Who Are You?

Who are you?

Are you the person I see day to day - with the smile on their face and the perfectly “on-point” outfit?

Are you the person who is always ready to help someone else?

Are you the person who always finds out about another person, but rarely shares about yourself?

Are you the person who goes home, shuts the door, and cries?

Just… who ARE you? And can others see the real you? 

Do you feel free to be yourself? Flaws, insecurities, and all? 

Do you surround yourself with friends who help you flourish? Or friends who continue to make you feel like you have to hide the real you? 

Who are you? Do YOU even know? Have you chiseled away at yourself to be accepted, so that you don’t really know who you are any more?

You are WORTH getting to know. You are worth it, to find out for yourself who you really are.

Find out what YOU like. How YOU feel. What YOU want.  

Even if it means others may stop being your friend.

If no one knows you, no one can understand you. No one can be there for you in your darkest moments.

If no one knows you, no one can really encourage your gifts and talents.

You can’t change your DNA. You can’t change your blood. You are who you are. So be alllll that you are. Rise in it. Let it wrap itself around you.

Be you. 

Be you in the fun moments of life and in the hard.  

Just. Be. You. 

It Just Takes One Person To Find Courage For Those Who Can't Find It On Their Own

You can’t fix the outside without also fixing the inside.

I’ve been learning this.  I have pretty dry skin. I’ve been putting on baby oil after showering, and using lotion - but it’s still dry. What I’m coming to learn is, that I need to drink more water. I can’t just fix the problem by applying something externally to it. I also need to address what is going on internally.

The same is true for almost everything. You can get a makeover, or lose weight but still feel insecure and ugly. Why? Because what is going on in your heart and head hasn’t been addressed. Only the result of what was going on in your heart and head, has been addressed.

We try so often to slap a bandaid on things. We have divorce care, but fail to have marriage enrichment classes and date nights to AVOID having to need divorce care.

We go get medicine for whatever ails us, but in some cases, fail to address WHY we are having a certain issue.   

Did you know that you can get sick from stress? From anxiety? Illness can be caused from things going on inside of your head, heart, and soul? And that’s why you can keep getting sick. That’s why you can’t get an external fix. 

You need to fix the INTERNAL.

And often, that is the much harder job. That’s why we ignore it. We don’t want to go “there.” We don’t want to acknowledge that we have hangups. We don’t want to admit that we are flawed.

And it’s so silly! WE ARE ALLLLLL FLAWED! WE ALLLLLL HAVE HANGUPS!

Seriously.

Go to a place of business and poll the people in the office. How many of them have a doctor for this, a doctor for that, a prescription for this, a prescription for that. How many of them have personally been through a divorce, struggled with addiction, battled eating issues. How many? I bet you not one person can say “I haven’t dealt with any of that.”

We like to hide. But when someone comes out of the woodwork and says, “I’m really, really struggling to overcome this.” Do you know what? Others come out too.  Because, it just takes one person to have courage for the rest, who can’t seem to find it on their own.

You CAN be whole again. You CAN find healing. You CAN find freedom. But you have to go to the tough places. You have to deal with what’s on the inside as well as what’s going on, on the outside.

You can do it. I can do it. We can do it…. together. 

So What If I'm Not Everything You Want Me To Be?

I’ve tried. Oh, I’ve tried so hard. 

Over the years, I was a “people pleaser.” I always tried to say the polite thing. Do the nice thing. And I’m thankful those traits are part of my personality. But, having those traits have taught me some hard lessons along the way. Because, along the way, I got frustrated.

Shouldn’t “so and so” see that I tried hard? Shouldn’t that person know that I was being nice, intentionally? For them?  Shouldn’t that be enough? 

Why do I have to continually convince someone of my motivation? My heart? My character? Shouldn’t they now know fully, who I am?

The frustration came. In waves.

The tears fell. In droves.

I didn’t understand that it wasn’t really about ME. It was about THEM.

I can be nice. I can do something for someone else out of the goodness of my heart. I can encourage, support, advise. And then I have to let those gestures stand on their own. I need to not carry them with me, and wonder why those moments didn’t last as long as I thought they should. 

They had their moment of impact. They hit their target. My words. My actions. But for some people, that’s all they are ever going to do. 

I am not going to be everything that some people want me to be. Because if I were, they would literally suck the life from me. And from you, too. 

Some people are just needy forever.

They need reassurance, always.

And we just can’t be ALL to them. We can’t fill those expectations. Ever.

We can be stronger. We can grow. We can love and listen. We can hope and help. But then we need to walk on.

We have done our best in a moment that was meant for us to do our best.

For them, they want more. But for us, we gave all we were meant to give.

No more convincing needs to be given on our part. No more bending over backwards to repeat what we’ve already said. No.

We will never be enough for some.

And that has to be enough for us, just to know that.

Is God's Presence With Us?

Exodus 33:15 

Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.”

There is no part of my life where I do not want God involved in it.

There is no part of my heart, that I do not want God to be in it.

There is no decision I make, that I do not want God to lead it.

And yet, so often I forge on ahead without asking Him to come along.

You too?

How many times, have we walked (or ran) ahead of the Lord?

How many times have we asked for His blessing….AFTER we had already made a decision?

I know that no matter where I am in life, the safest place to be is where my God wants me to be. It’s the BEST place to be.  

I don’t want to experience anything apart from Him. I want His glory in it.  I want His divine hand all over it. And I want to know, as I’m feeling His presence, that He has personally come down to me, and been with me every step of the way.

Let us pray. Let us ask God to not send us anywhere without His Presence going with us.  Let’s ask Him to hold us back; if something (or somewhere) is going to lead us away from Him.

Let’s ask.

Let’s always seek Him as our companion. For being somewhere without His presence, is an empty place to be; indeed.