Heather Prichard [00:00:01]:
Hello. I’m Heather Prichard. I’m excited to be here with you today. I come to you as an encourager. I’m a mom. I’m a wife. I’m a Gigi. I’m a business owner.
Heather Prichard [00:00:11]:
I’m a leader. But most of all, I’m the daughter of the king of kings. I come to you this morning to share a little bit about passion and purpose and to help you on your journey to finding your purpose and living a life full of passion. Whenever I think about passion, I think about my little grandkids. I’ve got four, all under the age of five. I have two grandsons that are twins, and they’re five years old. And then I have two granddaughters, aged three and one. And whenever you look at my little Addie Kate carrying her little Elmo around, if someone tries to take it from her, you’re going to learn real quickly about passion.
Heather Prichard [00:00:49]:
Or my little granddaughter Kira, if she goes fishing with her daddy on their Saturday daddy daughter dates, and she’s got her little fishing pole, you’re not going to pry that fishing pole pole out of her hands because she’s passionate about that fishing pole, but most of all, her time with her daddy. And whenever you think about my grandsons and I’m with them, I’m reminded of passion very quickly about their connection with each other. Again, like I mentioned earlier, they’re twins. They embrace each other. The way they look at each other, protect each other, look after each other. There is so much passion there. And then I think about passion whenever I show up at their house and I walk in the front door and all I hear is Gigi or my husband is there and they’re yelling, Jimin. And they approach us with so much love and passion, and they’re running, running, running, and they embrace us with their arms and both legs tied around your waist.
Heather Prichard [00:01:44]:
And it’s so very special. You feel so very loved. And so they’re so passionate about love. And to me, that describes what passion is about is love. But the dictionary has this description, a strong, barely controllable behavior or emotion. I see it as love. Love is a barely controllable emotion that we all share. And you see passion is also freedom of fear, as long as our passion is larger than our fear.
Heather Prichard [00:02:22]:
But where does that passion go? Whenever you’re a three year old child or a five year old child and you’re sharing life with so much love, so much joy, where does that passion go from? Whenever they were that age to adults, I’ve often wondered what happens? You see, we are trained by the world to be average. We’re trained by the world to be mediocre. And that that’s okay. And in many instances, that’s how we should be, is how the world teaches us. But you see, we do not have a mediocre God. We do not have an average God. Heaven has streets of gold. Gold.
Heather Prichard [00:03:10]:
You see, God doesn’t do anything small. Everything with God is bigger. Everything with God is in more abundance. And I feel like that’s how we should live our lives. There’s many scriptures throughout the Bible that talks about abundance, and there’s a reason for that. And so at what point, as adults, do we decide that we no longer deserve to live a life of abundance or that we no longer are smart enough, that we’re not educated enough, we don’t know enough people, or that simply we’re not deserving? We’ve either been told that by other people or we feel it ourselves, that we are not deserving of the life that we once had. A fire in our belly for that dream that we once were so excited about, and that we had a dream that we just kind of let go by the wayside. Can you think of a dream that you maybe have that.
Heather Prichard [00:04:06]:
That you let go of as you grew up or that you didn’t feel worthy of as you grew up? I’m certain that all of you listening here today can think of something that you just decided you were not worthy of. I want to reignite that fire in you today. You see, a lot of times, we let go of those dreams because of fear. I fear is false evidence appearing to be real when it’s actually never even going to usually happen. What we’re afraid of is usually not even going to happen. And fear is opposite of faith. What we have to do is decide what do we want. As a coach in business, I meet lots of clients, and my job is to help them discover what they want and then achieve it.
Heather Prichard [00:04:58]:
Many times exceed that desire. But most of the time, whenever I sit down with a client, this is what I learn. They don’t know what they want. I go to God in prayer sometimes, and I visit with him about the hearts that he. The desires that he’s placed upon my heart. And then there’s times I sit back in my chair and I listen. And what God tells me is, my child, that’s not big enough. That’s not big enough.
Heather Prichard [00:05:28]:
Our God is big. He wants us to accomplish big things. He wants us to do big things and have big goals. And go out and make a difference across the world in a big way, not a small way. And I’m here to encourage you to do that today. Take your dreams back. Take them back, recapture them, and think and pray. Is this something that God wants me to accomplish? Because, you see, he gave you different desires and passions than he gave me.
