When I was a little girl I always wanted to be someone else. I wanted to be prettier, smarter, thinner, more outgoing, more…well…anything else that wasn’t me.
It didn’t help that the world agreed with me. From commercials to television shows, to newspapers and magazine ads, and even some well-meaning so-called friends, the message was always… “You’re not good enough.” The world demanded that I be stronger, thinner, prettier…the list of what I was not was endless, and no matter how hard I tried I just couldn’t find the person I was created to be.
For years, actually, for most of my childhood I struggled with my identity. Was I a heavy metal rocker chick? Or maybe a cowgirl who loved country music? Was I a nerd or a jock or a cheerleader? Where did I fit in? The sad thing is that I never truly fit in. Anywhere. Every time I thought I did the rules changed, and I grasped desperately at the next identity that rolled across my path.
Until Jesus found me.
John 1:12 says this, “But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.”
For the first time, ever, I finally had a grasp on who I was…who I am. Jesus says that I am His. My identity is found in Him. I am a daughter of the King of kings and the Lord of lords. The Creator of the universe took my hand, looked me in the eye and called me His own.
I don’t have to be like anyone else because God made me who I am, and who I am going to be. Jesus loves me just the way I am, not for what the world says I should be.
Maybe you’re struggling with the identity the world has forced you into. Please believe me when I say that you don’t have to accept it! You can take comfort in the truth that God created you, that before He even formed you in your mother’s womb (Jeremiah 1:5) He already knew who you were, and who you were going to be. Your identity was already there before you ever took your first breath.
You don’t have to be who the world tells you you are. Your identity has already been set, you just need to accept Jesus’ word on that.