God's Image

So from the society we live in many of us have different views about ourselves than may be true. Once a leader took a group of us through this exercise. We were asked to answer these questions and given about 2-3 min for each one.
1. Who are you?
2. Who are you to others?
3. Who are you to God?

Taking time to answer these questions one by one is difficult. Reminds me of a scene from "Anger Management". When Adam Sandler goes to his first counseling session. They ask him to tell the group a little about himself. He begins to tell the group about what he does and is quickly stopped by the facilitator "No, don't tell us about your career - tell us who you are" he is told. So he begins to tell the group about what he enjoys doing and again is stopped. "Not your hobbies, - who you are." So frustrated he begins to talk about himself that he is a pretty good guy and . . . "Not your personality! Tell us WHO YOU ARE." To which he blows up at the group "I don't know what you want to hear!" bringing about a laugh from the audience ( he is trying to convince them he doesn't need anger manangment yet has these angry outbursts.

Who are we? We are bombarded with a lot of ideas of who we should be. . . but do we know who we are? Many young people go off to "find themselves". I think the 3rd question above had a lot of our answers. We were created by God for a purpose. Therefore should we not begin at God to find out who we are?

We are children of God. Beloved children.
John 1:12-13
12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13children born not of natural descent,[a] nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.

As children we are given the blessing of the father and loved with the intense love as a child is loved by a parent. This is an incredible gift. To be loved, honestly loved, by the creator of the universe. By thearchitectt of our world. . . we are loved. Not for our actions but we have always been loved this way!

Jeremiah 1:4-5
4 The word of the LORD came to me, saying,
5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew [a] you,
before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."

God knew us before we were born. He loved us before we were born. He formed us the way we are and loves us for the way we are. No matter what other people may tell us we are special the way we are. Special and beloved. We have been given a physical body from God to care for. It is a gift. . . a temple. Many of us ( myself included) have out of anger and pain abused this gift. Feelings of depression,lonelinesss, and unworthiness can cause us much pain. We look at who we think we should be and are often not happy with ourselves. Because of this we cause our body to suffer. Over dieting, over exercise, over strenuating ourselves can cause damage to our bodies. These image problems can develop into serious issues. Self harm problems, eating disorders, and other problems of lack of control. God does not want us to hurt ourselves.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20
19Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

God created us to look like we do. We are not all super models with "hot" bodies. We are not all popular or well liked. We are all different. We all have different gifts. But the bottom line is - we are all beloved children of God.

If you ever face the question of "who amIi" Ii urge you to look towards God for theanswerr. You are his beloved child. And do not let our world lie to you - telling you that you aren't good enough, because YOU are perfect.

Romans 12:2 "The Message"
2Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

God Bless!
your sister in Christ~Erin