It was bound to happen.
All my life, people told me how I favored my mother…blue eyes, round cheeks, smile. However, as I’ve become older, I notice how I am acting like my mother! It started with my husband saying, “you sound just like your mother when you said that!”…or….”you squinted your eyes just like your mother.”
I mean, I’ve heard plenty of times how women would say they looked in the mirror and saw their mother. That was no big surprise. But, in the last couple of years, I notice all kinds of little habits that are just like her! How I hold my hands, making a gesture, asking a question…..or even how I LOVE my favorite fountain drink on ice in a styrofoam cup complete with lid and a straw! I actually get giddy! (except I love Diet Mountain Dew and momma loves Diet Coke)
The good news is I don’t mind!
I kinda laugh to myself when I do something that is just like her. What I find so interesting is that I never set out to try to do any of these things like her. I’ve never sat across the dinner table observing her subtle moves and gestures. I’ve never calculated and taken mental notes to consciously mimic her. Sure, part of it could be genetics. Maybe. But most of it is just from being around her for 40 years.
I’ve been formed in her image from being in her presence!
Now, she’ll be the first to tell you I’m not a carbon copy of her. There’s a lot I don’t do like her (I rarely iron…sorry mom…I just don’t!). However, so many little parts of her have formed into me from simply being around her that I subtly pick them up!
It’s the same with our relationship with God.
Hopefully, I am being made into His image from being in His presence. When I spend time with Him in prayer, study, meditation, and worship, I begin to pick up his characteristics of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, self control and goodness. I begin to love people like He does and want to reach out to minister to them.
If I tried to exert effort to act like Jesus, I would most likely fail because I am trying to be something that is not in my nature. But….if I am in His presence so much that His nature subtly changes me, then I find myself looking and loving and acting more like Him. Simply being around Him is going to affect the way I behave.
I think being like Jesus has rubbed off from my mom too!
So, next time you us zooming down the road, we’ll likely have our fountain drinks in hand!
How about you? How are you turning into your mother? How are you being made into His image??
Happy Mother’s Day!
Let’s get together to talk about ways we can get more time in God’s presence so we can be more like Him! Join me at the Women of the Way Tn Facebook page and let’s talk about it this week!
~Amy