Having the Prime of My Life

I couldn’t understand it. I had mimicked her stance to perfection. Yet, when I swung at the golf ball, it sailed far to the right or far to the left. Rarely did the ball land in the fairway, unlike my mother-in-law, who hit a straight drive every time. Why wouldn’t the ball behave for me as it did for her?

After a season of frustration and being ready to give up the game entirely, I finally realized that Kathryn’s swing worked well for a petite golfer. However, I stood a half-foot taller. No wonder her swing failed me. I spent the next season studying the game, trying to develop a swing that matched my build, age, and club length. With diligence and adaptability, I began to see more and more drives land in the fairway.

One woman’s successful approach to golf was a disaster for another.

I also found this to be an important truth in my writing. When I first started, I wanted to be the next great novelist, so I began modeling my favorite authors. There is much to learn in studying the techniques of legends. However, when I tried to mimic their approach to the craft, my writing fell flat. I wasn’t genuine. I was a parrot without a limb to roost upon.

More than professionally, this truth applied to my personal life. I forced myself into habits that were alien to my personality and lost myself in the process. We are created differently for a reason.

As a wise person told me, “Only you can be you.”

I find it easier to be myself in these golden years. Yet there is still outside pressure to conform to how an older person should behave, wear, or look. Sometimes, I want to dye my hair purple just to rebel!

God loves us for who we are, created in His image, given talents, dreams, and traits to be used to glorify Him. We don’t glorify our Creator when we try to be something He had not designed us to be.   

All too often, we put heroic Christians on a pedestal and think we have to emulate them. We feel we’re failures if we don’t walk in precisely the same way as those who teach us. God does not desire carbon copy Christians. He wants our unique hearts. He will take the composite of ourselves and perfect us from the blueprint of our individuality.    

Nature itself attests to the value God places on distinctiveness, for no two snowflakes are the same.

There is great freedom in this knowledge. Be yourself.