You are a soldier in a battle that’s taking place in your soul, a fight for who you will be—the person you were created to be or the person you’ve decided you want to be.

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“Each of us has a “me” that we think we should be, which is at odds with the me that God made us to be. Sometimes letting go of that self may be a relief. Sometimes it will feel like death.”

John Ortberg, The Me I Want to Be, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010), 25

Do you know yourself—how you are put together? Your strengths and weaknesses? Or have you absorbed a script for your life written by others or by circumstances? For instance:

• Financial success is an important measure of success in your family, so you keep trying to live up to it. However, you have always wanted to find a small homestead and try to live off the grid.
• You’ve always admired strong leaders—team captains, school presidents, CEOs—and work to emulate them, but your wife sadly informs you that the stress you are under has made the man she married disappear, and she wants you back.
• Your life hasn’t turned out the way you dreamed, and sometimes you just want to run away. Is that the only solution or can you be the person God created in the life you currently have?

Are you a lamb trying to be a lion? A Martha trying to be a Mary? A Pinocchio pretending to be a real boy?

God wants you to grow into the design he created. And the reason God wants you to grow is so that–so that you can paint a picture, make meals for the hungry, build houses for the homeless, raise a family, or make others laugh. So that you can affect others around you in the way God designed for you. If you don’t, the rest of us miss out on the gift you were meant to give.

What does the Bible say?
Read Matthew 25:14-29. Is this parable only about finances or can it apply to the ideal you that God had in mind before you were formed in your mother’s womb?

• What are your God-given talents? Name a strength that God gave you?
• Are you multiplying your talents through usage or burying them as deep as deep can be?
• Have you put your talent in a small box that only allows for one way to use it? Could doing this be the same thing as burying your talent?

Think about it.
Make a list of people you admire.

• What about each person brings you to admire him or her?
• What similar traits do you have with the persons you admire?
• In what way are you different from each one of those people you listed?
• Does your self image depend on how closely you compare to those you admire?
• What are your strengths? Your weaknesses?
• Do they match up to those of the people on your admired list?

Pray with me.
Creator God, help me to look honestly at myself, to know my strengths and weaknesses, and to acknowledge your design. Help me to be the way you created me to be right now, in this life. today. Help me to lovingly use the traits and strengths you have given me to your Glory. Amen.