“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
-Romans 12:2

We live in a time in which so many of us feel bound to the expectations and the demands of others. We carry with us a heavy yoke of having to prove ourselves, even prove ourselves to people that don’t like us, or even to those who hate us.

We care so much about what people say about us and think about us. We are consumed with giving off the right image so that we will be respected, admired, seen as attractive, or wanted.

Jesus simply frees us, if we allow him to, from this very, very heavy burden that leads to the greatest regret of every single dying person, to wish they had had the courage to have lived their lives the way they had wanted to and not the way that others had expected them to.

Let’s not wish, in our twilight years, that we hadn’t lived our lives trying to prove ourselves to others. Let’s live in the easy yoke of Jesus, being true to ourselves, to the person that God designed us to be.

Prayer: Dear Lord, what a burden is lifted when I think about not having to prove myself to others. I take up your yoke and look forward to becoming, day by day, the person you designed me to be. Amen.

Reflection: In what ways are you living according to others’ opinions and not for your true self?