Does the world know who you really are?
When I was a child, my favorite thing was to play dress up. My mother had some old lace curtains and high-heeled shoes, which I would dress up in them and pretend to be a princess. I would clop up and down the sidewalk in the neighborhood so everyone could see me as a princess. No matter how I dressed up, it didn’t make me a princess! The same can be said about no matter how much time you spend in a garage it won’t make you a car!
Do you go to Church on Sunday and think it makes you a Christian? How do you behave at the office? Are you the one who tells shady jokes to garner popularity or do the jokes stop when you approach because they know you believe that isn’t right? Do you drink to be one of the crowd knowing it isn’t what you really want to do, because you have seen firsthand the hurt and devastation it can cause?
Who are you pretending to be in this life? What is keeping you from living your true self? Is it fear of embarrassment, or pride? James 4:4b tells us, ‘whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.’ Who do you want for your friend?
As parents we need to teach our children to live their true life. To not be ashamed to live and be called a Christian. As I have said before, the best way to teach this is by example. Do you curse and swear at home only to paste on a phony smile when you are in the company of others. Your children see the real you. So, practice what you teach!
We as writers, many times, make our characters unhappy because they are not living the life that is really them. They try to live up to others expectations. Is that a reflection of our own lives?
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
Romans 12:1-3