Stop Looking Sideways

Written last week:

This post, I write while I am sitting beside my hospital bed, waiting to hear if I will be discharged or not. As I gaze out the window and realize that I soon will be stepping into “the world” again, I can’t help but reflect on my life. Such a heavy thought for the day, hub? But my one and only goal when I get home, is just to be with my family. That’s all that matters to me at this moment.

But I can’t help but wonder, why do I fill my life with countless unnecessary things? Why do I fill my life with worries that will forever be there, if I don’t just let go? Why do I feel obligated to do certain things in life, just because the rest of the world or culture does them? Why do I see what others are doing, looking like, working at, or striving for, and feel I have to do the same? Why don’t I more readily embrace the things I want to do in life, and stop looking sideways, wondering what everyone else is doing?

We are bombarded with an insane amount of messages every single day. Do this. Eat that. Wear this. Drive that. Look like this. Don’t do that. All in the name of becoming the best version of ourselves. Now that idea in and of itself, there is nothing wrong with. It’s all about how we approach this idea. Are we doing things for the sake to be like others, or are we doing them to glorify and honor God? And reflect him? Let me repeat that.

Take a look at everything you do. Are you doing it for the sake to be like others or are you doing in the name of honor and glorifying God?

What will my life look like when I am home? Will I continue to worry about the things of this world, trying to be someone I will never really be? Because that’s not who God wants me to be? Will I keep looking sideways, at what every one else is doing, and forget to ask The One, what he wants me to do?

What in life do you dread doing? Okay, I sometimes dislike doing laundry. But I’m learning to see the blessing of it, that I have a family in my home that makes up our home. That right there, makes it all worth it. But outside of the mundane chores, what do you dread doing? What do you do, just to impress others? What do you include in your life for all the wrong reasons? What are you doing in life because everyone else wants you to be doing it, not because you feel God calling you to it? What are you good at? What are you passionate about? What do you love doing on a rainy day?

Instead of impressing on ourselves this undeserved guilt that we aren’t doing what everyone else is doing, let’s start embracing ourselves for who God created us to be. Not to be a version of ourselves so that we look good to others, but in order that we can honor and glorify God.

I get to choose what fills my days. How I spend my time. I am challenging myself to fill my days with things that are God-honoring and glorifying to him, and stop looking sideways, looking for other’s approval.

You in?