Thoughtful Thursday: Keeping Up Appearances

Hello,

This Thursday I wanted to share a topic we discussed in the ladies' brunch that I run.  

I grew up watching a nineties sitcom called "Keeping Up Appearances".  The main character is a lady called Hyacinth Bucket (she pronouces her surname as "bouquet") who is intent on being seen as a "woman of class".  Watching it got me thinking about what it must be like to be Hyacinth and also to live with her.  Her insecurities about her background has caused her to become obsessed with appearing to be what she considers to be "upper class".

 Image taken from www.bookcrossing.com

In our lives, living in the society that we live in, it is so easy to be drawn into keeping up appearances. We spend a lot of time consciously or unconsciously comparing ourselves to others. This is tiring and demoralising as we are trying to compare one unique creation to various other unique creations. We struggle with wanting to be like someone that we think has it all together not realising that we should be focussing on becoming who God has called us to be.

Read Romans 12:4-6 (the message version outlines it really well!). 

"Why spend your time longing to be a foot when you are designed and created to be an ear?!  And can you imagine how poorly our body would function if body parts started to behave like this?"

In summary, the only "appearances" that you should be keeping to is the image of the person God created you to be.  It starts with you discovering who God created you to be - make sure it's not just a patchwork job of the various people you have seen around you but that you are working from the original image.

Discovering the correct image is a journey and takes time, but God is teaching me that it starts with allowing Him to gradually refine my character and listen out for His voice when making decisions.

Keep up the appearances by all means - just make sure you're looking at the right image!

Until next time,

Cece

xxx