{"id":159,"date":"2014-10-28T07:42:38","date_gmt":"2014-10-28T14:42:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdprairiewriter.com\/?p=159"},"modified":"2014-12-05T15:08:29","modified_gmt":"2014-12-05T22:08:29","slug":"october-a-month-of-purpose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sdprairiewriter.com\/?p=159","title":{"rendered":"October – A month of purpose"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>By Codi Vallery-Mills<\/div>\n
This month, in two completely different settings, I was asked the question, \u201cWhat is your purpose?\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
The first time the question was posed it was from North Dakota State University\u2019s Dr. Gerald Stokka, DVM who was speaking at the South Dakota Women in Ag\u2019s annual fall conference. He asked the room full of women what our purpose as farmers and ranchers is. The obvious answer of course is that we create the world\u2019s food supply.\u00a0\u201cAnd what a great purpose those in Ag have,\u201d said Stokka. \u201cTo produce such a need as food gives one great authority, but what comes with authority? Responsibility.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
One of Stokka\u2019s roles at NDSU revolves around livestock stewardship. However, that day his message on responsible livestock stewardship went deeper than a textbook explanation.With authority to produce food comes the responsibility to be stewards of \u2013 land, animals, self, family, community, culture, philosophy \u2013 and the list could go on, he explained. Whatever helps one accomplish careful and responsible management of something entrusted to ones care requires stewardship.\u00a0He suggests that those in the ag industry need to reinvest in passionately finding their purpose and stewardship will likely follow. \u201cScience glazes over the passion . . . you know, that thing that makes you bring a calf into your home\u2019s bathroom tub to warm up so it has a chance at life.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
Stokka asked the women that day to create a mission statement for ones self and put an emphasis on stewardship of the gifts, creativity, culture and philosophy one has to carry out their mission\u2019s purpose.<\/span><\/div>\n
Also in October I heard a church sermon series based around the word S.H.A.P.E., where each letter stood for something different. S stands for spiritual gifts, H stands for heart, A stands for abilities, P is for personality and E is Experience. \u00a0The pastor asked for each of us to consider the above letters by putting into context what true spiritual gifts and abilities we have to offer others. Are we introverts? Extroverts? Procrastinators? Competitors? And what is our background? Above all else though, where is our heart (aka. Passion).<\/span><\/div>\n
Once you have identified items for each letter you will likely see areas that overlap, duplicate and maybe even offer a glimpse at a purpose you hadn\u2019t thought about. I know I did.<\/span><\/div>\n
The sermon flashed me back to Stokka\u2019s presentation where he mentioned using our creative abilities, compassionate hearts, and unique selves to accomplish being stewards of agriculture and the rural lifestyles many of us live.<\/span><\/div>\n
So I leave October a little more aware of my own purpose on earth and hope that you too are walking a path that speaks to your heart.<\/span><\/div>\n

\u00a9 2014 Codi Vallery-Mills<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Codi Vallery-Mills This month, in two completely different settings, I was asked the question, \u201cWhat is your purpose?\u201d The first time the question was posed it was from North Dakota State University\u2019s Dr. Gerald Stokka, DVM who was speaking at the South Dakota Women in Ag\u2019s annual fall conference. He asked the room full […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[20,22,21],"class_list":["post-159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-httpsdprairiewriter-compage_id73","tag-agriculture","tag-purpose","tag-stewardship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdprairiewriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdprairiewriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdprairiewriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdprairiewriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdprairiewriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=159"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/sdprairiewriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":167,"href":"https:\/\/sdprairiewriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159\/revisions\/167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdprairiewriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdprairiewriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdprairiewriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}