Being Yourself, Knowing Yourself

From the moment we are born, we are being raised in a specific manner. Our parents have an idea of who we are, they raise us in the manner that they were possibly raised, and our culture also plays a big part in our upbringing as do our parents beliefs.

When we reach a specific age, possibly our pr-teen or early teen years, we have spent a large amount of time with our friends and classmates as well as teachers, so some of our ideas of how things are and should be have become ingrained into our subconscious and even into our belief system. This is where we, as young people tend to buck against our parents and perhaps society as a whole.
As we go through life from this stage on, we also try to find out who we are as an individual. We try to find ourselves.
What can happen at this stage-and it does happen often-is that we portray a person that is not us, but instead a person that our friends or family think we are or want us to be—we are not ourselves.

So how do we overcome this and become the person that we are.
God tells us that He knew us before we were even formed in the womb. This can only mean one thing, that we ought to ask Him who we are as His child.
Jeremiah 1:5

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you;
Before you were born I sanctified you;
I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”
Who better to ask than the one who created us.

Psalm 139:13-14

13 For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother’s womb.

14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
When we know and understand who we are to God, then we can know who we are as a person.
Oftentimes I see a person acting one way around me, and another way around friends and then another different way around their family. I spoke with a person about this a few years ago and asked why. This person did not even realize that she did this.
I explained to her how she acted, spoke etc.
She admitted that she did not know who she was as an individual and she assumed that she would not be accepted by people if she were to be someone other than who they perceive her to be. It is sad.
Many people do this. Many people behave like this.
We as Christians are to accept and love one another and help and pray for each other.
We are all unique, we are all made in God’s image…and that is good.

Let us be who we are supposed to be, let us worship our Lord and Saviour together. We are a family after-all.

Romans 12:2
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.