Re-defining Yourself

You are allowed to re-define yourself…you are in charge of your story.  This is your narrative, you are the author (commissioned by God Himself!).  You do not have to be defined by what you do, what others say of you, your work, your appearance, your past, expectations or failure…you are defined by your Loving Creator who says you are chosen, loved, His son/daughter, receiver of an inheritance, saved, forgiven, beautiful, gifted, a prince, a princess of the Most High.

So my husband shaved his beard AND hair (gasp!) for a great cause – our Pathfinder Club full of gorgeous young people who are attending a big Camporee in January next year, in Loburn near Christchurch, New Zealand.  Pathfinders is similar to scouts, but it is a Church organisation where churches run a ‘club’ for 10-15 year olds with a Biblical twist.  Our Pathfinders learn about health, camping, survival, first aid, craft, and most importantly the Bible.  Our church and extended friends and family have supported our fundraising to help our young people get to this Camporee…and so the beard came off.

It was bitter-sweet.  I was glad for the beard to come off…no more beard hairs up the nose, or in the eye ball.  No more watching in anguish as he ate an ice cream, or watched the dollop of custard ooze through the curls.  But I wasn’t really ready for the hair to come off.  Now I know he didn’t have THAT much hair, but it was a look I hadn’t seen on him before.  And there was the worry that the receding hairline would give up the ghost when needing to grow back!

But now I think I like the look.  It’s different.  Why not?!  Why not have a change?  It doesn’t change who you are (but it might make you look scary wearing a thick leather jacket from the 80’s!).  It does not change the inside.  It might change others’ perception of you, but it doesn’t change the core of who you are and what you stand for.  School was interesting today, seeing the reaction of students and staff as this stranger-at-first-glance walked in.  Then the realisation of who it was and the knowledge of the epic event that had taken place set it!  Some gasped, some tried to ignore it, some giggled, some stated the obvious like ‘oh my gosh you are bald’…and so forth.

So what have I learned from this?  That it’s ok to redefine yourself.  You have permission.  You don’t have to be what others say you are.  You don’t have to be what your past SAID you WERE.  You can start fresh tomorrow, content in the knowledge that you are forgiven and God is the one who defines your worth.

Psalm 139:13-16
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

Ephesians 2:4-9
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God…

Matthew 10:31
Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.

John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Ephesians 2:10
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

1 Peter 2:9
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

 

Choose something to redefine about yourself tomorrow…something that is in line with what God thinks about you.
Be blessed
-V