Isaiah 26:3 You will keep in Perfect and constant Peace the one whose mind is steadfast [that is, committed and focused on You–in both inclination and character] Because he trusts and takes refuge in You [with hope and confident expectation].

Being raised in the church coupled with family members operating heavy in ministry made it pretty hard for me to be myself.  I always felt like I had to “put on” for others.  Can anyone relate?  Without relating it to church, even in the world, I felt like I couldn’t truly be me.  Society pushes so aggressively to look a certain way, talk a certain way, and behave a certain way.  You have to know enough culture to keep your black card and talk well enough to not be “ghetto.”  One can say a girl on the way to discovery, was quite “skressed.”  For those of you who do not know, that is stressed in the urban dictionary, haha.  As you can pretty much see by my intentional grammatical errors I tend to throw in my writing, I have progressed from the mindset of living for others.  How?  Well, one day I listened to God(shamelessly inserts lasts posts here Are You Listening?) and heard Him say, “It’s okay.”

Yes, God told me that it was okay if I didn’t look like a supermodel, preach like a television pastor, or talk as well as Michelle Obama.  He said, He still has great use for me and reminded me that He created me with Purpose.  Man, that blew my edges back!  Here I am looking to be like others whether in the church arena or in the world and God is saying He is fine with using me just as I am.  Okay, this is not to encourage anyone to not grow/mature in life, but more so to grow in who YOU are and not anyone else.  It is actually a slap in the face to God.  Here He is creating me in “awesome pudding” trying to mold me into my greatest potential and I am complaining and coveting someone else’s lifestyle.  God, Who knows what I am capable of doing through Him, is saying, “Hey I have this dope life just for me and all I have to do is stay close to Him and I will see it come to pass.”  What do I do?  Foolishly tune Him out because I am too busy watching God lead someone else.  It’s like this if we were to wear someone’s clothes who is not our size or age we would look ridiculous.  I am an average sized young woman weighing at about nunya business, haha.  In all honesty, you can look at my About tab to see a true image of me if you don’t know.  Now back to my point, we all can agree that I would look absolutely absurd trying to wear Shaq’s gym shoes or a toddler’s pull-up.  So, I have to apply that same logic to my own life.

God has a tailormade life and purpose just for me.  My calculated Father has already planned my entire life out from start to finish, a life of peace Jer. 29:11 says and of abundance found in John 10:10.   When broken down in that way, how could I not want it?  Well, it is hard.  It is hard to see others flourishing and ponder when my time will come?  It is hard because I don’t stop to think about what others endured before they made it to the mountain because that is not posted on social media.  All I see is catching flights, but I am reminded that the greatest example I have is in The Gospel!  Jesus left Heaven, came to Earth, and live the simplest life possible.  He didn’t have a house, wore dusty shoes, no car, walking everywhere with sandals on, and I can barely stand up eight hours with tennis shoes without complaining.   Jesus had it rough even before He died, then He actually died a gruesome death to be risen up in Glory.  I don’t want to miss my rising because I am too busy reasoning with why my life has to be “this way.”  God has constantly been reminding me to “Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus.”  So for any of you that often get discouraged like me, know that Moses had a speech problem and God still chose him for His Purpose.  Stop making it about you because once you accepted Jesus, your life stopped being about you.  Another ouch moment, right?  It hurts me every day to deny myself, but I know somehow God is doing a mighty work in my ouch, in my pain, and in me saying yes though, at times, I don’t understand.

God is saying to you as well that “it’s okay.”   It’s okay that you don’t “fit in.”  He created you to stand out.  Stop trying to wear a one size fits all when God has a tailor-made Purpose just for you!  Applaud and rejoice when others are flourishing, but don’t get so caught up in their prosperity, that you forget God desires for you to prosper as well, 3John 1:2.

The world needs you; don’t delay!

You don’t have to be perfect, it’s okay!

Your uniqueness matters and it’s also needed.

Let Your light shine, The Light is Jesus!

Started a new thing on my Answered Prayers/Testimonials now there will be a prayer that correlates with each post! How exciting is that?  Us saints love a good prayer, right haha 🙂 Don’t forget to check out  Tag You’re It! for further edification on this topic.  Until next time, peeps…PEACE!