Tattoo.

I don't know how many of you out there have a tattoo or a few. I was thinking about my tattoos on my wrists today. They've really started to just be a part of me. I don't realize I have them (I have one on each foot as well). My wrist tattoos are the beginning and end of the Prayer of St. Francis. This might be a little deep for some of you, but here's what that means to me: I have one on each arm. The rest is my life filling in the middle. Does that make sense? Having the beginning and end of the prayer on my outward body on either side of me means that I should live the prayer with all of my heart which would be obviously my inward self.

If you don't know the prayer here it is:

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.

I need to be what God has called me to be. I need to be the opposite of what this world has to offer. Even if my tattoos are "ignorable" at this point in my life, they are a reminder of what I've been called to. A pursuit of holiness and helpfulness. I want to be a light in the darkness to point others to the hope that is only found in Christ. My tattoo is  a nice little reminder that when I start to complain about how terrible the world is, it's not up to someone else. It's up to me. Not because I'm awesome, but because I serve an awesome God.