500 Blog Posts

Can you believe I’ve posted to this blog 500 times? FIVE HUNDRED! Five-zero-zero. I know, I know, it’s quite shocking.

In honor of this momentous occasion, I wanted to write something profound. Except that there is not much profound about me. I’m pretty much a what-you-see-is-what-you-get kind of person. I used to try to be what other people wanted me to be, but that didn’t work. I was unhappy. Uncomfortable. Always on edge, wondering if I was measuring up to the expectations of people whose opinion didn’t matter anyway. I wasn’t me.

So I stopped getting my hair cut and I let it go gray. I invested in a bunch of flowing peasant dresses and a good pair of Burkenstocks. All in a non-literal sense, of course. My hair is still short and I admit that I cover the gray. I don’t own a single peasant dress, but I would love the Burkenstocks.

The point is that I realized I needed to be the woman God wanted me to be rather than some psycho corporate workaholic, perfect homemaker, flawless socialite kind of woman that stressed beyond reason while trying to please everyone. God showed me that the people who were most important to me were the only ones I needed to be concerned about. My husband. My family. My closest friends. Aside from doing my best at my job and serving faithfully in my church, the opinions and expectations of the rest are on an I’ll consider it basis.

There is such freedom in doing that.

The key is walking daily with the Lord. Reading the Word. Prayer. And then following the direction He sets before you. He gives you strength to say no when you need to say no. He shows you a different route when the one you’ve been following leads you into negative situations. He has the answer when you find yourself at the end of your rope.

On this day of my 500th blog post, I can say that I think am more me than I have ever been in my life. Thanks to an awesome God who is so very patient with me.

And at the end of the day, His opinion is the one that matters.