Average..Mediocre..Middle of the Road..Ordinary

Average..Mediocre..Middle of the Road..Ordinary

I hate those words.  Those words have been the bane of my existence for many years.  Why?  Because I have always been the typical, average, middle of the road, ordinary sort of girl.  I know that to most people that may not sound like a bad thing, but it has driven me crazy all of my life.

I am of average weght and average height.  I am of average appearancs, brown hair and brown eyes.  My talent level is...well, average.  I am not the greatest at things, but not the worst either.  I can sing but not carry a harmony part.  I can play volleyball, but my skill level is average.  I can cook, but nothing close to gourmet.  Average has been the story of my life for as long as I can remember.

I can remember going to my brothers when I was a teen and asking them if they thought that I was pretty. (Not a wise thing to do by the way!)  I can remember them telling me that I wasn't really ugly or beautiful.  They just thought that I was....you guessed it...AVERAGE!  And I pretty much agreed with them.  I clearly wasn't hideous.  I had a few dates and a few boyfriends back in the day.  Some of them were even really cute, but boys weren't chasing me by any means either.  Average was a fair assessment, but I hated it. 

I longed in my life to stand out.  When you are average it is easy to blend in and be forgotten.  That is how I had felt most of my life. If I was sick and missed the game,  they could get along without me.  If I didn't go to the party, no one would really miss me.  If I was sick for choir, no one would notice.  And the worst part was, that there was nothing that I could do about it.  I looked the way I looked.  My personality was what it was.  Other than extreme plastic surgery or acting like a complete phony, I was who I was.  Average.  I had to learn to be okay with that.  There was nothing that I could do about it.  Until one day I came across these verses:

I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.

So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

Revelations 3:15-16

Wait a minute!  Hold the phone!  Check it out!  God hates average too!  Average..Mediocre..Middle of the Road..Ordinary. Those words disgust God.  He is not talking about appearances or talent level though.  He is not talking about personality or cooking skills.  He is talking about our Christian walk.  He is talking about our love for the Lord.  He is talking about something that I have the ability to do something about!

I may not be able to add height to my stature or thickness to my thin hair or musical ability to my average voice, but I sure can do something about my relationship with Jesus.  I sure can serve him with my whole heart.  There can finally be someone that can look at me and say: "She is not average!"  And it can be the person who's opinion counts the most.  Jesus Christ.

When I finally understood that there was a way for me to do something more than average for Jesus, I was thrilled.  I chose the following verse to be my life and ministry verse:

Mark 12:30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.

 

I determined that there would be nothing average about my devotion for my Savior.  I would let him work in my life in whatever way that He thought was best.  I would serve him with my whole heart.

 

I would give this ordinary life to my extraordinary Savior  and believe me, since that moment life has been anything but average!

 

 

Blessed extraordinarily,

 

Rachel