By Lois Evans
“This I say therefore … that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles walk.
-Ephesians 4:17
We all face tremendous pressure to be like everyone else. No one wants to feel like the odd person out. I remember that growing up, I was always the one left out at school because I was a Christian. And I can assure you, the pressure to conform was great.
When I was a girl, I sometimes got tired of being known as a Christian and as Cannings (my maiden name), because my father and grandfather were well known in the community where I grew up. When I fussed to my mother, she would always share verses such as Ephesians 4:17 with me. Or she would remind me that the Christian life is not supposed to be easy (see 2 Tim. 3:12). Of course, I didn’t want to hear that back then. But what stabilizing truths these have become for my life.
I know that the pressure to conform hits most of us very hard in our marriages. Once you determine that your marriage is going to be patterned after Christ, the enemy will unleash his attacks on you. Christian wives can really feel the pressure not to be different, because the world has such different expectations of women these days. To be a biblical wife and mother can subject us to pressure, sometimes even from other Christians!
There is real security then in knowing that we are not called to be popular but called to be like Him. Being different because we belong to Christ is not always easy. But it becomes easier as we put the Scripture into practice and grow and develop in the Lord.
We may not be very popular, but then we weren’t promised popularity on this earth.
Lois Evans
Pray About it
We can either do what everybody else is doing or put into action the power we have within us through Christ to be in the world, but not of the world (see John 15:19). Remember, your manual for living is God’s Word, not the latest magazine.
I agree totally
I am so grateful for these wise words. Thank you for being the epitome of a TRUE Woman of God!
Yes, we are still here! How can we serve you?