What do you want your life to look like?

What do you want your life to look like?

It's a pretty big question to ask yourself. There are innumerable variables involved. Even taking a broad approach to answering the question is somewhat daunting.

Sure, there are a few things we can say for sure about what we want our lives to look like. There are several things are lives are called to look like. But answering that question fully... that's another story.

I could get lost in all the possibilities. Depending on the season of life I'm in, the answer is drastically different, too, and in several ways.

When I was 20, I wanted to move out on my own, live a busy life, travel all over (with what money, I did not know!), and just kind of do as I pleased.

At 23, I learned how incredibly foolish it is to just "do as I pleased."

So, my answer to that question changed a lot. Instead, I wanted my life to look like being married to the guy I was with at the time, settling down, doing the traditional wife and mom thing. Maybe leaving my job and working from home part-time. Spending a lot of time at home, which meant giving up time in ministry to spend more time with him to keep him happy.

But by 24, that relationship God brought that relationship to a very certain end and I realized that half of what I was thinking I wanted my life to be was not where God was calling me.

Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand. ~ Proverbs 19:21

I spent the ages of 25, 26 and most of 27 avoiding answering the question because I just did not know anymore. I was filled with ideas, but I didn't really care to know much for sure. There were too many variables involved to wrap my head around answering that question.

You know where that got me? B U S Y. Living without your finger on the pulse of the long-term can quickly burn you out - at least, that's how it left me.

I have wanted my life to look like a hundred different things over the past 10-12 years, and I have watched the picture I thought I was painting change time and time again.

So now I'm 28. I have goals, things I want, things I feel called to. But that question isn't one I'm trying to answer anymore. If life has taught me anything, it's that we are not qualified to give a confident answer.

There are a few things I know for sure...

• I know that I want my schedule to be less filled, chaotic.

• I know that I want Sundays to be spent with friends and family, taking a deep breath.

• I know that I want to serve the Lord.

• I know that I have professional goals.
  

But when it comes to really answering the question "What do I want my life to look like?" or knowing how any of those things may fit together, what I know best is that I want God to answer that question for me.

I want my life to look like the life of someone following where He leads.

~ Alyssa