I have always felt like I didn’t quite know where I fit.

I was kind of athletic, but not extremely. I got good grades, but I wasn’t a crazy smart person who really enjoyed studying. I loved doing artsy crafty things, but I was not super creative. I was an outspoken Christian but never felt like I had much Bible knowledge.

I was just a little bit of everything, but not a whole lot of anything.

When it came to the end of high school and all the talk of future plans and college visits, I was completely in the dark. I had zero—literally zero—desire to go to college. Not because I was stupid or unmotivated, but because I felt absolutely no calling on my life to get a degree. I know many people shook their heads at me thinking I was completely wasting my abilities by not going to college, but I never felt that way. Being a mom was my number one goal, and I knew I didn’t need to put a load of debt on my shoulders if in the end I was going to stay home and raise my kids. But, weirdly enough, I also always thought it would be cool to run a business. Sounds like two opposite worlds, I know. But the thought of running a business on my own terms intrigued me.

There have been so many times in my life where it was really evident to me that I did not fit in.

But, I can honestly say I never felt the need to.

I think we feel as young women and mothers that we need to conform to some idea of what motherhood is supposed to be like. Either you lean hard one way thinking being a full-time working mom is the way to be. You worked hard at college to get a degree and now you need to use that knowledge and work hard to make money. Or you lean hard the other way and think the only thing you should be doing is raising your family and staying home. While neither of these is “wrong”, the point is you don’t have to conform to any of these motherhood ideals.

If you get what I’m talking about, you understand that God has called you to something different.

He has set you apart, in some way, to take a different path.

When we “fit in” to a group, we don’t allow God to grow us because we get much too comfortable fitting in. We go along with the ideals of the others and we follow their lead and their choices and their expectations.

As Christians, women, and mothers we are called to SO MUCH MORE than simply belonging to a group. We are called to embrace what it is that makes us different and to not strive to “fit in”.

Because when we feel like we don’t have it all together, God is able to shape and mold us into exactly the women He calls us to be.

Originally published on the author’s blog

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