around where you’re building. You may need to have a presence but discern how you use the tools so that they don’t become an idol.

The more aware you are of how you spend your time, the more intentional you become with how you spend your time, and you can shift your time to be more efficient. Use a framework that works for you so that you maximize your time effectively.

Do you want to grow your business without feeling chained to social media? Download the free eBook, 10 Strategies to grow your business without social media.

About Rebecca George

Rebecca George is the author of Do the Thing. She is a yoga pants, Chapstick, and Jesus-loving girl. In Do the Thing she helps women set glory goals, set intentions, and do the thing that God is calling them to do. Her desire is to encourage and equip women and it’s been part of her life thread for many years.

Website for Rebecca George

Do the Thing: Gospel-Centered Goals, Gumption, and Grace for the Go-Getter Girl

Living with Purpose

by Robyn Graham | Jan 4, 2022 | Callings, Mental Health, Personal Development, Podcast

Discover the joy of living with purpose.

The Silver Lining Of Covid

Covid offered an opportunity to evaluate what we wanted to do and whether or not we are on the right path. The pandemic offered this silver lining to stop and assess if we liked who we are and what we are doing. As Tayna experienced the pandemic, a completely different book than her original intentions, emerged. She began to write about living with purpose. The questions that arose included who are we, what are we designed to do, and what is it we really want to do in our lives long-term, and how do we set goals to get us there.

The concept that quickly emerged is that goals are not goals, but the vehicles to get us the life we want. That is what living with purpose is about. It’s living beyond our to-do list.

As we check things off of our to-do list we are exhausted and unsatisfied. Why? Because we aren’t tying what we are doing today to that big bold beautiful vision we have of our future.

“On Purpose” became a book about discovering purpose and how to achieve it and live it.

Robyn mentioned that we often set goals but we aren’t clear on the purpose so we aren’t clear on the ultimate goal or how to achieve it. We can’t achieve goals without clarity on our purpose.

Without clarity we become confused, we can’t find joy, and we don’t know what goals to set.

Living with Purpose Means Your Goals are Unique to You

Often times we look around and think, “oh, I should do what this woman is doing” or “I need to do these things too”. We end up setting our goals based on everyone else’s metrics of success instead of defining what success looks like to us and leaning into our own unique gifts and talents and letting those be the guide.

We find joy and satisfaction when we are aligned with our goals. Going from A to Z. The B to Y is so important. The endpoint can seem so daunting so we need to look at what’s in between, the B to Y, to reach the goals.

Where we are today, and where we want to go, there is a huge chasm. If we put one foot in front of the other every day, we’ll get there so much faster than trying to rush through without being aligned.

The Purpose Equation – For Finding and Living with Purpose

Robyn shared her purpose equation, Values + Visions + Passions = Purpose.

We must be aligned with our values or we will become frustrated.

This ties in with Tayna’s North Star concept that she shared in “The Joy of Missing Out”, your values, visions, and mission are your guiding light and principal. This helps determine your soulmate clients. This is also important with how you run your team and set your boundaries.

How to Discover Your Passions

If you are feeling lost in the day-to-day of motherhood and are struggling to identify your passions, travel back in time. Do reflection work and discover what your passions were before you began the journey of motherhood and expectations.

Dive into who you were when you were a kid. What were the activities you looked forward to?

Tayna gave the example of playing softball. Maybe you won’t play softball as an adult, but what did you like about softball? Was it being outdoors, the team environment, the athleticism, or moving your body? Ask yourself why and you’ll start to see breadcrumbs for things you are passionate about.

Another exercise to discover your passions is diving into what you wanted to be when you grew up. Remember when there were no constraints on you? Why did you want to be that? What was it about being that that made you excited?

Take Off Your Backpack and Start Living with Purpose

We collect so much information over the years and store it. If we take all of the things out of our backpacks and look at the incredible amount of expertise accumulated over the years that we bring to the table. Things we’ve undervalued over the years because they were stored in the backpack. Tap back into what fuels you.

Robyn reminds us that negative experiences are sometimes where the gold is. Those experiences help us solve problems for others. People are out there praying for the solution that you solve.

If you don’t solve a problem, you don’t have a business. People don’t buy people, they buy solutions.

PIE

We are all multi-passionate. Every person on the planet has more than one thing they love.

It’s important to narrow down first, niche down first, then add on and expand. You can’t be Amazon straight out of the gate. When we do this, we wear ourselves out. Choose to focus.

The cost of greatness is commitment. Commit to doing fewer things so that we can really do them well and then expand.

Powers

What are your powers?

Impact

What impact does it make?

Excitement

What is your excitement level? Being good at something doesn’t mean you should be doing it.

Living with Purpose Without Social Media

Tayna has decided to leave social media completely. There is a false belief that if we aren’t promoting our business on social media we are committing business suicide.

Tayna emphasized that for hundreds of years, businesses were successful without social media. We get a little bit lazy and think we have to do what everyone else is doing.

Like many of us, Tayna has a love-hate, mostly hate, relationship with social media. When she gets off of social media, she doesn’t feel good. If this is the case as a grown woman, what is this doing for our kids? Instead of helping make deeper connections, social media has created a disconnect. Often times we get off of social media and add to our to-do lists. It all comes back to comparison and despair.

We have a hard time measuring our own success because we are measuring it on what others are doing. It’s important to look at what success looks like, not the money, not the follower count, but the relationships, the activities, and the things you want to do. Then work backward to discover the financials and the things you need to do to achieve them.

Your values should be driving your business. Tayna refers to this as reconciling her receipts at the end of the day. How do you feel about what you put in the world today? Do you feel good about it? Did you put good in the world? Facebook and Instagram don’t do this so if they aren’t aligned with your values, why endorse it?

The question becomes, how do I deepen my connection without being on social media?

There are so many ways to connect with your soulmate clients and build relationships. The key is to use the platforms that you own, your blog, website, and email list.

About Tayna Dalton

Tayna is the author of “The Joy of Missing Out” and “On Purpose“. She is a productivity expert, author, and speaker.

To learn More About Your Host, Robyn Graham, Click HERE.

Learn More About and Connect with Tayna:

Website for Tanya Dalton