This is my path

This morning while walking at the park, I got very frustrated watching an older couple walking in front of me getting further and further away from me.  I also noticed that I was keeping track of another gentleman walking, he was walking in the opposite direction that I was, so I wanted to be sure that my pace kept up with his, and that we crossed paths at the same halfway point each time around.  Then a threesome of beautiful, thin, blonde, moms passed me RUNNING and chatting, and it made me want to quit completely.  I was frustrated with walking, and I hadn't really lost as much this week as I had hoped after walking all week. It all seemed useless.  I started coming up with reasons to quit. But then God whispered in my ear....THIS is your path, not theirs, not hers, not his, but YOURS Libby.  


Psalm 119:35 says "Make me walk along the path of your commands, for that is where my happiness is found."


So I started meditating on this idea as the day went on....and I realized I have always looked at all of life as a competition. I like to be first. In everything. Growing up always competing in music, I just can't help it. It part of my make up, of who I am.  I think as humans, we are always that way at least a little bit. We want to keep up with the Jones, be in the greener grass on the other side, want what you can't have....I didn't make those phrases up!! We are constantly comparing ourselves to others and how we think they are doing in life. But here's the problem with that....what we see, may not necessarily be the truth....

Here's a perfect example of that....many moons ago, in one of my lowest points with the ex, I was always so distraught at church because I wanted to head of our household to be at church with us. I spent many Sunday mornings with my face in my hands crying out to God.  I had a friend who always sat with her husband at church. They were so cute together, always cuddling, or rubbing each others back, or smiling at each other, or comforting each other if needed. They would praise together, listen together, amen together, and pray together.  I wanted that SOOOOO badly in my own life. So much so that I could not stand to sit anywhere near them on Sunday mornings. I couldn't watch it that close up, it made me cry. As the months went by, she and I became better friends, and I finally told her how silly I felt about not sitting near her.  She stopped in her tracks and said she felt the same way about me with my 3 girls. They were struggling so much to have a child, it broke her heart to watch it close up. Neither of us begrudged the other for the blessings they had, but trying to compare to other was hurting us both just for different reasons. 

We can't look at anything anyone else has and be hurt by it....that's not our path. Jesus has the perfect plan for you....you just have to ask Him what it is, then follow it. 

Jeremiah 33:3 says. "Ask me and I will tell you remarkable secrets you do not know about things to come."

I think as ladies we struggle the most with this....we never want anyone to see that we are hurting, or lacking. We constantly compare ourselves to EVERYONE else.  You want THAT marriage, or to be THAT kind of mom, or to carry THAT kind of purse, or drive THAT kind of car, or have THAT kind of children, or live in THAT kind of home, or wear THAT brand of shoes, or have THAT big of a diamond ring.  But all that stuff doesn't matter....it's temporal.  What's important....what's real....what's truth....

"For I know the plans that I have for YOU", says the Lord.  "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope."    (Jeremiah 29:11)

God has a plan for each of us....the exact plan He created just for YOU. So today, I vow to follow the path He shows me....but to also be happy there. To wear blinders, and not see the things to my left or my right.  Because honestly, the only ruler that I need to be measured by, is the fact that I tried a little harder than yesterday to follow His voice, His call, and His path for ME.