Boxed In

I've thought about this at different points throughout my life, but this past week, it has been hitting me especially hard.  What am I talking about, you may ask...perfection and personality.  I know nobody is perfect, but aren't we all supposed to be striving towards being the best us we can be?  We are called to be like Christ...God's hands and feet, God's heart and mouth to this world.

I think that far too often we box ourselves in by making excuses for our attitudes, our words, or our actions based on our personality.  We all have our failings, certainly.  But just because we happen to have a personality that makes us one way or another...too loud, too quiet, too outspoken, too captive to fear, too sarcastic, too off-color, too whatever...does not mean that that is the end of our road.  God calls us to be like Him.  And I truly believe that being like God means embracing the personality He has given us, but also working through the trials and temptations that come with that specific personality.

Not only do we short-change God by using our personalities as a crutch, rather than a springboard for becoming more and more like Him, we short-change ourselves.  I cannot be everything God created me to be if I limit myself to how I naturally act.  Part of growing up is developing.  Maturity is a metamorphosis...the essence of who we are should remain, but we should become even more than our immature selves...something better and far more beautiful.

Last night at church, our pastor challenged us to take inventory of our tendencies...where we tend to slip up or get distracted from God.  And he asked us to pick one or two of those areas to really focus our attention on, to work on daily so that we can become more Christ-like in that area.  There were definitely a few tendencies of my own that really stood out to me.  I hope you might take just a second to take inventory of your life, to look at where you are using "personality" as a crutch and letting it box you in.  And then pray and ask God for guidance in how to overcome your areas of weakness while still staying true to who God created you to be!! :)