A nurse was off my list because I can't take gore. Singing wasn't possible because I realised my voice was too plain, and a teacher? Well, I didn't have the patience necessary. So as I looked around, I noticed one overriding interest - houses. I loved drawing house plans, so I began exploring becoming an architect. The sad thing was that women were not in that industry during my era, and my Dad informed me so. So that door seemed closed. I looked into the Peace Corps, but they required a degree, and my family didn't have money for college, so I felt like there was no real place for me in the workforce. What did I do? I got married.
It really was the best choice I have ever made. God was at work in my life, and I didn't even know it. I found Christ as my Saviour, and God called Tom into ministry. My job description was beginning to form. And I'm still working that same job and am very thankful for it.
I mention this because a devotion piqued my interest the other day. Dick Brogden was discussing being and doing from the first chapter of James, and he said, "You cannot be something without doing it."
And how true is that? If we say we are mothers, then we should be mothering or fathering, as the case may be. If we say we are Christians, then we should live and act like one. If we say we are servants of the Lord, then our willing service will be readily seen. If we say we are holy, we will live a holy life, and the comparisons could continue.
To be legitimate, we must be doing what we see ourselves to be. Otherwise, we are hypocrites, fooling ourselves into believing we are something we are not. Obedience and faithfulness to where God has placed me, to the position I fulfill, and to the calling of God upon my life make me who I am.
But here's the blessed point of the devotion: "Anything good I do flows out of God's being and doing." I must be doing what God has given me to do, but even in my doing, it is He who gives the increase. It is He working through me to accomplish His will. And that counts for mothering, singing, nursing, teaching, and even every day living. I must be doing what I say I am.