I took my nighttime cold meds after a day of school, Monday Night Football and House I found myself laying in a bed unable to sleep. I sat there for a while and stared at the wall, the light switch (glows in the dark), then to an odd shaped glass filled with sand, sea shells and a candle and finally resting my eyes on a bookshelf with about a half a dozen photo albums lying on the bottom shelf. I easily pull myself out of the bed and gently take a photo album from the lower shelf. I opened and to my surprise I see my parents, aunts and uncles, and a few of their friends from when they were right out of high school. While viewing these pictures I found myself making fun of my Dad’s wavy Johnny Estrada hair and my mom’s interesting choice in footwear. They had been married for about 1 year in these pictures. I put that photo album down and began looking through all the others.
I started to think about something. What did my parents do that defined themselves back in the day? Was it what they did? Did they accomplish things, have a high status amongst friends or was it a sweet job where you made lots of moola? Or, were they defined by who they were, their character, what they did for others and how they loved God? This got me thinking about myself. Am I defined by the things that I have done or accomplished? Or do others see me for who I am and what my character is like? I know if I think back, I have made some decisions based on how people will look at me, they will like that I have made this decision because it is makes me “look” successful. Let me state that there is absolutely nothing wrong with being successful. I am merely tackling the heart and mindset of the issue of being defined by the things we do and not who we are. I will be the first to say that I am a mess, I let things, people, situations, greed and selfishness(to name a few) occasionally define who I am. I am asking myself and you, the reader, this question. What defines you? are you ok with that/those things? If not, why? Would your friends say the same thing?
Here are my answers.
I tend to let my accomplishments/status define me. I have worked really hard to get where I am at and I feel like I should be rewarded. I have a hard time saying no due to the fact that I need to accomplish more to please more people and feel better about myself, I feel accepted. In the end I tend to get burnt out and feet like I have been used.
I am not ok with that defining me.
God looks beyond our sinful nature and if all I want to do is feel like I did something for a title or status then I need to check my heart and my motives.
I think my close friends would say that I work hard. They might not realize that sometimes I do it because I need to gain that acceptance from others.
God does not want us to define ourselves in the things of this world. He wants us to have our identity found in Him. I hope that this sparks some thoughts inside you. I know it got me going enough to type all this out at midnight. Goodnight and farewell till next time!
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I have also felt that way.... & it was not so long ago. then I read a passage in the bible, I believe it was colossians 3:22-25 it helped me to change my focus, about my job, my status, & most of all how people I looked up to viewed me as a person. It seems so easy to fall into that realm of thought, & we so often do...especially in todays current society, where we are inundated with how we should be & act in today's world, where we should be in our life at any given age or moment, & we are surounded constantly by what other people think. I have found that when I think of myself as working for people, or trying to please people, I am never satisfied, but that if I work for the lord in everything I do. I will be, its not how others define me or even how I choose to define myself that's important, but rather how I am defined by God, as I strive to work in everything I do for our Lord Jesus Christ.
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