I am who God says I am.
It is a phrase that I learned to recite several years ago. One that often requires multiple repetitions. One that my lips say more easily than my heart believes. One that impacts how I relate to myself and to every other person I am in contact with because I will live out of who I believe I am. Knowing this one truth . . . I am who God says I am . . . becomes so powerful as I struggle with my identity at age 10 . . . 14 . . . 17 . . . 22 . . . 35 . . . 42 . . . and on and on. In my humanness, I want to be accepted. I want to be applauded. I want people to say I am smart. Beautiful. A great athlete. A good parent. I want to hear someone say 'Atta, girl! But receiving that word of affirmation is very different than living for it. Social media makes this so hard. Or so easy. So easy to post the pictures and reach for the comments of the identity I sometimes long for: "You are so beautiful!" "Look at you!" "You're the best mom!" "Hot stuff!" So why do we post the pictures? Why do we want the comments? Maybe because we are not living as if our identity is in Christ. Maybe because we are not living as if we believe that I am who God says I am. We are living, instead, as if our identity is found in what our friends or acquaintances or strangers say about us. As if our identity is in the "love" given to us by others. We are living as if I am who everyone else says I am. When Katie began using social media at age thirteen, we had a conversation (perhaps more than one) about selfies. Selfies are not inherently wrong, but the reason for posting them can be. I told her, "Your instagram should be a lot more about you enjoying life and enjoying others than it is about your selfie and the comments that follow it." That's hard as a thirteen year old - or a thirty year old. Just the other day I read through a paper that Katie had written at the end of seventh grade. It was an application for the role of being a mentor the following school year for incoming sixth graders. Near the end, she wrote, "I live life based on what Jesus thinks of me and not others." I want to have confidence in who God created me to be. I want my kids to have confidence in who God created them to be. I want their "self-" confidence to arise out of their identity in Christ. Out of who God says they are. Not out of who others say they are. Not even out of who they think they are. Because I am who God says I am. Chosen. Redeemed. Loved. Free. Forgiven. Capable. New. Healed. Strong. Blessed. I am who God says I am. And so are you.
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