why should I follow you...in these shoes?

I’m not sure why what I’m about to describe bugs me.  I’m weird.  I’ll be the first to admit it.  I like being weird.  Why?  People remember weird, different or abnormal.  Look at those Old Navy commercials for crying out loud.  Everyone remembers those. 

In high school I would wait to go school clothes shopping until after school started.  That’s weird……you might say.  Why?  You see one year I fell in love with a certain pair of shoes I bought.  DUH!  (Anyone who knows me knows this is one of my strong points!)  Well, I got to school and another girl had the exact same pair as me.  (And I shopped in Grand Rapids and went to a really small Christian school)  I WAS DEVISTATED.  I literally think my heart sank.  I tried really hard to wear them and love them but I so wanted to be unique.  FYI – future husband/boyfriend if you read this someday I’ll take a pair of shoes over flowers that fade ANYDAY.  Size 9.  Glad I got that out. 

Purses.  I love purses.  I currently refuse to count how many I own.  Last count was 3 + 10 x 3 - 5 + 7.  Yeah, that doesn’t sound so bad when I don’t bluntly put the truth out there. Anyway, I don’t care what brand the purse is.  If I like it and “need” it or it’s on sale I will probably buy it.  This includes anything from Goodwill to Payless, Burlington, Meijer, handmade or whatever.  I REFUSE to pay outrageous for a brand just because it is THAT brand.  This is true for actually anything I own.  Status is sometimes what that is all about.  If I don’t care about my status with “you” I don’t HAVE to play the part, look the part etc.  Believe it or not, there is a super popular, adorable purse out there that tons of women have.  It’s that certain magnetic purse with changeable covers, straps etc.  I finally decided the reason I don’t want to own it.  Why, because everybody has it.  I guess that old high-school girl is still in me somewhere. 

Back to what bugs me.  Everywhere on the Internet lately seems to be to “follow something.”  Follow someone on Twitter.  Follow someone on Pinterest.  Follow someone on a blog.  Yada, yada, yada.  It’s not that any of these things are wrong.  I know following someone on a blog is showing support & you keep track of post you want to read.  On Twitter you keep up with what is being shared.  On Pinterest you see what others like.  What bugs me is the propaganda.  Luring you into ideas, attitudes, self-promoting.  It’s constant.  It’s everywhere.  FOLLOW, FOLLOW, FOLLOW. 

More important than shoes, purses or designer jeans is your identity.  Don’t be sucked into keeping up with what everyone else is doing and losing yourself in the meantime.  This is just a challenge, a reminder, and a thought provoking idea to just be you. Evaluate yourself.

I read a great book a few years ago while I was on a long boat ride on the Amazon River on a mission trip called Normal is Just a Setting on Your Dryer by Patsy Clairmont.  Why do I remember where I read it?  Well, while on the boat I started hysterically laughing out loud from a section I read and everyone starred at me like, what is going on?  They probably thought I was weird. :)  Anyway, it makes some great points about what “normal” is.  Who gets to define it anyway?  I’m normal for me and you’re normal for you.  PERIOD.  A girlfriend of mine has a saying, “Do you!” I’m great at being me and will never strive to be anybody different. 

I think that is honoring Jesus, my creator.  He created me.  He built me.  He knit me together in my mother’s womb.  Being me comes natural.  Being someone else is just too much work that I REFUSE to do.  Pleasing my heavenly Father and trying to be a reflection of Him is all I have time for and all that matters.  And THAT last forever.  I was God’s idea; you were God’s idea!