Heather Prichard [00:06:04]:
He gave me different desires and passions than he gave my husband. And so whenever I have a dream or a desire, I know that God’s plan placed that in me for a reason. It’s a passion that usually aligns with my purpose. God creates passions within us that helps us be able to fulfill what we’re here to do. We’ve got to have a yearning in our belly to do something before we’re going to do it. So he creates passion within us so that we can then take that passion and go fulfill it, our purpose. So what passion do you have today? What are you passionate about? What excites you? What gets you out of bed? What keeps you up? What shakes you up? What keeps you awake and is going to help you be able to fulfill your purpose here on earth? What are those passions that you’ve maybe kind of hidden away that you no longer think about? We can be, do, and have anything that our hearts desire and anything that we’re willing to be responsible for, because with big things becomes big responsibility. Before you can be something, you have to see yourself being it.
Heather Prichard [00:07:21]:
Before you do something, you have to see yourself doing it. And before you can have something, you have to see yourself having it. God gave us all passions to push us toward fulfilling all of these purposes. But we have to be clear. We have to be clear on our passion and what it is that we want, what it is that we desire, what it is that God is desiring us to do in our life right now. At this time, Philippians 314 says, press toward the mark. But we have to first define our mark. We have to define that mark.
Heather Prichard [00:08:00]:
And what mark is it that we’re trying to hit? What target are we trying to hit? What are we trying to accomplish here? This is what’s really great about big things. Jesus did big things. Jesus didn’t do small things. He did big things. He came to earth and accomplished amazing things. And we can accomplish amazing things, amazing things through him. While he was here on earth, people would go over and beyond to just get to him and be in his presence. And we can be in his presence now.
Heather Prichard [00:08:34]:
Through him. Through him, we can be in the presence of God. We’ve got to be crystal clear on our goals, on our dreams, on our visions. We’ve got to be very specific about what it is that our goal is that we’re trying to accomplish. We have to review them daily and then speak them. This is the most important part. Speak them. Our words have so much power.
Heather Prichard [00:09:01]:
There are miracles in your mouth. You’ve got to speak it. And when we speak things, chains fall off, walls come down. The enemy is destroyed, and breakthroughs happen. I am ready. I’m ready to see that happen in your life. I’m ready for it to happen in my life. And I’m ready for us to do this together.
Heather Prichard [00:09:25]:
We, the world needs us. There are people waiting for us to be responsible for our calling, for us to come help them on their journey. It is our responsibility to recognize our journey, to recognize our passions and to go after them. You see, I think about Abraham, and God said, go look up from where you are. See the stars. That’s how many descendants that you’re going to have. Can you count them? There were more than he could even count. But God said, look up from where you are.
Heather Prichard [00:10:05]:
You see, Abraham had to get that image inside of him, and God knew it. God knew that he had to do that. And so he called them. He called Abraham outside to give him that vision. Purpose will get you up early, and it will keep you up late. Whenever you get that fire back in your belly, you’re going to be diligently working toward that purpose and calling it into existence. Because when we don’t do that, we’re essentially living the same day, day after day, the same year, year after year. We all have the same 24 hours.
Heather Prichard [00:10:47]:
What are you going to do with your 24 hours? This is what the dictionary describes. Purpose, the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists. I simply see it as the reason that we’re here. And if you struggle with identifying your purpose, I can help you out with that a little bit today. Think back about the most important people in your life, the people that God’s placed in your life that are in your inner circle. Your spouse or your children, your family, your friends, your coworkers, your church family, all of these people God’s placed there for a reason. And at your funeral, what do you want them to remember about you? What do you want them to say about you? What words would you want for them to use to describe you? I challenge you today to sit down and write this out. Write these most important people’s names.
Heather Prichard [00:11:48]:
And underneath it, write what you want them to remember you as essentially, it’s going to be your legacy. Legacy is what we leave in someone. It’s what we live inside of them whenever we leave this earth. So not only are you going to practically be writing your own obituary, but most importantly, you’re going to be writing your purpose. That’s the most easiest way to fulfill and identify your purpose. How are we impacting others? We can impact our family, our life, our kids, all those people who are around us daily. But how are we impacting our communities? How are we impacting strangers? Because that can be part of our purpose, too. Think about how would a stranger describe you whenever you meet them for the first time? What are they going to describe you as? By the look on your face, by the words that you use, by the sound and tone of your voice.
