The One Where I Quote Movies - Again

I can't sit cross-legged on the floor for longer than half an hour before my knees start hurting.

I can't sleep in later than 8:30, even on a Saturday, no matter how late I was up the night before.

I get excited about picking out paint colors and searching antique stores for that perfect vintage/distressed coffee table or fruit crate.

I have wrinkles on my forehead.

Over the last year or so, these changes have been creeping up on me, making it abundantly clear that time stops for no one - to roughly quote Steel Magnolias "Honey, time marches on, and eventually you realize it's marching across your face." *on a side note: if you haven't seen Steel Magnolias, with Dolly Parton and Shirley Maclaine, WATCH IT! Watch it now, with a box of kleenex and your best friend. You're welcome.*

Anyway, no matter how hard we try, there's nothing we can do to halt the energizer bunny that is time. It keeps going. And going. Bringing with it your birthday, sooner every year. I turn 25 in a few months. Honestly, I'm not dreading it. I'm just baffled at how it came so soon. It seemed so far away at 21. I will soon be on the downhill towards 30, and it seems much closer on the other side of 25.

I don't feel 25. Heck, I don't feel 24! I look at my life and wonder what I've accomplished. A friend asked me just the other night what I thought my greatest accomplishment so far was. I know what my purpose in life is, and I know God is working his purposes through me, but I look around and see what others around me have accomplished with their lives and I wonder if there's more I could be doing. But that's the problem, I'm comparing. Comparison...the thief of joy and contentment.

To quote You've Got Mail *another must-see* "I lead a small life." I have to remind myself that small doesn't automatically mean "without purpose" or "unaccomplished." I have a small sphere of influence, and I do small things within that sphere, and it suits me. I am content, 97% of the time. But then the Enemy sneaks in and turns my head, pointing out my friends who are married with babies, friends getting their Master's degrees, or friends traveling the world, and I start to compare again.

It takes a conscious, daily (sometimes hourly) effort on my part to remember that my life path is different from everyone else's around me, and it's OKAY! Crazy, I know. But I have chosen a different path from my friends. Chosen. (This is a topic for another post!) My choices have affected my life story, and will continue to do so. God will continue to work his purposes through me and my choices. Because no matter the different life paths, everyone in the body of Christ has the same end goal and destination. Everyone's journey is going to look different though. I want to live a good story. I want my story to point to God in every way. I hope it does, I hope I continue to grow in that. But I need to remember that it will point in ways that are different from my friends with snuggly babies and official-sounding Master's degrees.

And at the end of the day, I need to remember that age is truly a number, and though, "I am twenty-four, going on twenty-five" doesn't flow quite as nice as "sixteen going on seventeen," I'm going to find a gazebo to sing and dance in, in the rain, without the cute telegram boy (but definitely with a flowy dress). I have lots of practice singing both parts of a duet, and I don't want to be stopped by the fact that it looks different from everyone's expectations. I'll write my own song.