What’s My Brand? (Part Two)

Hopefully you read the last post.  Otherwise this one won’t make much sense.  So, if you didn’t we’ll wait while you go back and read it. (Pausing to wait…) You’re back?  Good!  Here we go then. . .

As I have thought about my life, my “brand” I have realized more and more just how blessed my life has been. What factors in my life made me who I am? Is it simply that I have an ESFJ personality on the Myers-Briggs spectrum? (That would be Sanguine-Choleric to those of you more familiar with that terminology.) I don’t believe so. I  thought several times this weekend of the verse in Psalm 139:14 which says, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made. . .” I’m not an accident. What my life-path has made me isn’t just a result of chance. No, indeed. This is the result of God’s direction. God has given me every opportunity that has made my life what it is. He gave me the parents he wanted me to have, all three of them. He gave me a Daddy who exemplified teaching by example. Daddy taught us to choose our actions based on Bible principles. Most importantly he demonstrated this by consistently living his life, day by day making his personal choices based on Biblical principles.

God gave me the opportunities he wanted me to have and took away the things that wouldn’t serve His purposes in my life. He sent me to Nursing School and eventually Bible College for an El Ed degree. He took my cello away after 7^th grade so I was forced to learn to play the piano. He gave me the responsibility/opportunity to play a cantata way above my ability in high school, thereby forcing me to develop my musical ability and inciting a love for the piano I just didn’t have. He didn’t give me a husband until I was forty-three leaving me many years to pursue other goals and ministries. It also forced me to draw closer to Him.

Every experience in my life, good or bad, can in retrospect be placed under the umbrella of “The preparing of a servant of the living God.” This causes me to fall on my face and say, as Mary did,“Behold, the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.” Luke 1:38. For a die-hard controller of all that is Miriam’s life, this is a hard lesson to learn and hold on to. Why is it so hard to give over control to the God of the universe? I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that He is trustworthy and consistent. He is my Abba Father, my heavenly Daddy.

So, even the search of a pithy, succinct way to express the essence of Miriam comes down to this — God is using this experience to give me an appreciation for my life path and mold me into a more Christ-like attitude, a complete surrender. May the essence of Miriam include a daily surrender to an Almighty, Unchangeable, All-Knowing, Loving, Holy God.