Heather Prichard [00:12:48]:
How are you impacting people and what are you doing for your community? I’m 50 ish. My husband and I are in our young fifties. And so considering that, you know, what if the average lifespan is 75 to 80? I pray God’s going to give us both many, many years together. But what if it was 80 years, for instance? You know, whenever I’m sitting and thinking about purpose, that gives me 30 years of prayer approximately to fulfill that. 30 christmases, 30 falls to enjoy the fall weather, 30 birthdays to celebrate. You look at life a little differently whenever you start looking at opportunity that way. So I want to challenge you to think about what are you going to do with 25 more summers? Who are you going to choose to maybe take fishing like my son takes my little granddaughter and spend time with them. Invest time with them.
Heather Prichard [00:13:54]:
I want a light of fire in your belly today to identify your passion and your purpose. Work toward it each and every day. Take a little time each day to just sit and journal and relight that fire. Think about what are you here to do? What are you here to accomplish? And then each and every day, set out to do something, just a little something each day to put you closer and push you closer to that goal. You see, we’re all blessed with today. I’m blessed today with life. Not everyone got to wake up today. And so I feel so blessed that I’m able to be here with you and share with you and that I have the opportunity to be able to do so.
Heather Prichard [00:14:39]:
And I set out to impact lives each and every day. Whenever you position yourself for success, you’ve got to make a choice to live as if. I like to call this positioning ourselves. Live as if you are already the person that God’s placed upon your heart to be whatever it is you see, an Olympic award winner doesn’t become that by not believing that they are already. So live as if, wake up as if, speak as if, walk as if, work as if. Most importantly, celebrate as if. How can we expect others to believe in us if we don’t believe in ourselves? We have to believe in ourselves first and show up as if. And it’s so important to practice being as if.
Heather Prichard [00:15:42]:
Many times professional athletes practice 95% of the time to play the game, 5% of the time. So spend time, whether that be in the word, whether it be listening to great podcasts. Condition yourself and be ready. Because when opportunity comes, it’s usually too late to prepare. So be ready. Start practicing, start living as if each day. And whenever you do that, it’s important for them to surround yourself with people, with good people, with people who are going to lift you up with people who are going to lock arms with you, link arms with you and do life with you in a big way. Support you in your dreams, support you in your passions.
Heather Prichard [00:16:35]:
People puts God in our lives for a reason. So be sure and embrace those people and do life with them. Do life with them big and be a blessing to them. Take them to coffee, you guys, let’s get out of our houses and let’s go bless people. Spend time with people. Get out in your communities. Do things. It’s time to get up and do things.
Heather Prichard [00:16:57]:
Be in people’s presence. Change lives. Send somebody a gift. Make that phone call. Whenever we have a nudge in our belly to call somebody, it’s usually for a reason. So call it, call them, send them a video, text, something. Just reach out. We’ve got to be a master people scout.
Heather Prichard [00:17:19]:
That’s what I like to call it. Go scout people out who you can change their life, who you can make an impression, improve things, give them some wisdom, give them some encouragement. My grandfather worked. He had three careers and about 50 plus years ago he had an assistant who I got to meet a few years back and she could not say enough amazing things about my grandfather. And I thought, how incredible is that? That 50 years later he impacted her so much that she still sings his praises to this day and he’s gone and in heaven now. But it’s so incredible to think about how he impacted her in a way that 50 years later she still could not say enough wonderful things about him. And I thought, that’s how I want to live. That’s how I want to impact people.
Heather Prichard [00:18:12]:
Go bless someone. Leave a legacy. Find opportunities to do that each and every day, go dream together, go play together, go pray together, go bless your communities together, and you can be, do, and have more than you ever dreamed. I want to visit a little bit about perseverance. Perseverance is so important to me. This is what the dictionary says, that persevere means to continue doing something despite difficulty or opposition. It’s persistence, it’s endurance. Sticking with something when it’s hard.
Heather Prichard [00:18:50]:
And whenever you learn how to persevere, then you can prevail. And this is what prevail means. Achieving success are winning. In a situation that’s often a struggle. We’re going to have struggles. We’ve got to be prepared for them. In fact, expect them, expect the struggles and be ready to stand on your faith whenever those things happen so that you can persevere through them and then prevail. About 32 years ago, on a cold January morning, I woke up paralyzed from the waist down.
