Love Your Journey

     After spending a day doing ministry with some of my closest friends, we made one last stop for ice cream and were heading home.  We had been talking about the seasons of life, contentment, and how we are just at a point of being okay with us, with who we are.  I began to think about how comfortable I am with people that specifically God has placed in my life as "family", blood related or not. I didn't have to chase them, pay them, or beg them to be part of my life.  It's not by accident, God knows exactly who we need in our lives to be real with, through good times and bad. Those people who are there for you in all kinds of weather when we need them, for support, unfiltered honesty, for laughter in fun, and for love when we hurt...those people who can be Jesus with skin on because the love of Jesus shines right through them into your life.  It is with those people I have always felt "at home" just being me as they have always loved me right where I was at. It may have been in laughter and or in tears, but they have been there. They fit my life like a cozy slipper, and I've learned over time that its okay to just be, and embrace ME.

 In the last month I have been thinking a lot about "Who I am".  I actually finally feel like I am at a point in my life where I am comfortable in my own skin, in who God made me to be.  Don't get me wrong, I don't think I am perfect by any means.  I need to lose weight, I have psoriasis, I'm impatient, I have wrinkles and a couple of gray hairs etc... and the list goes on...  but I am okay with me.   I have had, in the last month, two people at two different times, say that they appreciated me because I was "authentic".  My thought was, "Haven't I always been?", but the truth is that I haven't.  I think I spent a lot of my life striving to be what I thought someone people might like, to try and be accepted. Becoming a bit of an over achiever because maybe it would make others proud of me or like me...because in my heart I didn't feel good enough just being me.  I had believed the lie that God left me in lack when He created me. That is a lie from the pit of Hell.  The truth is that God didn't miss one single beat when creating me, or when He created you.  

I realize in many ways I am different, and I don't even have to try.  I have also come to discover that is not a bad thing, its actually a good thing. I also have discovered that there will always be some people that love it and some that don't.   If we were all created the same, then what a boring world this would be.  I think people work too hard at TRYING to be different in this world, when they really are just trying to just feel loved and accepted, something ALL PEOPLE desire.   Now there's a twist, huh?!  All we really have to do is relax and breathe, and just be.  God made us all with unique gifts and talents. Some gifts and talents people may have are as obvious as a strobe light in a dark room, and others are as obvious as a tiny birthmark on your back side.  Both giftings are equally important. Often we get caught up in looking over the fence at what we think is the greener grass.  Don't! 

 The minute you find yourself feeling jealous of another soul about anything, is the minute you are admitting, maybe only to yourself, that lie that God didn't make you enough. It is a lie, YOU are lacking NOTHING.  Focusing time on such a lie keeps you from moving forward.

Watching people discover and succeed at their God given gifts and the race God has set for them, should get you excited. Truth is, that when it annoys you, it's time to check your own insecurities. God has blessed us all with different gifts and abilities. Some are similar but It's so cool that we are all truly unique. If you are truly running the race that God has you on, you are in competition with NO ONE. If you feel like you are, check to see if you are trying run your path or someone else's. God has a specific plan and purpose for your life, embrace it.   Don't get tripped up trying to shine your light on another's path chasing their shadow. Instead shine bright in the confidence He had when he made you.  Embrace the differences, always trying to be the very BEST version of YOU, and love your journey. 

Photo Credit: Sean D. Mullins