What DEFINES me and you?
Is it the family and environment we grew up in? Is it the people we hang out with? The things we are taught at school?
Is it the music we listen to, the books we read, the people we encounter, the friends we make?
Is it our personality, our genes, the choices we make?
What defines you?
It becomes quite a daunting prospect when you begin to attempt to list all the possible influences on your life that makes you uniquely you. There are some things that are inevitable and which we cannot change. But what of the things that we CAN avoid, and the things that we can CHOOSE to be influenced by?
The outward persona that most of us assume may be a loose fitting drab that really does not represent who we truly are, and who we are MEANT to be. It pains me to see that so many people are insecure about their identity. It pains me because sometimes I myself fall into the same trap.
Someone wittingly said, 'We are all unique. Just like everybody else.'
Ha-ha.
Like it or not, although all of us are different, most of us are trapped by the need to conform. It may not be a bad thing. But it will be if conforming means abandoning the person that you were created to be in the image of God and in the likeness of Christ!
The moment we let the fleeting opinions, expectations and successes of this world define who we are, we have lost the essence of God's stamp on our lives.
Augustus said, 'In the moment of our creation, we received the stamp of our individuality; and much of life is spent in rubbing out and defacing the impression.'
How sadly true! If only we were more aware of the forces and voices around us. If only we are more discerning, if only we learned to filter all these influences and take in what God meant for us.
~ J a n i e ll e
Is it the family and environment we grew up in? Is it the people we hang out with? The things we are taught at school?
Is it the music we listen to, the books we read, the people we encounter, the friends we make?
Is it our personality, our genes, the choices we make?
What defines you?
It becomes quite a daunting prospect when you begin to attempt to list all the possible influences on your life that makes you uniquely you. There are some things that are inevitable and which we cannot change. But what of the things that we CAN avoid, and the things that we can CHOOSE to be influenced by?
The outward persona that most of us assume may be a loose fitting drab that really does not represent who we truly are, and who we are MEANT to be. It pains me to see that so many people are insecure about their identity. It pains me because sometimes I myself fall into the same trap.
Someone wittingly said, 'We are all unique. Just like everybody else.'
Ha-ha.
Like it or not, although all of us are different, most of us are trapped by the need to conform. It may not be a bad thing. But it will be if conforming means abandoning the person that you were created to be in the image of God and in the likeness of Christ!
The moment we let the fleeting opinions, expectations and successes of this world define who we are, we have lost the essence of God's stamp on our lives.
Augustus said, 'In the moment of our creation, we received the stamp of our individuality; and much of life is spent in rubbing out and defacing the impression.'
How sadly true! If only we were more aware of the forces and voices around us. If only we are more discerning, if only we learned to filter all these influences and take in what God meant for us.
~ J a n i e ll e
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