Daughter of God.

Identity is a fragile concept.  As a woman, I've lived my life constantly comparing myself to other women--as far back as some of my earliest memories.  She's thinner than I am.  She's smarter than I am.  She gets more attention from boys than I do.  Oh, and then there's the attention from the opposite sex that competes for my identity.  Am I pretty enough?  Am I feminine enough?  Am I too independent?

This just barely scratches the surface of the hits my identity has taken as a woman.  It's a constant onslaught of pressures to please and compare, to measure up to a bar that's constantly moving out of reach.

Growing up in church and being a part of Christian women's groups in particular, I've heard my fair share of finding-your-identity-in-Christ talks, but the pressures from the world were always louder.  I thought my identity was in Christ--I mean, I was a Christian, right--but I constantly struggled with insecurity and comparison.

I don't know what finally flipped that switch for me.  Perhaps it's been just growing up.  Perhaps it's been having my whole world shaken so that the surface-level things no longer mattered.  I don't know.  But I can now truly say that my identity is in Christ.  There is a freedom and security that comes from that, that is nearly indescribable.  For the first time in my life I like who I am.  I don't have to find my worth in anything but my Father, and He says I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  He delights in me.  Nothing I can do will change His feelings for me.

Finding my identity in Christ frees me to not only love myself, but to love other people.  I don't have to worry about what other people think, because their opinions don't define me anymore.  I no longer have to hide who I am or try to be someone else, because I know my personality and my passions come from my Father, and I am striving daily to be more like Him.  He is who I want look like and who I want to please.