WHO AM I? NOTHING apart from Christ
I am 5 years old and I want to be a mom when I grow up. I want to sit here on my grandma’s knee and let her play with my hair and scratch my back in the waiting.
I am 10 years old and I want to be a mom when I grow up. I don’t care about the white picket fence, but I want my own shampoo bowl. In fact, I think I’ll be a hair stylist like my favorite person in the whole wide world. Ps. I just asked Santa for twins.
I am 15 and I want to be a hair stylist and a pediatric nurse, or perhaps an occupational therapist. My mom says college first, then beauty school. I’m a huge numbers girl, but required summer school in elementary to learn money and time.
I am 18 and He alone is LORD. He relentlessly pursued me and won.
I am 20 and I want to be teacher when I grow up. I want to inspire kids, and play a role in who they become. I can’t wait to be a mom…but I’ll practice in the waiting.
I am 25 and I want to be a photographer, writer, and teacher. I’ve been teaching for 3 years and I love what I do. I feel trusted to do what I love. AND yet, I don’t think I have even 10 years in me…because I want to be like my mom and stay home with my kids. I know there is a call on my life for something even greater than these walls…but for now I’m standing behind a black curtain and I am so excited. I pray for my daughter by name wondering if she will grow beneath my heart or claim me from another soil one day.
I am 30 and I want to be a wife and a mom. I want my own photography business, and I can’t wait to publish books one day. I write in a journal to gift my husband on our wedding night on the 18th of every month. I am more dependent upon God than I’ve ever known or desired to know. I aspire to be a Proverbs 31 woman and I believe I’m getting married soon. I’m an encourager, and if I’m not dropping a note, I’m dropping in, or taking you out to make memories one cup at a time. I’m Auntie Brooke and no title elicits more joy apart from being a child of the one true King.
I am 31 and I have now tried my first Cheetos, peanut butter and jelly sandwich, ketchup, and BLT. I’ve been sky diving, white water rafting, and slid off Turtleback Falls. I’ve never been in love with the man I’m with and only who he could be. I’ve been a spiritual mother to numerous children, and led women of all ages. Little loves from oceans away call me Mom. I believe my husband will be in the place to love and lead me well, and he will compliment the life I am already living. I wouldn’t give up the 13 years I have spent dating the character of my Heavenly husband for anything in the world. I won’t settle for less than His design. Next August I will begin the paperwork to adopt my daughter.
I am 32 and I want to be. I’ve taught for 11 years and I’m ready for what’s next. I gave God my “YES” to live on Map on Mission back on 11/18/07 and I have lived not one day with regret. I love the LORD with all my heart and when asked, “What do you do for fun?” when riding in a van to minister to prostitutes in a dangerous part of Atlanta… I responded, “THIS!” I love to stoop and serve, and my love doesn’t always make sense…but He is my example. I am eager to be a wife and a mom, but I believe that not one day sooner than His design will God do in you what you may desire today. My camera and my pen find their way to my hands, and God does a mighty work in and through me. I often say, “Who am I?” to the almighty and He reminds me that I am unworthy and yet…so unswervingly I hold on to His promises. I am not the same because I know I AM. For 18 years He pursued me, and there exists no greater trade. I am a teacher and leader for life no matter my soil, but I find joy in stepping aside to watch the magic happen in the lives He touches. I strive to never merely survive my days, but live them fully alive. I am passionate about God’s kids knowing God, and He uses my photography and writing to deliver truth in my path. I worry less, love more, lean in, notice, and pause. I have to start my day with communion at my kitchen table to first rest in the finished work of Christ.
If you were looking for: I’m a 32 year old single woman from Woodstock, GA, who has lived in four states (IL, IA, MN, GA) and a part of her heart is in Portugal with her sister….well then, signed, sealed, delivered it’s yours!
BUT writers break rules (mine being ellipses) and AND at the beginning of sentences. They find it more essential to tell you that they have a hankering for watermelon and ice cream…no matter together or apart. Writers invite you in to a twice lived life where there are stories of foreign places, eclectic people, scents, and sights. A life of languages and loss, poverty and wealth. Of yet again driving down roads to see what’s down them, and dining in hole in the wall restaurants with a people not known in hopes of collecting their stories. Writers wear their stories, adorned like the richest of kings. They leave treasure boxes near their door and decorate their refrigerator with love notes and evidence of memories made. Thinking anew as they write and writing as they think. I could list the places I’ve traveled, the causes I support, the places I minister in, and the hearts I’ve broken along with those who have broken mine…but those are for another time and filthy rags in His eyes. I am 32 and I want to be. EVERYTHING beautiful even when temporarily ugly, carrying the number 18 🙂 When I die, I want two words written along with postscript. “She Loved Ps. 27:8” Dear Lord, If I get nothing else right…let me not fail in THIS. To state my only aspiration and a reminder for the living to seek His face.
