How to Define Yourself

As my children age and mature, I find more topics I want to impart or impress onto their hearts while they are still at home. Perhaps this is just the way it is with parenting.

Today I was pondering identities, and what I want my children to know about them.
My advice to them follows.
~ Dorie


What I Want My Children to Know about Their Identities:


We humans are a fallen race, who sometimes get wronged, do wrong, and chose wrong. And, sometimes, we define ourselves by the wrong words with the wrong measurements.


What will you allow to define you? Will you measure yourself compared to others? Defining yourself based on how you rise or fall when compared to another's personality, talents, and accomplishments. How will you describe yourself, by the world's definitions and standards?

Will you use

a status...

• job
• marital

a number...

• of years
• of kids
• on the scale
• in the checkbook
• from an IQ test

your past...

• experiences
• accomplishments
• failures

someone else's opinions...

• family members
• friends
• bullies?

 

What is in a name? We all carry them about: Our names.
Typically, when parents have children they name them.
After all, babes can't talk and name themselves.
Someone has to call them something.
Nicknames are often used. Some are endearing, others annoying.
We determine what another calls us
through our introductions and voicing our preferences.


What is a label? Identifying attributes and talents can become words people use to label us.
As we grow and change we will meet many people.
There will be people who judge you incorrectly without knowing you or your heart motifs.
They will label you with words which either esteem or tear you down.
Still others will want you and your personality to fit into a box of their making.
They may try to keep you in that box with their assumptions.
These labels identify us as having or being something particular,
but they do not define the real you.


What is in a title? When an author writes a book, they entitle it.
The name either entices others to pick it up or it doesn't.
When an artist paints a picture,
they give it a name, describing the subject or emotion of the piece.
When an employee gets hired, he gets a title.
It is his position, place in the company.
It is not the whole person.


And, through the years, all these names, labels, and titles shape our life. We make choices to either believe the words or not. If we believe the words, we make our decisions based on them. One path is chosen over another. In the end, it isn't the title, label, or name itself that matters as much as your belief of them. Those beliefs impact your entire life.

The Choice to Believe We all have this choice: to believe or not believe.
For me, my dear children, I'm refusing to define myself by the world's standards. My status, numbers, past actions, labels, and titles are not all that I am. Yes, the words describe parts of me, but they are not my complete identity. They are not how He sees me. Over the years, I've learned, He sees me in a whole different light. In fact, He tells me many different ways and times, over and over in His Word, just who I am.


Who I am According to Him
a child of God {John 1:12}
alive in Christ {Ephesians 2:4-7}
loved {Romans 8:38-39}
forgiven {Matthew 26:27-28}
blessed {John 20:29}
rewarded {I Corinthians 3:10-15}
triumphant in Christ {2 Corinthians 2:14}


What will you believe? Will you firmly hold onto what the world says? Or will you trust the One who made you, loves you, and knows everything about you, even the number of hairs on your head. I pray you trust God, know who you are in Him, and become so secure in Him that nothing move you. May you be steady and strong in His love, grace, and mercy.
And, I hope in some way, your daddy and I have been a positive example for you to follow.
Love,
Mommy