As many of you know, my family is not far from a doctor’s office on most weeks. Yesterday, alone, we visited three thanks to my daughter’s knee injury. We are still awaiting the results. Needless to say, there is a small chance this will hinder her soccer career. As we sat for countless hours, she asked if she’d be able to play soccer again. I told her she probably would be able to play, but it might be a bit different. This became a defining moment in her life of whom and/or what she was going to do as soccer has been a part of her life for over five years.
This got me thinking. How many times do things happen in our lives where we think to ourselves this is a defining moment for me? Let’s start with middle school. These are the very awkward years of trying to define just who you are and how others perceive you. High school, likewise, can be the same. Who we date can define us. The classes we take, or don’t take, can define us. College comes along and we are forced to declare to the world how great we are going to be as we declare our major. The time for us to live life on our own shows up upon graduation and the reality of bills are there. Success can begin to define us if we are not careful. Then marriage comes along for further definition. Parenthood typically is not far away.
There are so many different definitions of me that I’m starting to get tired and confused! How many definitions of you do you have? Five, six, fifteen? Life tends to get more and more complicated the older we become because our reach is no longer the backyard playing kickball with the neighborhood kids, but it extends to other states where family and friends live to something as simple as multiple schools for my kids. Our definitions are from responsibilities we have at work, church, and home. Our lives are literally a book explaining who we are.
My question to you is this: How does your definition begin? Let’s start with defining the word itself according to Webster.
Definition:
- The act of determining
- The act or process of stating the meaning of a word or word group
- The action or the power of describing, explaining, or making definite and clear
- Sharp demarcation of outlines or limits
So, I’ll ask again, how does your definition begin of yourself?
- Are you determined about who you are?
- Do you state who you mean to be or become?
- Are you being clear about who you are and why?
- Do you have proper boundaries and limits in the definition you have of yourself? Do you allow others to see and know your boundaries?
Okay, so all this is great, but what are we to do with it? We are to ask ourselves who or what defines us. Is it our job, where we live, our family, spouse, or kids? Does how our definition starts depend on which task we are working on at the moment and who we are comes last? Or, do we start each task the same person and end our definition based upon the task at hand?
Today, I strive to be the same person to all people, places, or things around me. I serve a God who gives me strength to live in this world and yet not be of this world. I pray my definition will always start with, “I am a child of the Most High.”
What daily routines cause you to sometimes forget you are a child of the Most High?What daily routines help you to remember you are a child of the Most High?
© 2012 Susan M. Sims
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at freedigitalphotos.net
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