What Do You Want To Be?

By Katherine L. Plante

O

h, that famous question. Seems adults like to ask it. People have asked me what I want to be “when I grow up” all of my life, it seems. I have thought about it many times. And, I think, I have wanted to be practically everything! I went through phases. I was an impressionable little girl. Oh, how I wanted to be an actress! But I decided that was not a very “Christian” profession. Hollywood can be a very wicked place. Then the Winter Olympics made quite an impression on me. I longed to be a figure skater. That too passed... Next, I wanted to be a governess-a nanny. It seemed such a romantic profession! (Have you ever seen the movie “The Sound of Music”?) After that, I had my heart set on touring the world with a musical group. (The Continentals, perhaps?) Then I wanted to be a lawyer. Then a journalist. Then a missionary. Then a writer. Then a pastor’s wife. (That, I have not ruled out yet.) Then I wanted to work with the handicapped

Now the question of “what to be” has taken on a new significance. Because now I am a senior in high school. The question seems to be staring me in the face. Aahh! Now I teach children’s church.  I look over all of “my” little four, five, and six year olds. I ask,

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

Elisabeth J. told me last fall (she was three years old then) that she wants to be a snowman! She was totally serious. (What about summer, dear Beth?) Of course, in children’s church, there are lots of answers. You know, the usual: policeman, vet, pilot, singer, dentist. But one little girl looked at me and said in her quiet, soft voice, “Teacher, I just want to be like Jesus.”

Like Jesus. That hit home in my heart. Shouldn’t that be our pursuit in life? Regardless of any profession. Am I like Jesus? It is easy to become caught up in plans for the future. Our “goals”. Shouldn’t our ultimate goal be to become more like Jesus? Don’t you want to be like Him “when you grow up”?