Posts Tagged: growing up poor

“NOTHING TO IMPRESS”

On January 16, 2018 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

I’m learning a lot from our puppy.

I was looking at her this morning while I was making my breakfast.  She was in her new bed, contentedly chewing a hole in it.  I just felt such love for her, and I said, “You know, little dog, I’m just glad that you’re in the world.  You don’t need to do a thing to impress me.”

And immediately, I felt that God was saying to me—to me, “You know, my child, I’m just glad that you’re in the world.  You don’t need to do a thing to impress me.”

Ever since I was very little, I’ve felt that I needed to justify my existence on this planet.  I’ve felt that I needed to impress.  Probably many people think that this stems from an inflated sense of self-importance.  They couldn’t be more wrong!

I was the youngest of five children, born very late in the life of my parents, an accident.  To their great credit, they never made me feel like an accident.  Nevertheless, that is how I felt.

I grew up in the country, fairly poor.  In our little area, there were the “town kids” and the “country kids.”  You’ll find this difficult to believe, but the town kids tended to look down on the country kids.  Again, I needed to justify my existence.

Well, that’s two strikes against me.  The third was that I was fairly smart.  “Isn’t that a good thing?” I hear you ask.  No, it isn’t.

Strike three, and you’re out!

So, most of my life has boiled down to one of two responses.  Either I have wasted a lot of time trying to impress, or I have wasted a lot of time trying to immediately feel better when my attempts to impress failed.

Then, along comes our puppy (and our God) who both gently nuzzle me into being a little more gentle and accepting of myself.  I don’t need to justify my existence; I don’t need to impress anyone, not even God.  God not only loves me; God likes me.

I’m learning a lot from our puppy.

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