Do You Recognize Her?

This picture stirs up memories for me of when I daydreamed (seemingly all day long) when I was a little girl. 

When you see this little girl, what adjectives would you use to describe her?

Sometimes (even from a very young age) our God-given strengths, gifts, and interests can be misunderstood or rejected by others, so we might try to change ourselves to become who people tell us we should be.

Do you know who you were created to be?

The world we live in has a way of telling us who we are and who we should and shouldn't be.

• Maybe when you were little you were told you were stupid or you were made fun of for something you loved to do and that has stuck with you ever since.
• Maybe you felt too sensitive and wondered why everything hit your heart so deeply.
• Perhaps you have always felt like there is something wrong with you, and that follows you everywhere you go.
• Maybe you have been an anxious or angry person for as long as you can remember, so you have just accepted that as your lot in life and who you are (even if you don't like it).

The world loves to tell us who we are, but this leaves us with a big problem. The world did not create us. God did.

Many of us have spent years on this earth taking in what people, and even our own selves, tell us about who we are. We go along with the flow of what seems to be true, not questioning if it is how God truly created us to be.

Have you ever asked God who He created you to be?

You were created by a God who loves you, enjoys you and delights in you. He wants you to know and embrace who He created you to be. There is incredible freedom to be found when we are able to walk in who we were created to be.

Today I am going to challenge you with something...

Look at that girl in the picture again. Do you recognize her?

• What did you dream about when you were her age?
• What adjectives did you use earlier to describe what the girl in the picture might be like?
• In what ways were you like her when you were her age? (Maybe some of the details would be different.)
• How well does this match who you are now?

If those were characteristics that God put in you, they are still in you! (Even if some of them may have seemingly disappeared over time.) It's not too late for them to make a reappearance. Does that seem too unrealistic, scary, or too much?

I get it! It's something I encourage you to think and pray about, though.

I'll talk more about this in the next post...

P.S. I encourage you to look at this journey of learning who God created you to be as a discovery, instead of trying really hard to change yourself. (Speaking as someone who tried really hard to change myself for a very long time.) It feels completely different, and you will be surprised at how much more effective it can actually be!