Pocktbacs and fakes

The other day, I noticed that one of my new Filipina friends had a similar hand sanitizer/ "pocketbac" holder to one I had gotten from Bath & Body Works. I asked where she had gotten hers and quickly learned it was a knock-off, a copy-cat of the one from B&BW (quite common here). In not quite my proudest moment, I got all indignant inside thinking, "Well, MINE is the real one. Yours is a fake." I know, not exactly a pure attitude...thank goodness I didn't say it out loud, but the thought was still there (And if that friend is reading this, I'm very sorry!). Later, I dissected my motives and why I had gotten all snobby and proud inside. And while it doesn't excuse my high-and-mighty thoughts, I guess I wanted something from "home" that was uniquely mine. Perhaps it was that materialism that reared it's ugly head...the thought that I have something you don't. No matter. It was ugly.

But it got me to thinking that I'm just as guilty for being a copy-cat. I can be very good at looking authentic, seeming real. I know how to say a good prayer, appear sincere, but deep inside I'm not always feeling it. I'm not real. It can sometimes be an act out of habit. In other words, I can sometimes be a knock off. There's so much pressure, largely self-induced, to keep that halo shiny and polished...and how often I fall short, stumbling along the way.

Praise God it's a journey and the refining doesn't happen over night. Praise God that He can see our motives and correct us. Praise God for grace and second, tenth, and one-thousand-seventy-sixth chances.

"Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect" Romans 12:2, NLT