Heather Prichard [00:19:29]:
I was seven months pregnant with my daughter at the time. And after an entire day’s worth of testing in the hospital, being scared, frightened, not knowing what was to come, the doctors found out what had happened, which I essentially had a hemorrhaging in my spinal cord. And they took me back to surgery and said, you’ve got a 50% chance making it. So you have three minutes to say goodbye to your family, and then we’re taking you back to surgery. But they told me that I would never walk again. I remember waking up a couple of weeks later in ICU and thinking, can I move my legs? And I couldn’t, but I didn’t give up. Several weeks into it, every night, I would pull the sheets off, and there was a dim light over in the corner of the room, and I would try to move my legs. And one night, about 04:00 a.m.
Heather Prichard [00:20:27]:
i moved my toe. I couldn’t believe it. I was so excited. I pressed the emergency button, and all of the nurses came running in, and they’re like, what happened? I said, I moved my toe. And they’re like, well, show me. And I said, okay, but I have to concentrate, so everyone be really quiet. It was silent. You could have heard a pin drop in the room.
Heather Prichard [00:20:50]:
And I concentrated. Boop. I moved my toe again. It was celebration that filled the room. A couple of hours later, my dad and my mom showed up, and I wanted to show them. I said, okay, you’ve got to be quiet. Quietness filled the room. Once again.
Heather Prichard [00:21:14]:
Nothing. Nothing. It was the first time I ever saw my dad cry. But I knew I would try again. And I told my dad, come back later this evening. I’m gonna try again, and I’ll show you. Because my toe really didn’t move. But I knew then that I was on a journey, and I knew that God was by my side.
Heather Prichard [00:21:40]:
And I had big faith. And I stepped into that faith. Not just that day, you see, but every single day, I stepped into that faith. And I showed up for physical therapy. I showed up with a will to work. I showed up with faith. I showed up ready for God to place healing upon my life, upon this situation. And then there was one day that I was at church with my sister.
Heather Prichard [00:22:05]:
I’d already had my baby. So I was about three months post operation of the situation happening to me, and I was still in a wheelchair, and I had not been able to stand on my own. I had a little bit of movement if I was in water, but I was sitting there in my wheelchair in the middle of the aisle, looking straight ahead at a pastor who was preaching. And I was holding my little baby girl, newborn baby girl. And God spoke to me, and he said, when are you going to just get up and walk? You see, I had gone to therapy. I had been doing all the things they asked me to do, but I had not just tried to get up and walk. I learned right then, at a very young age, praise God, that you’ve got to just get up and stand up in faith. Sometimes us taking the first step is showing God that we believe.
Heather Prichard [00:23:18]:
We believe that he can heal us. We believe in miracles, and we’re here for it. We’re here for it. So I took my newborn baby and I handed her off to my sister, who was sitting next to me. And I took a big, deep breath, and I stood up for the first time ever out of my wheelchair, because I had made a decision. I made a decision. I was not going to raise my daughter from a wheelchair. The entire congregation starts standing up and meeting me in the hall, in the.
Heather Prichard [00:24:00]:
In the walkway, and I said, do not touch me. God’s got me. And let me tell y’all, it wasn’t pretty, but I walked, and I made it to the very front of that church in the middle of the pastor, preaching. I just stood up out of my wheelchair, and I said, I’m coming for you. And all the way down the hall, it got a little rusty, and I got a little bit shaky, but I looked and I told everyone, just don’t touch me. Because I knew God had me. It was one of the hardest and one of the scariest things that I have ever done, but I made it to the front of that church. Sometimes in life you’ve got to just get up and do something.
Heather Prichard [00:24:59]:
Just get up and walk. I had doubts. I was listening to the wrong shoulder a few times. You see, in fact, the very next morning, whenever I showed up for therapy, I told my therapist, I said, I want you to get a walker out because we’re going to go walk around the block. And she said, we can’t do that because, well, one, you can’t walk. And two, because you could fall. There’s cracks in the cement and there’s curbs there and. And I don’t know if you could.
Heather Prichard [00:25:33]:
You could walk around the block. I said, well, today I can, and we’re going to. So whoever we need to go through, whatever phone calls we need to make, whatever channels we have to go through today I’m walking. But the other shoulder kept telling me, what if you can’t? But God kept telling me, what if you can? And you can, my child. You see, I had identified the goal that I wanted, and I was very specific with it. I wanted to walk before my daughter did. And God honored it because I stood up in my faith and walked. I rose up and walked.
