On being authentic.

As I was coming back from dropping my child off at school this morning, I was channel surfing the radio and I came across a discussion about a book. This station is a Christian station and I would generally skip right by it but this caught my ear. This book was about being authentic. The author was actually speaking about our relationship with God but she pointed out that many women have a tendency to value themselves within the groups they participate in. They might say that she's a better blogger than me or she has better behaved children. Some even place value on how well their children do in school as opposed to theirs. (I am VERY guilty of this one!) So she asks this question: Does how well someone does something make them more valuable? Does God love them any less?
This made me think some things: 1. I need to blog about this. 2. Am I placing undo pressure on myself or my child because I am afraid of what others think? 3. Why do I care what other people think? 4. What if I tried to live my life by not placing value on these issues?
Now, obviously, I am not condoning murder and I understand that certain values and mores must be conformed to for society to function but lets be real here! I the fact that I am slightly overweight going to change the world for the worse? Does God love me any less because I am overweight? That I don't have the best self-control? Does it matter if my child is not the cutest, best behaved or smartest?
There was another thing this author said: God delights in our individuality. He created us this way. Think about it, if we were all the same, we would be like "A Brave New World." It would be miserable!
Now, this is not to say that I don't care if anybody loves me! But what I do mean to say is that I want people to love me for who I am, not who I think I need to be.
So starting today, I am going to have an attitude change.....
I am going to replace some phrases and ways of thinking in my life.
Instead of: It's a fixer-upper. I will say: I think we will be happy there.
Did you do well in school today? replaced with Did you enjoy school today?
Things like that.
But! this is not to say that I am not going to clean my house or dress in clean clothes. But I am going to do it with my own satisfaction in mind not because I care what others say.