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How contented are you with who you are and where you are?
I spent way too many years stuck in discontent over who I was. I thought my personality was a huge mistake; women were not supposed to be like me—the risk-taking, entrepreneurial, up-front, take-charge type. My misunderstanding of God’s Word led me to believe that all women were to fit in one mold and walk one path, which didn’t come naturally for me. I falsely believed that I needed to change who I was and as a young college student, I tried very hard to be like another classmate who seemed to me to be exactly what every woman should be.
I soon discovered that I couldn’t change how I was created. I clearly remember thinking that I was stuck with who I was and wondering how I was going to navigate through life like this. It took me far too long to come to believe the truth that I am fearfully and wonderfully made, and God had a reason for creating me as I am.
I have met so many others who were stuck like I was. When we cannot accept who we are, then we are stuck in trying to change ourselves into something or someone God never intended for us to be.
Of course, accepting who we are does not mean that we never grow or change. The Christian life is all about being transformed into the image of Jesus Christ with ever increasing glory, as we read in 2 Corinthians 3:18. But I have finally come to realize that this transformation is not something I do to meet some false idea of what I should be like, but it is the natural outcome of being thankful for who I am and then through God’s Word and prayer, allowing God’s Spirit to transform me to be more like Jesus. That just happens as we live with the goal of loving God and loving people, which Jesus said were the two important things in life.
If you’re stuck in the discontent of who you are or where you are, I pray that you will ask God to teach you how to be content. The Apostle Paul said that he learned to be content, and we can learn that too. Then you will be set free from that stuck place to become all God intended.
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