"What do you do?"
"Where did you go to high school?"
"Where did you go to college?"
Ugh...
In my twenties I would cringe when these questions were posed to me in social circles.
Perhaps some of you have too.
Finding our way...
When I was little my dream was to be a ballerina. However I wasn't sure what I wanted to do for years after it became very clear being a ballerina wasn't going to happen. Having posters of ballerinas in your bedroom and yet zero lessons.... does not quite cut it.
It understandably it can be unsettling when everyone around you seemingly has everything figured out and is sailing through life with zero uncertainty about what their profession will be. This may then lead to anxiety ridden moments during social settings when someone asks you "What do you do?" But even if you struggle with not knowing what path career wise you aspire to take in life... rest assured you are not alone. The truth is, each of us reach our destination of discovering where our heart lies, what our passions are, what is important to us in our own time. This is why it's so important to try our hand at many new things to see what we flourish in... yet have not yet discovered. Just because we may take a little longer than others to realize what we know in our hearts we are meant to do does not mean for a second we are less than others who have it all figured out from the start of childhood.
Motherhood....
Likewise we may decide that being a mom is the only job we desire. There is nothing wrong with that and in fact is often the most under appreciated (and unpaid) job as a whole by society today. There is never truly "off time", as raising children also comes with managing a home, overseeing appointments and caring for sick children. Any mother who has drudged out of bed like a zombie at 3 am to administer fever medication and a cool washcloth to a sick child knows the sacrifices a mother makes. A mother's joy supersedes her sacrifices in the long run even if during that 3 am moment she questions procreation however fleeting. Being a mother is a noble job that we are blessed with by God and one each of us should take seriously and in no way ever regard as less than. As women we are preparing our children to live in Godly character as adults one day. We don't ever have to be ashamed to say we are mothers... we are actually beyond blessed to call ourselves "mom" and to have a little one refer to us as theirs.
High school...
We may not have made the typical decisions others have made during those four years and in fact may have made less than stellar choices... perhaps we became involved with people of shady character, maybe we skipped classes... regrettably finding ourselves planted in detention or summer school more often than a regular classroom. Whatever decisions we made back then and however long ago, they may very well have impacted us for quite some time. For some who sailed through high school on the high of popularity, excellent grades and esteem and were rooted in a positive family life their high school years may be in stark contrast to what their peers experienced. What holds us back in life is choosing to continually subscribe to the false notion that we are less than due to our past or the mistakes we've made in it. We don't have to beat ourselves up and instead can look back at how far we've come. We can stand firmly in Christ's love for us. Turning from our old ways has set a new life before us and that includes our hopes and dreams coming to fruition despite a rocky beginning... what a testament to living in victory!
College...
Our sense of self worth shouldn't be founded in our degree, campus of education, sorority, etc. Your worth is not grounded in the image of how others perceive you, or the alumni sticker on your vehicle's back window or lack thereof but instead God's unwavering love for you. Today there may be enormous competition in social circles to be what others expect you to be and live up to the ways of the world when it comes to status and image... but we don't have to place our faith in things that may very well be fickle and uncertain. Instead we can place our faith in God and realize that no matter if our beginning was rough and more closely resembled "school of hard knocks" we have been finely chiseled by God each day since to stand where we are now.... in strength and celebratory triumph. I can think of no greater degree of success than that. For when we stand in celebratory triumph with God we encourage others to also.
No matter what path we choose in life we can rest assured that we are each walking our individual journey. We don't have to compete or compare ourselves with others... doing so only serves to trap us in comparison and cause us unneeded stress and self doubt. Instead, we can meditate on our passions and set goals for ourselves that enable us to become better each and every day... with God's guidance and prayers on our part we can not only survive in life but actually go a step further and thrive!
© gps-gracepowerstrength.blogspot.com ~ 2013
To My Readers: Thank you for reading, commenting & sharing!
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