Standing Out by Rachel Joy

Precious and I have a bit of a morning routine. Every morning she wakes me up--at a time I don’t see the purpose of waking up at--followed by me sassing her through the door.

After I bant* with her for about 15 minutes, I get out of bed and stumble, proceed, stagger walk to the kitchen where I start the coffee, whilst saying a lot of snarky things to Precious. I then feed her and mostly just stare at the coffee pot, waiting in desperation for it to be ready for my consumption. (The struggle is real. Just saying.) 

When she gets done eating (and the coffee is done) she heads to the front doors and meows relentlessly until I open the door for her.

Yesterday morning as I was letting her out (to get my peace and quiet) I noticed these two black crows sitting at the end of the front… cement thing.

Precious noticed them too.

Now, before I tell this story I want to say something. Precious has a beautiful coat. I literally want to take her with me to Home Depot or something and be like, “Hello, can I have two buckets of paint in these colours?” And then pull her out of her cage and be like, “Yeah. These colours.”

She’s a beautiful cat! But she is not good colours to hunt. I can literally see her all the way across the lawn.

She also has the grace of a hippo. Those two factors have saved the life of many birds, mice and large insects.

So when Precious saw these crows and decided that one of them was going to be breakfast, the crows also saw her. They were like, “Ha, look at that thing trying to eat us. Maybe I’ll let her… Just kidding! *Flies away crowing sarcastically*” 

After watching her futilely trying to get those birds, I sat  down on the stairs with my coffee, and I started to think.

So often we have these goals that we set and we are like, “I’m just gonna rule the world! Come on everyone let’s do this!” There is nothing wrong with that, I have a lot of outlandish goals that I want to do with as many people as I can. But sometimes people see us coming and are like, “Ah… you know. Doing that is great and I applaud you for that, but it’s a Netflix and pizza night. I’ll like your pictures on Facebook! Good luck!” And they fly away. (Or walk. Most people walk.)

This can lead to disappointment, discouragement and other forms of depression.

We can be like, “What’s wrong with me that I can’t do *whatever your amazing goal is*” and we just get so frustrated with ourselves.

First of all, you are amazing. Keep pressing on toward the goal that God has laid on your heart! Because with him by your side, you can do it. You can do all things through Christ who gives you strength.)

Second of all, don’t try to change the colour of your coat to make it blend in. Because you stand out, and it’s beautiful when you do so. There are so many people that match, and when you stand out in the way that God has created you, it’s absolutely stunning. 

It's priceless when you stand out. Don't try to stick a price tag on your self, because you are so valuable that a King laid down his life for you. 

Now if you’ll excuse me, Precious is meowing to be let in, so I should do that...

“ Do not be shaped by this world; instead be changed within by a new way of thinking. Then you will be able to decide what God wants for you; you will know what is good and pleasing to him and what is perfect” – Romans 12:2

~Rachel Joy

*My mother, Google and spellcheck say “Bant” is not a word, but I’m pretty sure it is, so I’m just gonna make it a word. Bant is now a word. It means “Sass sarcastically” and is basically short for ‘banter.’