How Many Hats Do You Wear?

How many hats do you wear?

Hats were once a very popular clothing accessory, and huts usually served not just as a fashion piece, but also as an identifying mark. A policeman wore a policeman's hat. A baker wore a baker's hat. A cowboy wore a 10-gallon hat. A person of prominence often wore a top hat. That hat you wore identified the role you had assumed.

Most people have many different roles. A person, during the course of life, might be a son or daughter, a spouse, a parent, a business person, a church deacon, a Bible class teacher, a Little League coach, a room mother, a Lion's Club member, a gardener, a handyman, and so on. The roles might be spread out a little, but the chances are you play more than one role at a time. And, if you are like most people, you play many of the roles all at once.

Hopefully, as you play each of your life roles, you remain consistent--consistent to your true self and to your true identity. many make the mistake of altering their personality, beliefs, and values as they go from role to role. The church deacon might also be the unethical businessman. The caring mother might also be the town gossip. A person takes one hat off and puts another on, assuming a different persona.

Don't treat your Christianity as just another role and as just another hat to be discarded and replaced with another. As you go from role to role, allow your faith to remain constant--an ever-present force in your life. Allow it to become the accessory that determines who you are.