We can quickly spiral downwards while on memory hill. "Those were the days...."
There is no golden age, no perfect time, no "if only time could have stopped there."
We have the time that God gives us and we are to make the most of it. If we get stuck in the past, not only are we un-thankful and not content with His current gifts to us, but we forget all the hardships that we were undergoing at the time which we have chosen to forget. We are also blinded to the fact that God has refined our character in vast ways during this time.
What is my identity?
Quite simply, my identity is in Christ. That is who I am, that is who Christ has made me.
"But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness; which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.." (Philippians 3:7-9)
My identity is not in the piles of laundry I constantly wash, not in the dishes that never stop, not in the amount of diapers I change in one day, my identity is not in the meeting I forgot about, the morning I slept in and my poor boy missed his early classes, it's not the state of my children's bathroom, the birthday card I forgot to send, the extra weight I carry on my body or the stretch marks from the six children I've had. It's not in the get-away my husband and I have never gone on, the dream-house,dream-job we might pine for. It's not in the fabulous meal I cooked for dinner, the fact that we home-school, that I am a stay at home Mom. My identity doesn't exist in an organized home, how often or not often I workout or diet, the state of my wardrobe, or my bank account.
It is simply...In Christ. How freeing, how magnificent, how glorious! Everything else is RUBBISH. Do you know what rubbish is?? Go look in your kitchen trash can. That is rubbish. It isn't attractive, it is beguiling, it isn't "if only". It's junk, poo, trash, ick!, blech! It is DEAD," it is FINISHED."
"I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)
