Good afternoon my siblings in Christ. I pray you all have been living intentionally and with purpose. I wanted to put a pin in my current journey and share what’s been going on. I pray you are able to see yourself through my experiences and it encourages you to challenge yourself as you are on your journey to being the best you possible.
IDENTITY! Who are you? This question is one that I’ve been asked more than once in my life. I’m a lot of things. A wife, daughter, sister, friend, college grad, business owner, employee, writer. I am all of these things however these are titles. Though true they don’t define me nor do they give a depiction of who I am. I’m a wife because my husband married me. I’m a daughter because my parents conceived then birthed me. I’m a sister because my parents had additional children. I’m a friend because I’ve invested my time in relationships. I’m a college graduate because I completed school. You get the point, lol. All these things were inherited or obtained through my work ethic.
While on this journey to self-love and self-care you will find yourself at this exact point. The point at which you are so distant from your former self that you no longer recognize who you are. Your past no longer defines you. I’m a survivor of domestic violence. Yeshua protected and graced me to make it through an abusive first marriage. I’m not ashamed of it anymore. I’m healed from it now. I’ve forgiven him and myself. It’s a part of my testimony, but it is not my identity. Identity is defined as the distinguishing character or personality of an individual. It is no longer my character to operate like someone who was abused. On the flip slide, I survived it, and I have been a survivor the majority of my life. So much so that I had to learn how to be a submissive wife to my current husband. So being a survivor isn’t my identity either. So again I ask, “Who are you?”
If you find yourself in this place along your journey. The place that closes a door and opens a new one. Don’t freak out! Lol. It’s perfectly fine that you don’t recognize yourself now that you’ve given your life to God. It’s going to take some time to discover the newness of you. It’s fine to re-evaluate your relationships and friendships at this point. You may even feel the need to step away from some relationships while you’re discovering the new you. If so, it’s ok to do that unless you’re married. (Side note: It is not ok to step away from your marriage, because you’re finding yourself.) I have some people that I’ve considered friends for over a decade and am now at a place that I’ve realized that I don’t know who they are in their current life. As adults who have families, I couldn’t even tell you anything about them and vice versa. It made me think that if our only connection is the past, and I’m no longer living in the past then maybe we don’t have the relationship that we once did. When God comes into your life you fall out of agreement with things and people. Somethings or some people will no longer be familiar to you. I’m not saying to dump all your friends, but take the time to learn who you are as this new man or woman in Christ. Once you’re established in that then seek Him about your relationships.
Fully giving myself to God has me in a place where I don’t recognize who I am since I’ve become a new creature in Him. I know my past and how He has healed me from it. I know how He protected me from my bad decisions and forgave me. Every trait, idea, characteristic, mannerism, and response were wiped away to make room for God’s presence when I gave my life up to live for Him. So what worked for me in the past no longer works for me as a Woman of God. Those things and some people no longer identify with me.
WHO AM I?
I AM A CHILD OF GOD! That I know for sure. As I grow in Him I am learning every day the identity in which He ordained for me. How I think, my character, my morals, and values are all provided by Him not by what I was taught or learned from others. I’m no longer pressed about figuring it all out. I find peace in the fact that I’m intentionally pursuing the one who has already figured it all out for me. Life is no longer about what I have been through, what decisions I made, what others thought about me or what I thought about myself. Life is about discovering the richness of Yeshua. Learning what He had in mind when He created me. Being intentional about loving myself. Thriving in the relationships He established for me. Growing my spirit, spreading the Word of God, and fulfilling my purpose. The more I seek Him the more I find out who I am.
I challenge you to re-evaluate who you are. Do you even know? If not, are you taking the necessary steps to grow in God so that He can reveal it to you? Today is a great day to start if you haven’t already done so. Don’t spend another year, month, week, hour or second allowing your titles to define who you are. Blessings.
“What marvelous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at it—we’re called children of God! That’s who we really are. But that’s also why the world doesn’t recognize us or take us seriously, because it has no idea who He is or what He’s up to.”
“But friends, that’s exactly who we are: children of God. And that’s only the beginning. Who knows how we’ll end up! What we know is that when Christ is openly revealed, we’ll see Him—and in seeing Him, become like Him. All of us who look forward to his Coming stay ready, with the glistening purity of Jesus’ life as a model for our own.”
1 John 3:1-3 The Message (MSG)
Mindful of Me 