When you choose to pick up the cross daily, life is no longer the same. Life no longer becomes the thought of, what can I do for myself today to benefit me and to make my life more enjoyable? ; but your life changes into that of always wanting to please the Father. It no longer is based on earthly pleasures, but on a sight set on the higher pleasures stored up for us in heaven. Choosing Jesus, is to choose to remodel your life entirely after Him.

Simply being a Christian and yet at the same time worrying about what others would think is not even part of the parcel - being a Christian means that it is your Father's opinion that matters the most, if not the only opinion that matters. It is the thought of, "What does my Father think of this?" before you choose to do something, the thought of, "I hope this brings joy to my Father," when you choose to love a person, the knowledge that "This is what my Father would do, and this is why I do it." Its the willingness and the heart to always want to be on the right path, to bring happiness to the One who created you, to be a Person After His Own Heart.

Once again, He > I ; He must increase and I must decrease. His attitude and character must all the more increase in the reflection of my being; when others see me, I want them to see more of Him and less of me.