At Your BestSample

It’s About Who You’re Becoming

When my kids were young, I disliked camping. I disliked it so much that I even framed it as a theological issue. If God created us to be intelligent enough to invent electricity and live indoors, isn’t it unfaithful to go back into the woods? 

Exactly.

My family never gave up on camping. They, understandably, just stopped inviting me. And so I missed out on a lot of time with them.

Recently, though, one of my grown sons invited me and my wife to go camping with him. And we agreed.

In the car that day, as I unpacked my previous disdain for camping, I told my son how ill-equipped I felt for life and leadership in my thirties, that despite all the success we were experiencing externally, I felt like I was falling apart internally. With tears in my eyes at times, I’ve told my boys how much I regret the anxious, upset, frustrated dad I was in moments when they were younger.

We talked about the changes in my life over the last fifteen years, how figuring out how to live at a more sustainable pace has left me in a much better frame of mind—a frame of mind I wished he had known when he was four.

Some people say they don’t have regrets. Well, I do.

I can’t get those early years back. But I can live differently moving forward. So, we talked about it…at length.

And as I sat there by the campfire, looking out at the lake and the stars, I was thankful. Thankful that I could go with my family to a place I wouldn’t choose and enjoy it.

Doing what I’m best at when I’m at my best has helped me become a much more efficient communicator in my professional life and has helped me get far more done in much less time.

But all of that pales in comparison with what’s happening at home. The much better marriage. The deeper relationships with my sons. The time I spend in prayer and Scripture every morning. The peace with who I am and who I was made to be. The hobbies, friendships, and rest I enjoy every day.

God gives us his marvelous grace as a free gift in Christ. Then, as the apostle Peter says, we build on this grace by adding virtue to virtue. “If you possess these qualities in increasing measure,” Peter said, “they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:8).

At the end, who you’re becoming is so much more important than what you’re doing.

In a time of prayer, seek God’s vision for how he wants to develop your character to become more like Christ’s.

We hope this plan encouraged you. Learn more about At Your Best by Carey Nieuwhof here