I'm Not Them

 

Blogging, writing, teaching, styling, cooking, mentoring... you name it.... too many times I fall into the trap of thinking "I'm not good enough" or "[someone else] is/could be better."  Then it happened.  One day it just happened.  I realized, what I always told my kids and never owned myself:  I AM good enough... maybe someone else could do it better but God didn't pick them... He picked ME.

I'm not Ann Voskamp, wordsmith, photographer, home-educator, homemaker extraordinaire!  I bet she could whip up a loaf of bread, write an inspirational article with phenomenal pictures and hang the wash to dry before I could get all my kids done with their spelling.  She could be more successful, more artistic and more flexible... but I am not her.

I'm not Nancy Kelly with an amazing website where I LOVE to go and just sit because it is reminiscent of an old enchanted library and makes me think how our homeschool would be different if I had known then what I know now.  She can live and breathe a teaching style with such ease, creating a world with such beauty while I negotiate with my kids and just one.more.hour for history lessons.... I am not her.

The closest I can come to me is Heather S., I think of her as her blog name, Sprittibee.  Her life seems full of the same up and down chaos as mine, handled with the same holding.on.by.my.boot.straps as me.  I visit her site sometimes to remember I'm not alone!  I visit, sometimes, just to look at her amazing photography.  How.does.she.do.it.all?  I certainly can't.  I am not her.

I am not a lot of amazing people out there.... and I doubt any of those people would want me to be them!!  What I am, is me.  Thinking I should be others has kept me from saying and doing so much in my life.  And it isn't that I covet their lives or become some crazy stalker.  It is simply thinking I should be a better me... I should be able to do all the amazing things others can so I can be the best mom/wife/sister/friend/daughter.... and so on.

The truth is, there will always be somebody better than me.  It isn't about who's better than me but who God has called me to be.  What He has called me to do.  He has a unique purpose for each and every person and if I don't just focus on being the best me then what am I really being.  I can't be the best Ann Voskamp or Nancy Kelly or Sprittibee and I don't think they would want me to even try!!!  But I can be the best Amanda Jones.... I can do it with His strength coursing through me and if/when I mess up I can learn and try again!

When I jumped to Sprittibee's site to grab a link for you I saw she had re-vamped since my last visit and this quote was waiting there:

The only person you should try to be better than... is the person you were yesterday.

Scripture, as always, has wonderful things to say too:

 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. 

Psalm 139:13-14 

I pray you know (or realize) you are not THEM... whoever the "thems" are in your life, rather, that you embrace who you ARE, who God created you to be and walk in that truth every minute of every day because no one can be as wonderful at you, as YOU!

Blessings,