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.
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