Having a clear purpose for life will help make life meaningful and reduce the chances of falling into depression. By Gary Shotton #000397

Click Here to download in audio (.mp3 format); right click on link and select “save as”

Click Here to download in video (.mp4 format); right click on link and select “save as”

Purpose

By Gary Shotton

Hello, my name is Gary Shotton, and I’m here as a part of Inspiring Better Business. And today we’re going to talk about the subject of “Purpose”. Having purpose in your life and having purpose in your financial affairs and how important that is for your success and for your wellbeing as an individual, and for your family and all those around you. See, there’s a lot of frustrated people in this world. And there’s a lot of people that have a lot of depression and emptiness. And I believe that a big part of that is because they don’t have purpose.

Each of us are designed with a purpose in mind for God. And reality has it that not everyone is going to be a business owner. And that’s not our objective at all. Our objective is for you to find purpose in your life. But all of us most likely are dealing with financial affairs; because we have the responsibilities of our household, the responsibilities of our personal income, and our bills that just exist on this earth. So, we have all of us some purpose, to organize our business affairs in a way that are meaningful and beneficial for those involved.

So, at creation, God created mankind, (Adam and Eve), and he had a purpose for mankind. And that purpose was to commune with him. And one of the things that he did command though before sin, and before they left the Garden of the Eden, they were to till the soil. And that’s interesting that work is a part of God’s plan before sin came into this earth. I know a lot of you might want to judge that work is a sin or work is a condemnation for sin. But it’s not true. If you have someone that’s out of work or can’t work or jailed or incarcerated or are somehow restricted in their work, they are very limited. There’s a fulfillment. There’s a wonderful fulfillment in life when you start working.

So, we’ll talk about three points that where we can use our hands, our head, and our hearts to fulfill God’s purpose in our life. Using our hands, means getting out there and getting the job done and doing it with a godly attitude. Well, when I graduated from college, I had not had the privilege of working in my occupation. I studied to be minerals engineer and work for Big Oil Company. But during my college days, I had a responsibility and was proud to go home and help my dad in the summers where he needed help along with my brothers to farm a very large apartment operation. Dad was paying my bill for college, and I didn’t have any objection. But I didn’t get the chance to be introduced to the work world outside of working for dad.

Well, when I got on my first job to the honesty it was not what I expected. I honestly couldn’t believe that it went to four and a half years of college to do what I was ended up doing. And the first year which is almost torture for me, because it wasn’t exciting. It was a dirty plant where we’re processing, basically bentonite, which is a clay, which is dirt and we’re grinding up dirt, cheap, dirt, free dirt, basically for just mining it and putting it in a bag. It was dirty and filthy. Oh, I couldn’t believe I went to college to do this. I had a commitment to stay there. And this was part working with my hands. I had committed myself to work there one year, I wasn’t going to quit my first job no matter what. And I at times literally went into a quiet place and cried my eyes out and just bawled out to God and said what in the world am I doing here. And in the process, though, I stuck with it. I stuck with it with my hands. And there were tough times. I’ll tell you that.

This was a very cold I was up in the northwest corner of Wyoming we had a period when we were responsible for construction and the actual temperature was 50 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, for five nights straight. The daytime was minus 10, was the high. And then it got up to a plus 10 for several days as a high. And then we went down again to minus 50 for the low and a minus 10 for the high for five more days. And we didn’t stand out there in the cold freezing, but we had to keep making progress. Oh, it was one challenge after another. And I learned though without any fanfare, how to stick with it, how to stay true to the core. Honor God in all. I think that’s part of this purpose in life is that it’s not going to be always that easy for your finances. Don’t think that when you hear me talking that everything was just a piece of cake. And everything was good.

There was another time when I was young guy, I was only 23. And I had to give some instructions to an operator that had been there, well older than my dad. And he was in his late 50s, early 60s. And he did not like anybody in management. And he let me know how low life I was, how little I was in his mind, and we dealt with union contracts. And it was just not fun at all. But I stuck with it, I think there’s some value to working with your hands and sticking with it.

Number two is working with your head. And that means mostly your mouth and your ears. Or the way you control your tongue, the way you control what you say, when you’re mad or upset, and you spurt out to somebody, and you cause strife and division with your mouth and with anger. I’m telling you; God cannot bless that in your life. That’s true in your business. Oh, my I wanted to chew up some people. Because of what they did to me. I had hired a man and a wife. I won’t reveal their names. That wouldn’t be proper, but they were my right-hand people. My wife Cindy and I had this other couple, we were two couples. And I was the owner and this gentleman wanted to own part of my company.

Well, I made a way so he could own part of the company. But he didn’t follow through on his end of the deal. And so, he had invested in some things outside the company. And you know what he did? He embezzled more than seven about $17,000 of my money, went down to the bank, since he had writing privileges on my checking account, and cash that money, put it in his pocket and move to another state fleeing me and fleeing his other problems. Oh, I was mad. It took me six weeks to even start getting over it. I wish I was a little faster. Well, your head can play games on you. And you’re got to stay true to God and your finances in your financial affairs.

Third, and certainly not least is your heart. Are you maintaining? Can you maintain a true attitude towards God through thick and thin, good, and bad? Not everything works like you would like it to work I’m just telling you is not real. And it’s when you have the difficult times. And when you have the difficult times and think Well, I’ve been tithing, but I can’t tithe it anymore. I’m telling you; you’ve got to think that through. I’ve been a consistent tither for more than 48 years of my life. And it wasn’t tithing on my business income it was just on my personal affairs, then I’ve been a giver. I’m not elevating myself, but I’ve been in giver to the gospel, a giver two missions for a long time. And you got to determine in your heart, what is your purpose in this earth?

Well, I believe that a business owner has a much bigger purpose than anything to do with accumulating wealth. Accumulating money, it is such an empty of purpose that you’ve got to think it through. That my purpose in life is to be a part of the body of Christ, to be part of the probationary aspect of those that have vision for God. And I have some vision for God more and more. And I’m laying out that vision when I’m on talking to you. Helping businesses get started, helping individuals. I have many phone calls from individuals. And then through these lessons I’m attempting to make a way for others to own and operate those that are called of God and have a purpose to make much bigger than making money. It’s not even close to the same thing. I’m serving God is a part of God’s plan for my life inside the body of Christ. That’s my purpose. And I’m responsible to handle God’s money. And I get to use what I want to use wisely for my own use, and there’s more than enough. Well, I hope these are helpful. I hope this is informative to you. And thank you for being a part of Inspiring Better Business.