What Defines You?? Circa Sept 2007

What is it that defines you? Is it the advancements you make in your career? Do you feel like you're defined by how successful your children are (or aren't)? Maybe you find your definition in a degree that hangs in frame on your wall, or possibly in a spotless, beautifully decorated home where you are the perfect hostess.  Do you feel defined by the adoration of your spouse or significant other?? Is it a models face and body that define what makes you feel special?  Is it accomplishments you've made on the sports field that have helped to define who you are? Do you feel possibly you have found your definition in your recognition for spectacular things you've done? What is it that makes you feel like~~ well… you??  What makes you confident about who you are?

I guess I'm asking this because I'm at a point in my life where I'm learning what it is that defines me.  In reflecting I've learned it's not the same things that I would have thought five years ago, at this rate~ not even the same things I would have thought defined me five months ago.  Even today the things I thought helped define who I was, are different than they were just yesterday. 

I used to think I needed all those things I mentioned above, but I've recently realized… most of those things fade in time.  Looks fade, spouses/significant others leave, children grow up, houses crumble, a job can be gone in a heartbeat, and those wonderful works can be forgotten as soon as they're done, that degree isn't an means to an end- it's just a piece of paper in a frame- and I got my varsity letter in dance, no one even remembers that… so what is it that defines me??  It's my character.

I want to be defined as a woman who is of noble, honorable character.  I want to be defined as a woman, who loves whole-heartedly, without condition or stipulation: a woman who accepts people, for who they are, not who they were.  I want to be defined as woman who knows that her true strength comes from God and not from herself.  Yes, eventually I'd like to be known as 'his wife' and 'their mother', while putting that degree I'm working so diligently for to good use… but those things will not define who I am, who I am will define those roles.  By becoming the best person I can be for myself~ I am also preparing myself to be the best mother, wife, and preservationist that I can be.  Now I know what the goal entails~ I also know this is an ever changing goal and an ever changing road to reach this goal.

I know what it is that will define me~ again I ask you what is it that will define you?