Fall Bucket List

Who do you imitate?

Finally, I am happy to be me. I am not always happy with myself, but I am happy that I am me. For my entire life I have always looked at different people and wished my life was more like theirs. They have the perfect home, the perfect marriage, the perfect kids, the perfect homeschool, and a perfect life.  How can I make my life look just like hers? I would ask myself. Maybe she will tell me what school curriculum they use and what schedule they follow. If I just imitate them, my life will be so much better. I just want to know how they have made their marriage so successful and if I implement that exactly then I will have a great marriage also. 

Sounds like it should work that way, right? It doesn’t. It took me many years to realize the mistakes I had been making by trying to imitate my life after someone else’s. I would try to imitate my friends, family, blogs, books, and anything I could. Why if I have spent so many years trying to be like others I looked up too, does my life look nothing like theirs? Then it hit. I could hear God saying, imitate me. I have been trying to make my life loo

k like something it’s not and was never intended to look like. God made me unique in every way. My family, kids, marriage, homeschool, and life will never look like anyone else’s.

I had to except my uniqueness before I could be content. I had to call out to God for direction and ideas for my life. I read a great book recently, Becoming More Than a Good Bible Study Girl, by Lysa TerKeurst, and she talks about how she would not want the good and the bad of someone else’s life. They may seem to have a perfect marriage now but would you want to go through the long trials and tribulations they have had to go through to get where they are today? Probably not.

My life is so much calmer now that I do not need to know what everyone else is doing. I am not constantly looking for something different to do. I do not need to follow the crowd anymore. I have my own opinions instead of taking on others opinions. The freedom that I have found in only trying to imitate God is tremendous. I do what works for me and my family. I do what I feel God is leading me to do and no one else.

 My prayer is Lord, let me imitate you and not worry about what others think or do because if I base my life on you I can’t go wrong. I know your perfect will for my life is not to try to be like someone else but to except that where I am and what I am doing here and now is in your sovereign will. Please help me to remember just because other people may tell me what I should be doing or not doing that it is not them who will judge me Lord, but it is You I will one day stand before and only You I will answer too.  Amen