Split Personalities

Technology is really great...when it works.  I'm not sure how we ever lived without cell phones, tablets, lap tops and the like.  My children certainly can't fathom life in such a way.

This past weekend, my husband and I spent some time cleaning out our basement.  We got rid of two computer monitors and multiple key boards, mouses, mice (what is the plural for computer mouse??) whatever you call them...there were speaker systems, cords, cables and attachments galore. 

All gone.  I laughed when I tried picking up a monitor.  It must've weighed 40 pounds!  Oh mercy, am I glad we now have these nearly paper-thin computers. 

It has taken me some time to learn to use just a fraction of what my new laptop is capable of doing.  All these amazing programs written by some genius sitting in a cubical somewhere.  It's like so many other things in my life that are powerful beyond my wildest imagination and all I know how to do is push the power button...log on to my favorite social media site...maybe type a letter, make a spreadsheet, design a flyer...but there's far more that I don't know how to do.

I figured out how to use the fancy e-mail program so all my many e-mails can be checked in one place.  Still can't figure out the contact part of it.  I'm still playing around with that...but I learned how to create a signature that will magically appear at the end of every e-mail I send out.  So I set one up to look all professional, like the one my husband uses, and put my name and title and contact information for my real estate office...then I set up another one for my position as curriculum director for the local leadership academy...then another for my direct sales business...

Here's my dilemma: Some days I don't want to be any of those things!  I just want to be me.  Plain and simple.  Or maybe I want to be all-inclusive and have all of my various signatures appear on my e-mail.  What's a gal to do??

I started to create one that would say, "Lynn Ringis, Jackie of all Trades, Master of None" but didn't want people to think I am incompetent.  So how about this: "Lynn Ringis, Mother of 7, wife of 1, friend of a few, acquaintance of many."  Hmph.  I held down the backspace arrow until it all disappeared.  So I decided to just go with "Lynn Ringis."  Period.  That's it.  As if I was giving up on my attempt to feel important.  And then I heard Him.

"Don't you know who you are?"

I suddenly felt a twinge of embarrassment that I had even cared who other people think I am. 

"You are mine."

And I sat there, staring at the blinking cursor. Yes, I am a child of God.  And that's all that matters.  And that title should flow through everything I do, woven into the fibers of my being like a beautiful tapestry.  I am a child of God.  Say that to yourself right now.  Slowly.  Then say it again.  And one more time.  Do you feel it?  I feel it, as I type, tears pool in my eyes... I am a child of GOD, who cares what I'm doing, what proverbial hat I'm wearing, what job or position I'm filling. 

I've been a lot of things in my life that I'm not so proud of - but once I was washed in the blood of Christ, all that icky stuff went right down the drain...and now, I'm a bona fide daughter of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. 

One of my favorite women of the word, Joyce Meyer, has a wonderful list of all the things that God says I am.  It's worth a read, but the only one that matters to me at this moment is what God said to me, as I struggled to figure out who I am... "You are mine."

Lynn Ringis
Child of God

Be blessed!