Stop the cookie cutting!

Cookie cutters, we've all seen them, we've all used them. They are great little things for making every single cookie the exact same way every time. I teach little kids, 3-7 year olds, so when I make cookies for those guys the cookies MUST BE THE SAME SIZE!!! IN THE NAME OF FAIRNESS. But, what about people...?

I have always been a "break the mold" person. I've always stood out, even when I tried to be like everyone else. You know the kid who always was the "weird one" but some how everyone still loved...yeah that was me. I am grateful that I never learned to fit any mold other than the one God made just for me.
I've never really matched up to what most people thought I should and to be honest, that is fine with me. The last year a lot of what I believe has changed, no I'm not about to say I am turning liberal, I've began to use the Bible as my bases rather than "oh, so many people say xyz so it must be true!" or " Oh...so and so said it and they seem like such a godly person" or the one that I've most recently started having to change "oh, my parents say it so it automatically biblical". As I've bounced back and forth between these thoughts I've learned something: God speaks to each of us differently. Just because not wearing pants is right for you doesn't mean its right for me. Maybe God doesn't have a college education planned for you like He does for me. Let’s say that God wants you to live at home until your married...that’s not what He has for me. Head covering full time? Great, if that’s what God has for you, as for me just during worship. Not at all for you? Then praise God that you’re doing what He wants for YOU.

You CANNOT put the Christian life in a cookie cutter and say this is how it has to be! Now, duh, some things are; like salvation, through Christ's blood alone. Something we cannot earn and something we do not deserve, a free gift to all man kind who trust in His name alone. Baptism, after salvation only, not for babies. The Bible is the written word of God. Stuff like that. However many things aren't clear in the Bible, Mistake? Hardly, when God makes something vague it’s because he WANTS it vague. Why doesn't God say this is how you do this with everything in our lives? Because it’s different for each person in each generation. Maybe God wants a certain woman to become a doctor so she can later become a missionary’s wife and she needs that degree.
I know a couple that happened to. The wife went to college, had a great job before hand and when she went on the field that knowledge was greatly needed and used! I want to teach, I have for most of my life. Maybe God has a class full of children that He has great plans for, they just need some one to plant the seed and water it. Maybe God wants a certain girl to stay home and learn the ways of the house only and never get a "real job" or an education past high school. Maybe her children are going to change the world. What ever God has for you may not be the same for another family or even for a member of the same family

See why its impossible to say "this is the only way!". Often times when we say that it's not that it's the only way, but it is OUR way. Personally I am sick of being told that what I'm doing is wrong by people who hardly know me. They don't know anything about me. They hardly even know my family, yet they think that they have some sort of divine insight into my future and speak as if God told them "this is what I would have Sydney Smith do", yeah right. Now maybe those people have prayed for me and maybe they think that they know what is best for me. Now if they really did don't you think God would have told me or my parents that? Yeah, He would have. I have prayed for along time for God's leading. When I first started praying and people would ask what I was doing and I would say "I'm still praying about it...maybe stay home for college? I'm not sure" I got the response "well praise God your seeking His will" well when I started saying "I've prayed very hard and now God has lead me out of state for college" I get the "are you sure...are you old enough to make that kind of choice? What do your parents think?" as if some how when I sought God and it matched their plans of how I should be I was mature and able minded but when I sought God and was sure of what He wants and it doesn't match their plans then I am a child unable to know what God would have for me. What they really meant the first time “was praise God you match my mold of life!”
Yes, this does bug me. I am a born again believer, God speaks to me like he does you; God gave me a brain and a heart. God gave me the desire to seek His will and the ability to talk to Him about my future. God says "seek ye first the kingdom of God" Not seek ye first the opinion of some well meaning person who hardly knows you and is trying to force you into their own little box of how Christian girls should be. Yeah, there are risks. Yeah, I will fall and mess up, maybe big time; the safest place to be is in the center of God's will. I would rather risk going out of state and living on my own and be in God's will then stay home "safe" and not being in God's will but "safe".

So what am I trying to say? Stop trying to make people fit your little cookie cutter.
Stop telling parents that they fail at parenting because their child is different. That bugs me to no end, when people keep questioning my mother to why she is allowing me to go to college and if she’s sure that I'm right! Seriously people, cut it out. I have been very sweet and tried to be loving towards people who say stuff to me but if I see another person question my mother about my college choice I might end up referring them to this post.
If you have ignored God’s will for that of some well meaning person I want to encourage you to stop allowing people to “cookie cut” you. Seek God’s will…not man’s.