How do you measure success? By what standard do you measure? Have you ever taken time to ponder on your reasoning and decision on that standard? Is it rooted in values handed down through culture or traditions? Did you make a conscience choice or adopt what you saw around you? Is it scriptural or worldly? These are important questions worthy of review.
My husband and I had a recent conversation that sparked my interest in sharing and asking these questions. He was talking about his mom and dad being the examples that shaped his work ethic. Not realizing (until that conversation), they also contributed to the shaping of the standard by which he measures success. His mom always had several entrepreneurial projects going in order to help out the family. He admired this, embedding this mentality deep into his value system. Embedded it so deeply that he did not consider himself a success.
Working diligently to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table didn’t seem enough to him. Financial struggles ate away at his sense of success. Bear in mind, he is a pastor, a strong spiritual leader of our home and family, is Spirit-filled and sought after by others to pray for them. He follows after the Lord with all that is in him. Yet, because of that standard of success buried deep within his value system, he viewed himself as not enough.
It is our character, not our abilities or accomplishments, that measure our success. In our goal-oriented driven society, it is easy to lose sight of that spiritual fact. In this area, my husband was being bound by a mentality of which he was unaware. He saw himself through the perceived eyes of his mom’s efforts and accomplishments.
Accomplishments do not equal spiritual success. God wants an internal transformation to take place in us-one where the character qualities of Jesus are made our own. He places great importance on who we are becoming not on what we have accomplished. Worldly success and spiritual success are entirely two different things. Things of this world will pass away but our spiritual successes are the Lord’s doing and will last an eternity.
The ‘light bulb’ moment in that conversation revealed an area my husband needed to work on and has since given over the Lord. We all need to ask God to show us hidden areas in our own standards and values that were shaped by anything other than His word and help us prune them out of our lives. Pruning can be painful but the healthy fruit it produces is worth it. If we are to live by a set of standards, let’s make sure we are making conscious choices that foster spiritual growth and facilitate our decision to be more like Jesus.
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