Heather Prichard [00:26:21]:
What are you struggling with in your life that you need to just get up and walk? Just rise up and do something? Stand up in your faith and do something. I didn’t make it all the way around the block. But you know what? I made it one mailbox. I made it one driveway, and then the next day I made it another driveway, and then the next day another driveway. And at the time, it was the small community of homes. Kind of retired people lived there, so they were home throughout most of the day. And before I knew it, I had a cheerleading squad. They’re like, what is this tall blonde woman with this newborn baby walking behind her with her mama and this wheelchair and these.
Heather Prichard [00:27:06]:
All these people and these gate belts and what’s all this stuff happening here? And when they started learning of my story, they looked forward to celebrating. Celebrating with me each and every day. They would be on their rockers or in their walkers with their cup of coffee, and sometimes they’d have brownies. But they always had a word of encouragement. They always had a big hug or a high five or a kiss for the baby. Something positive to bring on this journey with me. So whenever I mentioned the people that God brings in your life to do life with you, you see, sometimes it’s strangers with a cup of coffee and a big hug. Or is that a girl? You’re going a little faster today.
Heather Prichard [00:27:59]:
We’ve got to identify what we want, and we have to speak it. Speak it and watch the walls come down, watch the miracles come pouring in. Because you know what? You be ready. Because they’re going to. When your faith is big enough and when you’re clear enough on what you want, on what God’s placed upon your heart. God had placed upon my heart that I was not going to raise my daughter from a wheelchair. And you know what? I didn’t. I walked her into her first day of kindergarten.
Heather Prichard [00:28:33]:
I got to walk down the aisle when she got married and take my seat and watch her get married. I got to experience so many amazing things. Three years later, I had a son. And I raised those two kids, and I raised them standing up. I stood up, I rose up and I walked. What areas of your life do you need to just raise up this morning? What areas of your life need big faith? Because you know what? It’s time. It’s time to embrace the wins. It’s time to embrace the growth.
Heather Prichard [00:29:17]:
It is time to bring others along your journey with you. It’s been 32 years. 32 years ago, this happened to me. And I feel as if it was yesterday. And the reason why is because it wasn’t an easy journey. It’s not for the faint of heart. You’ve got to decide to stand up every day. It’s not a one time decision.
Heather Prichard [00:29:50]:
It’s a decision we have to make every day. When we hear that opportunity o’clock go, clock go off. We’ve got to make a decision. We’re showing up with big faith today. We’re doing this. There were days that I went to therapy that I didn’t move one muscle. Early on, when I was still pregnant, I was still going to therapy. And I would go every day for 4 hours a day some days and not move one muscle.
Heather Prichard [00:30:22]:
But I would leave trembling, exhaustion, physically trembling, pouring sweat just from trying to move, but not had moved one muscle. And the devil could have used that. Satan could have used that to discourage me. And I’ll. I’ll be honest, there were some days that I was more encouraged than others. But every day, I decided and made a decision to my faith and to show up. And whenever I needed it, I dug down deep to that passion. I relit that fire in my belly that the world would try to dim.
Heather Prichard [00:31:08]:
You see, I had doctors, I had physical therapists. I had all these people telling me, you’ll never walk again, Heather, you’re only here for in therapy, so that we can teach you how to live as a handicap, not to teach you how to walk again. I was surrounded with people who had little faith in me, but they, they ended up believing. Do you know why? Because I believed in myself. We have to believe in ourselves so that others can believe in us. We’ve got to prevail over all the struggles. I want to challenge you today to be responsible for those small decisions that we make every single day that allow the big things in our life to happen. I tell the team that I am a leadership over all the time.
Heather Prichard [00:32:11]:
If you’re responsible for the small things, God’s going to bless you with the big things. Get clarity, get focused, and get busy. Because when you embrace this, things are fixing to happen. Big things are going to happen, and it’s time for you to be ready. Because people are rewarded in public for what they are doing in private. Get busy practicing at home, becoming the best version of you so that you can go out and be a blessing of others, so that you can overcome whatever you need to overcome. Go be prosperous. Go be victorious.
Heather Prichard [00:33:02]:
Live abundantly. Dream big. And I encourage you to go live large. Jesus lived large. And it’s time. It’s time for you to rise up and walk. It is time for you to show up, for your family to show up for your communities and stand up. Just when are you going to stand up and walk? I hope it’s today.
Heather Prichard [00:33:42]:
Just get up and take the first step because I stand before you today over making that decision. Vision. Stand up and walk.
