Dare to be different

Dare to be different! That's right. Being different from the ones you know, the place of comfort for you ~ because you fit in is not an easy process. DARE to be different. Challenge yourself! Do things that are not "NORMAL" and that make people wonder who the heck you are! Here's an example!

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I do not burn the candle at both ends anymore. I used to. Staying up late trying to get things done, dragging myself out of bed in time to barely get ready and run out the door just to do it all over again. The constant go. The trying to please everyone by trying to not only meet their obvious expectations, but also striving to meet the ones unspoken either in their mind your yours. The doing things because it looks right, not because it is what God has specifically called me to. Taking on more then I can handle, and then taking it out in frustration on the ones I love most. Sadly, that isn't living differently. THAT is what "normal" looks like.

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Now? I go to bed not long after the kids. I get up WAY before many, but not before my husband. I can say that most days I am showered and laundry going before 5 am. Yes. Before the rooster crows. Before the chickens are out of their house. Was I always like that? NO! BUT as I am getting more seasoned (I don't like to say older because there is so much negative thinking on that word), I realize how much truth is to the old tyme saying " Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise." The wealth in which i have received by trying to live to this way of life isn't necessarily in monetary value. It is in the way in which I live that feels wealthy. LIFE itself has more value. I see things clearly, and for the record, I have not been sick in years. This is NOT the normal within most of my friends. Most of them stay up late and are not morning people. I understand that completely. And up until God slowly moved me to this way of living, I could not even comprehending BEING a morning person. Getting up early for me does not constitute a nap later either. I have more energy, and more endurance then I could ever have imagined before. Can I say that it isn't following a diet that does this? It is living within God's boundaries for all of our days that does! Boundaries within eating (simply don't eat to be eating. THAT is not what our bodies were made to do.) Boundaries within spending (DO not spend more then you have, and if your down to your last few bucks.... don't spend at all!). Boundaries within relationships (if I don't have enough left for my husband and children, it's time to pare down some of my extra that I give out).

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Dare to be different! Dare to live outside the lie that this life is about you! Dare to live your life serving God Almighty through the words you speak, the way you live your life. Realize that when you get in a tiff it is because YOU were thrown out of your comfort zone, often to test your character and devotion. Are you devoted to serving God or serving self? Dare to be different and live in a way that serves God Almighty, not the god of self!