Identity~

Webster defines “identity” as the distinguishing character or personality of an individual.

Who are you?

Who am I?

What or who defines us?

Our lives?

Our choices?

On our family vacation in June, I spent every day on the beach walking….pondering….picking up shells…asking my Heavenly Father who I was….asking myself what I wanted for my life…what I wanted to be when I grew up…

What was most important to me in my life?

What needed to be eliminated?

What had I outgrown?

What was I hanging on to that no longer served a purpose in my life?

Did I have unhealthy emotional attachments to people or things that had been crippling me and holding me captive in patterns of co-dependency and self-sabotage because I wouldn’t let go?

What was all this questioning and restlessness and pondering?

The season for a mid-life crisis was long past….

All I wanted was for my life to matter….not in a “look at me” way….

But….

look at what Jesus has done with my broken pieces way…

Where there had been loneliness and fear

My Father lovingly reminded me He had adopted me as His own.

So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.”Romans 8:15 

How could I live out my life honoring Jesus who had honored me by dying a torturous, horrific death to buy my freedom?

You’ve gone into my future to prepare the way,
and in kindness you follow behind me
to spare me from the harm of my past.^[a]
With your hand of love upon my life,
you impart a blessing to me.

Psalm 139:5 The Passion Translation

From that quiet Texas beach, with questions spinning at every step, to today as I write these words, the Holy Spirit, in His gentle, patient way, has been breathing life over the dry and weary places in my heart.

I didn’t realize how very parched and desperate my soul was…

But He knew and He has been faithful to care for me …

The words from a current song continue to float over me as my thoughts and emotions are healing and my mind is being renewed…

“I am chosen

Not forsaken

I am who YOU say I am”

My Creator is the only One who knows who I am through and through…

Lord, you know everything there is to know about me.
² You perceive every movement of my heart and soul,
and you understand my every thought before it even enters my mind.

Psalm 139:1-2

My worth and value are

Not determined by…

accomplishments or achievements…

 a job or career…

money or possessions…

 earthly family name or inheritance…

gifts or talents or skills…

 children or husband…

church attendance…

charities supported…

good works…

social media…

My worth and my value were determined when my Father God, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, extended His hand to me and invited me to be His daughter…

and…

I accepted…

He’s holding His hand out to you today as well ….