Tonight, God put something on my heart. I realized it while I was doing something totally normal for me: laying on my bed, going back and forth between Pinterest and watching a routine video on YouTube, I started thinking of ways I can make my life better once the summer starts. Get a job. Buy more cute clothes. Start blogging more often and a Youtube channel. Work out every day. Eat healthy. Take cuter Instagram pictures. Do more crafts. Re-organize and decorate my room. Have a routine to follow every morning to make me feel like I have it all together. Now, these are great goals, but I felt that the motivation behind them wasn't right. As much as I'd love to do all these things, I know that the first reason I want to do them is because I saw someone else do them, and they looked happy and like they had their life together.
Galatians 1:10 came to mind. It says, Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ. To me it's the same thing: do I want to change certain things about my life to please people and myself? Or is it so I can be a better servant of the Lord? Honestly, working out every day and taking care of myself and the body and mind that the Lord gave would be awesome. But working out so I can seem up to par with other women, or so I can look a certain way wouldn't be so awesome because I would then be worrying about myself and the opinions of others, and as a Christian that isn't my job.
Of course, other people's opinions and the way they affect how I see myself will always be present in my head. But God says to forget all of that and to just listen to what He says. As a teenage girl, that's pretty hard to wrap my head around. Pleasing God instead of man is a really hard thing to do. It goes against the human instincts of wanting to be liked and wanting to be as "good" as the people we look up to, but that's what I've noticed about Christianity. Basically, we are put on earth and given all of these natural, human, earthly sins and the goal is to separate ourselves from that and fix our eyes on God. To follow Him instead of our instinct, and that's what makes following Christ hard but having a relationship with God and glorifying Him makes it worth it.
Being a teenager in 2016 and spending a lot of time on social media watching famous internet people talk about their everyday routines makes me wish I had my life together. It makes me wish I was a famous internet person, with tons of money and followers and clothes and makeup like them. I see them and think, how can I be like that? What can I do to get it together?
But then I remember: God doesn't need us to have it all together- He needs us to trust Him. Colossians 2:10 says, In Him you are made complete. And it's true. Having an instagram-worthy lifestyle won't get me where I wanna go. Having a Jesus-worthy lifestyle will. Ultimately, choosing actions that will glorify God will always benefit me more than doing something because I want to be like someone else.
When was the last time you got on twitter and didn't see #housegoals, #bodygoals, #hairgoals, #lifegoals, etc.? When was the last time you didn't see someone comparing himself to someone else?There is no way to escape the bombardment of images of "ideal" lifestyles in today's world, but by following God's word and listening to the truth, being happy with the life He's given you becomes much easier.
