Image is Everything (but really false)

Ever since I can remember image has been huge for me!  I have done my best, since about the 9th grade, to look my best in dress and self image (no one looks good in middle school and that is given).  It started with making sure I had the "cool" snowboard and snowboard boots.  Then I needed to make sure I got a "cool" truck when I was in High School.  It didn't stop there; I always wanted the "cool" girlfriend but the sad thing is that I didn't fit in any of their class bracket.  My family was never poor but we were never rich; we had food on the table and a roof over our head, we played sports, we had money to go on vacation but we never had that much.

When I first game my life to Christ I remember looking into my closet one day and thinking that I need to get rid of some of these clothes; especially my Bad Religion t-shirt.  I never really cared what others thought about me (it sounds contradicting and I know that) but I always wanted to make sure that in my mind I looked how I would prefer to look.

This image has stuck with me into my adulthood and recently has been bugging me deeply.  I constantly think about how I look and want to make sure that I look like I have it all put together.  What's been bugging me is that I have a great family, a wonderful wife, two beautiful kids and a growing relationship with Christ so why does this bother me?  I think I figured it out the other night on the plane when this verse came to mind:

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. Matthew 23:25-26

This verse is it!  Jesus nails it on the head and brings the truth to my situation; I just needed to be open to seeing it in scripture!  See the problem for me is that I need to focus more on my inside being taken care of and less about what my outside looks like.  One thing that I have learned, and haven't totally figured out yet is how to really connect well with Jesus in this new stage of my life.  This is what I am going to work on now; connecting well with God being a husband, dad and pastor.  My focus will not be on how to be the best pastor but how to be the best follower of Christ that leads and loves his family well; I think the rest will fall into place when I focus on that.