Lisa On Purpose

The only thing that will EVER fix the problem is… LOVE.

There is no other way.

Sweet & Simple.

1 Corinthians 13:1-13
NIV

“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭13‬:‭1‬-‭13‬ ‭NIV‬‬
https://bible.com/bible/111/1co.13.1-13.NIV

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This is more than a onesie.
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On Purpose™️.

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https://stan.store/LisaOnPurpose/p/on-purpose-baby-onesie--hand-dyed--prayed-over

This is what it looks like to rise—in spite of everything.

Still standing. Still becoming.
Still On Purpose.™️

And the best is yet to come.



Lisa On Purpose™️

Look at her.

That little girl is me.

For years, I have tried to understand WHY I am the way I am.

Why do I always show up?

Why do I immediately step in when someone needs help?

Why do I put other people’s needs before my own?

Why do I feel responsible for making sure everyone is okay?

Why is my first instinct always…

What can I do to help?

I’ve wondered about it for years.

I thought maybe I was a people pleaser.

But that never quite fit.

And then, very recently, something happened.

I was thinking about my childhood, my sister, the woman I have become and the way I have moved through almost every season of my life…

And suddenly, the pieces connected.

After all these years of not knowing…

I finally know where my need to help others came from.

I was about seven years old.

My little sister wanted to take a shower with me.

I didn’t want her to, but our mom told me to let her.

So I did.

While I was washing my hair, my sister poured out most of the shampoo.

When Mom discovered the nearly empty bottle, she lost it.

She yelled at me, sent me to my room, picked up my baby doll and began beating me with it.

The doll struck my ear.

My ear started bleeding.

And then everything changed.

Mom realized what she had done.

She cried.

She held me.

She apologized over and over and over.

I want to be very clear about something.

My mother was not a bad mother.

She was a single mother with very little money and very little help.

At seven years old, I couldn’t understand that.

At 62, I can.

That shampoo wasn’t just shampoo.

It was money she didn’t have to replace it.

It was one more thing piled on top of pressures I was far too young to understand.

And for one terrible moment, everything she was carrying exploded.

I was the recipient of it.

I have remembered that day for most of my life.

But until recently, I had never really considered what that little girl may have carried away from it.

And then I saw it.

My sister had done something.
I hadn’t prevented it.
And I paid the consequence.

I believe something took root inside me that day:

Make sure nothing bad happens.

From that point forward, I felt responsible for my little sister.

I became the one who helped care for her.

The one who watched.

The one who protected.

The one who showed up.

And somewhere along the way, being the protector stopped being something I did.

It became who I was.

Then, 10 years later, something happened that I now realize may have driven that belief even deeper.

My little sister was 11 years old.

One afternoon, she didn’t want to go straight home after school because no one was home yet. She didn’t want to be home by herself.

So she stopped at a friend’s house.

That became the day she disappeared.

She was missing for 30 days before she was able to escape. The details are her story to tell.

For years, I knew that story.

Of course I did.

But only recently did I connect it to my own story.

And when I did, the thought hit me:

What if I had been home?

Would she have come home?

Could I have prevented the things that happened to her?

And suddenly I could almost hear the message that had been running quietly underneath so much of my life:

You have to be there.

Show up.

Pay attention.

Help.

Protect.

Fix it.

Don’t let anyone fall through the cracks.

Make sure nothing bad happens.

And there it was.

At 62 years old, after decades of wondering why I am wired to immediately step in and help…

I finally understood.

I wasn’t spending my life trying to make everybody happy.

I was trying to make sure everybody was safe.

There is a difference.

I wasn’t a people pleaser.

I had become a protector.

A caregiver.

A fixer.

A preventer.

A carrier.

And recently, when I recognized it, I could suddenly see it everywhere.

Someone hurts—I show up.

Someone struggles—I help.

Someone needs something—I figure it out.

Something goes wrong—I immediately start looking for what I can do.

I don’t wait to be asked.

I step in.

I carry.

And sometimes I have carried things that were never mine to carry.

Years later, as our mother was preparing to cross over to Heaven, I leaned in close to her ear so only she could hear me and I made her a promise.

I said… “Mom. If you want to go, I promise. I will take care of Amber.”

Mom went to Heaven shortly thereafter.

I’ve done my best to keep that promise.

My sister will tell you I have been her “rock” throughout her life.

And I will always love her fiercely.

But this recent revelation has helped me understand something else.

Taking care of someone doesn’t mean I am responsible for everything that happens to them, like I believed I was.

And my sister deserves credit for the woman she fought to become.

She has survived things no human being should ever have to endure.

She is so much more than what happened to her.

She has helped children.

She has helped women and men.

She has worked with Homeland Security.

And today, after everything life has thrown at her, she has created stability for herself.

She has a full-time job.

Wonderful benefits.

A life she fought incredibly hard to build.

She did that.

Those victories belong to HER.

And recognizing her strength is helping me understand my own role differently.

I can love someone without feeling like I have to carry them.

I can protect without thinking I have prevent every bad thing.

I can help without assuming responsibility for every outcome.

I can show up without believing everything depends on me.

For years, I couldn’t explain this part of myself.

Now I can.

Look at that little girl again.

She wasn’t trying to please everybody.

She was trying to make sure everybody was okay.

And without realizing it, she carried that responsibility with her for decades.

Until very recently, she didn’t even know she was carrying it.

Now she does.

And at 62, I’m not trying to get rid of the protector in me.

I love that part of myself.

She has served me well.

She has taught me to love fiercely.

To advocate boldly.

To notice people who are hurting.

To show up when someone needs someone.

I don’t want to stop helping people.

Helping people is part of who I am.

I’m simply learning that helping and carrying are not the same thing.

There are things that are mine to carry.

There are things that belong to other people.

And there are things that belong only to God.

After years of wondering why…

I finally know.

I will still love deeply.

I will still protect fiercely.

I will still show up.

I will still be strong.

But being strong doesn’t mean you carry the whole mountain.

The little girl in this picture has finally put some of the weight down.

Not the love.

Never the love.

Just the weight.

This is 62.

Still learning.

Still becoming.

Still discovering pieces of myself I never understood before.

Still trusting God with every part of my Life.

And finally understanding a little more about the woman He created me to be…

ON PURPOSE…

Lisa On Purpose™️

Many think I recently pulled
“Lisa On Purpose™️”
out of nowhere when in fact… this vision has been cultivating in my mind and heart for over 20 years.

I’ve tried to launch it so many times but I guess it just wasn’t time until now, so…

Welcome To:

Lisa On Purpose™️
The person. The story. The umbrella brand.

On Purpose™ i41:10
The faith-centered message and signature.

On Purpose™ i41:10 Keepsake Onesies
The first product created to carry that message.

At the heart of everything:

Every Life is On Purpose.

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Lisa On Purpose

Before I knew what surviving meant, God had already equipped me with everything I would need.

Resilience was woven into my spirit. Tenacity was planted deep within me. Faith was written on my heart. Persistence was built into my character, and the will to keep going was placed inside me before I ever took my first breath.

I wasn’t born knowing how strong I was.

Life was about to train me—through every hardship, heartbreak, lesson, and victory—to use everything God had already given me.

I didn’t become equipped because of what I survived.

What I survived revealed how powerfully I had been equipped from the very beginning.

On Purpose.

Lisa On Purpose™️