When ever I return home from school for the holidays, going back to church can be a bit disconcerting. This is because I barely recognize anyone. Of course, with time comes change and increase and in this increase there are usually a lot of strangers. So I usually have to start the job of reintegrating myself anew in the Church, re-introducing myself and opening myself up to meeting the new people.
During one of such moments, a lady whose about my age approached me and we got talking. In the past months we've come to be quite close.
My friend is the sort who never holds back on compliments. Infact, when ever I put effort into my dressing for the service, I can always count on her to drop a comment or two. She's always asking questions about me and genuinely interested in the details of my life even the seemingly boring ones. She really is such a sweet soul and it was quite easy to get endeared to her.
One of our many rituals is to take pictures together or wait up for each other after service and catch up on certain details in each other's lives.
So on this particular day, we had a meeting as we both serve in the same service unit and we were both walking each other to the gate where we would part ways.
First of all, let me say that there is a way I believe every lady should carry herself and that is with an extra tinge of confidence and I never fail to portray that confidence in the way I walk most days, especially when I'm on heels. I'm also usually on the quiet side in public except when I'm amongst my best friends. Classy me goes right out the window with those lot, lol.
So on that day, she was mostly whining of hunger as the meeting had been rather impromptu and had taken a while. While she was at it, I didn't bat an eye or express the same feeling even though it was mutual as I was just as hungry.
While she was talking, I didnt really react the way she wanted so she paused to observe me and muttered quite reflexively, "Ah! You dey behave like Pastor ehn!"
When she said that, I smiled though I made no comment because in the next breath she had started talking about something else and totally forgot the comment she had just made.
However for me, all I could think was, wow!
Apart from my family and best friends, people at home don't know that I am a Student Pastor and I honestly want to keep it that way. So when she muttered that comment a part of me thought, "How did she know?"
I realised it wasn't that someone told her or that she had perhaps overheard someone calling me that, it was just the way I was.
I talk like a Pastor, I think like one, I behave like one, I walk like one and I am one.
This isn't a story aimed at titles but about you.
What are you about? What are you into?
How do you project that in a way that you don't even have to announce yourself but by your actions, your speech, your dressing, by your walk, others can see it for themselves?
There are times when I meet new people and I ask them questions or present my opinion in a certain light. The next thing they tend to ask is, "What course are you studying?" And once I say Psychology, they immediately mutter, "Aha!" As though it couldnt have been anything else but that.
It's so easy for us to declare or tell people that we are, maybe a Queen or a King. It's easy to call yourself a wealthy person or a person of worth but if you don't project that then you must not really believe what you're selling and neither will others.
People will only perceive you to be what you project.
You can't call yourself royalty and talk like a commoner. There are rules that guide the lifestyle you desire.
Remember the story of David, when he wanted to bring The ark of God back home? Do you remember when The ark was about to fall and someone rushed out to hold it and was struck dead for it? Well, that happened because he didn't know the rules safe guarding carrying the ark. He thought that as long as he was part of the priesthood, then it was alright, that was all that was needed. Sadly, that wasn't the case. There were protocols to be observed before one could rush to touch something so sacred.
It's amazing how we can picture the life we want, picture the person we hope to be and even declare that we are those people yet we don't think like they think, we don't behave like they do, we don't dress like they do, we certainly don't talk like they do. Yet we expect people to see us as Royalty even though we do not want to learn the technicalities surrounding such lifestyle.
My Pastor would say, "There are protocols for the palace, learn it".
Let your conduct be as one who possesses value. At every instance, project that value. Think it, talk it, act it, dress it and be it.
Soon you'll hear people call you "boss". You may not even have all the things that qualify you as one but when your conduct is as one who is a boss, people will naturally perceive it.
Perception is a force, you have to know how to use it to gain the acceptance you want.
Think it, talk it, act it, dress it and be it.
In the words of my best friend, "Dear blooming flower, embrace your worth!"