Embrace being different.

I get to live in one of the most beautiful places in the states; mountains, rivers, and lakes are all in my ‘backyard’. One of my favorite hikes is a butte near my house. It has a 600-foot elevation gain in a mile. It is the perfect workout for this girl who has a cardio attention span of a squirrel!  

This past weekend I saw something on the butte that I have never seen before. It was a guy hiking up the butte backwards. This unique way to hike the butte not only made him stand out, but it also made him much slower. But he didn’t seem care that no one else was hiking backwards; or that he was passed by every single person walking ‘normal’. He was focused on himself. His backward walking ‘purpose’ was strong enough that it didn’t matter that he was slower or looked different.  

Mamas, we have a lot in common with this backwards butte walker, don’t we? 

We live in a world where ‘normal’ is getting married and starting a family. Hear me, there is NOTHING wrong with normal. I WANTED NORMAL. I invested a lot of time, money, energy and prayers into being ‘normal’ and blending in. But alas, I am not able to blend in with 99.9% of the adult population (Statistic made up by me for dramatic effect, did it work?), I am the backward butte walker. Oh how hard it is to be different when you don’t want to be. 

God has placed you right where you are, at this exact moment for “such a time as this”  

Consider that famous biblical quote came from; when Mordecai gave advice to his young niece, Queen Esther.

“For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a s time as this.” Esther 4:14.

Know this mamas, God didn’t accidentally take His eyes off you and then get surprised later: “Oops- should have been watching Jackie closer.”  I know God has me right where I am supposed to be, for my ‘such a time as this’ purpose. 

Mamas, we have to learn to embrace being different. Embrace our “such a time as this” heartbreak. Embrace our backward butte walking status. Like it or not, this does make us special, and we will get noticed. Let’s make sure we are noticed for the right reasons.