The ability to form and discover our personal identity is one of the most exciting gifts of life. When we are young, we are constantly observing the people around us, trying on different personas and qualities, and trying to discover who we are. In this winding journey, we are allowed to be whoever we want to be. The possibilities seem endless, and as we learn about the world more and more, we realize that we have a place in it to call all our own. We can decorate it how we want, dress in our favorite colors, rest in our favorite emotions, and decide for ourselves who we want to be. When we reach a crossroads in our identity development and are unsure where to turn, that’s when we can rely on our relationship with God.
The wonderful, all-loving, and all-powerful God created us each within His image. His beauty and grace are demonstrated in the millions upon millions of unique personalities that He has created with different talents and gifts. God has an undoubted purpose in creating each and every one of us. We were all designed to do something extraordinary, and through growing closer to Christ, we can learn more and more intimately that the foundation of our identity is love.
God is love, and thereby we are loved.
Within our compassionate relationship with God, we can look at the characteristics that Jesus embodied and decide how we want to form our identities.
Jesus is:
Compassionate
Loving
Generous
Forgiving
Faithful
Trusting
Gentle
Patient
Humble
Kind
Obedient
Honest
Prayerful
God created those qualities for us as well as His own son. We were given an identity more beautiful and lovely than anything we could imagine, and as we grow closer to God, we can learn who we want to be and strive to be the best version of ourselves. The possibilities are endless!