This should be an easy question to answer, however if a friend or loved one was sitting across from you today and asked you this question… Who are you? What would your answer be?
If I was a gambler, I would be willing to bet this question stirs up a whirlwind of thoughts, memories, circumstances, situations as well as an increased heart rate, an uncomfortable feeling and maybe sweat running down from your armpits. I know this because I too have experienced this exact thing.
Our identity many times is defined by the experiences we have, the people who surround us and the tests and temptations that are placed in front of us, and then of course the choices we ultimately choose in the midst of these circumstances.
I hold workshops across the country called “Design A Life You Love”. This workshop helps individuals identify who they are and if they are living up to their full potential. It is also designed to understand and define what are the barriers, roadblocks and mountains that are in the way of living the life you dream about and were created for.
Some of the most common questions that come from women in this workshop are;
Now that I have had children, I don’t know who I am anymore.
I have no time for myself as I am taking care of everyone else.
What am I here for?
Why do I feel it is my job to keep everyone happy?
Life is so busy, how do I make time for God?
Now more than ever, it seems we have an identity crisis in the world. When there is no standard and no guiding principles for our value system, then there is nothing to measure our existence by . What IS your identity? What are your values and what are the core principles that you live your life by? Do you follow and instill these values into your family? Does your entire family know what these values are? These can be things like, our family eats dinner together every night, with no cell phones in sight. Or we all attend church together on Sunday and have a meal and conversation together. Many of us are well into our lives and these questions make us uncomfortable to say the least. Some of us are just getting started in adulthood and think we have a good idea of who we are but not 100% sure.
My thought for you today is this. If we do not know who we are, then how are we going to teach our children to know who they are? How are we going to protect our young girls from being led astray and falling prey to someone with empty promises or worse, with dark intentions.
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart, I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 1:5
For me, I did not start to understand who I really was until I started to study God’s Word for the Truth. I had many conflicts and areas of confusion going on in my life. I knew the answers had to be somewhere. I searched and searched in all the wrong places. I asked `friends” for advice, who had no more experience than I did and went to no solution very fast.
Then one day, I decided it was time to stop being afraid and intimidated by that bible on the shelf. I always had a hard time understanding it and sometimes it was not convenient to follow the rules that are inside those bound pages, so as a result I kept it closed.
But when I opened it up, the pages fell to scripture that was a perfect fit for what I was going through at that moment. I sat down and read that page over and over, trying to figure out how I randomly turned to a page that spelled out my problems and how to have trust in God to help me through them.
You see, God is always watching, listening and standing by to answer our prayers and requests for help. He knew what I needed when I didn’t. Yet he waited patiently for me to come to him, so that it was my decision to receive Him.
I have been involved in Bible Study consistently since that day seven years ago. I did not know what I was doing but I knew I needed to get into the truth of God’s Word in order to understand who I truly was and what my role is here on this earth. If you are struggling with this too, or are intimidated by bible studies, please do not hesitate to reach out to us. We are here to support you and are starting a new study September 12th called Twelve Women Of The Bible. We would love to have you join us.