That's Not Who I Am

I don't often get to spend quality alone time with my husband.  We reserve Friday nights as our "Date Night", but about 50 weeks of the year, date night simply means we don't answer the phone or use the computer.  We order in dinner, put our kids to bed and my husband falls asleep on the couch beside me while we watch TV or a movie.

So when I had the chance to fly down to Vancouver, then Victoria, BC with him and drive a vehicle home, I jumped at it.

I am blessed that after 5 years of marriage (which I know is really not that long, but is still a big deal to us), we can still talk for hours. 

We enjoyed a beautiful flight down to Vancouver, filled with views of beautiful glaciers on mountain tops and the gorgeous blue-green lakes that they melt in to.  Then a couple hours in the airport, and we were off to Victoria.

When we finally made it back to the ferry with our new-to-us truck, it was time again to just relax and enjoy each other's company.  We talked about a lot of things during our 16 hours of travel.  We discussed the usual things: work, kids, finances, the house and yard work.

Once we left Vancouver, headed for home, we started to talk about how some people are just so unhappy in their lives because of what they base their personal importance on. 

If they have the ideal body shape and size, their life will be better. 

If their house is continually spotless, their life will be better.

If their hair and skin are perfect at all times, their life will be better.

If they...

You get the point.

This conversation has been on my mind all week.  I feel that God is asking me to put a message out there to people that these are not the attributes he is wanting us to cultivate.

Now, by no means am I perfect, but I personally do not understand these people.  Not one of these qualities have a single thing to do with who they are.  These things only deal with what they look like to the rest of the world.  And I discovered a long time ago that my appearance is what I look like, it is not who I am.

God has put a number on every single hair on our of our heads, and knows when a single one of his flock is hurting.  But you know what he has never counted?  What the scale says in the morning, or house many toys are on the living room floor when company shows up.  He never once mentions that our hair and skin must be flawless.

You know what he did say?  Your greatest commandment is to love God, and to love others. 

How can you do that when you don't love where God has put you right now?