A couple years ago, I remember looking at the Instagram account of a fairly “famous” woman and thinking to myself that I wanted to be like her.  Not because of how she dressed or wore her hair, but because of how she expressed herself on her feed.  Yes, she had some selfies and random pictures of her dog or her friends.  But, a good portion of her feed was full of inspirational quotes and Bible verses.  Even though I didn’t know this person “in real life,” I felt like I could feel her faith and love for God just jumping off the page.  I remember thinking I wanted to be like that, but not on purpose.  I didn’t want to just jump back over to my account and start posting all these Bible verses to intentionally be like her.  I just wanted to be like her.

Fast forward a couple years and the craziest thing has happened… I have become like her.  Again, not in a superficial way.  We are still different people with different tastes, different interests and different appearances.  But that thing that I so longed for… that thing that jumped off her feed all that time ago… I now have it.  And it’s simply an authentic and overwhelming love for God.  Turns out, I didn’t even have to worry about becoming something I wasn’t… all I had to do was seek Him and fall in love with Him.  And in the process, He changed me.

And it’s not the only way He’s changed me.  I also remember desperately wanting peace.  I envisioned it as me running through a field of wildflowers without a care in the world.  Cheesy I know… but the idea was to be so relaxed, so carefree that I just floated through life.  Now, even though I can’t say that I’m all the way there, I am a lot more peaceful than I used to be.  And again, it happened without me even really noticing it was happening!

Because as I leaned more on God, trusted more in Him and surrendered more to Him… the peace just came as a result.  He has been stripping away the worry, the stress, the indecision and the doubt, so that what was there along – the peace – actually has a chance to shine through.

And the same is true for all of us.  We don’t need to spend endless amounts of time and energy worrying over things we want to change about ourselves or trying to strive for some perfect “ideal” that we think we need to achieve.  All we have to do is fully and earnestly seek Him.  To fall totally in love with Him and give Him the very best of ourselves.  And He will take care of the rest.

He will transform you, He will grow you and He will change you… all, when you’re not even looking.