Who you are is not what you do….

For 20 years, every August I have headed to school. 20 YEARS. I am only 25 years old, and there are very few things that I have done every year for that amount of time, in fact I can’t really think of any. School, the rhythms and routines of it, the learning, the playful chatter in the hallways and classrooms, has been my life. As I’ve watched friends and children I know go back to school, I can’t help but feel like I should be going too. I’ve reached that spot, where it seems like summer should be over and something new should begin, but yet I remain. More than anything as I’ve processed this, I’ve realized that school and teaching have become a large part of my identity.

So now, I have to ask myself who am I? Sometimes in the past few weeks, I’ve felt a sense of panic and wondering over, how do I explain to people who I am and what I’m about? I can’t just tell them I’m a teacher anymore. My life’s not that simple (although being a teacher is far from simple).

That’s when I started to hear the Father’s whisper: 

You are mine. You are nothing apart from being my daughter. Your identity is just me. I AM. It’s not about what you do. It’s not about what you know how to do well. It’s not about what you can’t do or you’re not enough of. It’s about being. You are created to be my child.You don’t have to do anything specific for you to be worth something.  It doesn’t come from other people. It comes from me, loving you, through and through, simply because.

What freedom.

I am not who I am because of being or not being anything. It has nothing to do with being a teacher, daughter, girlfriend, singer, sister, missionary, or anything else. I can rest in simply being His.

So can you.

God loves us. Period. I don’t care who you are or what you’ve done. If you love him and give your life to him all that God sees when he looks at you is Jesus.  Jesus blood shed for you.

 I am a child of God, covered by Jesus blood, walking in his Holy Spirit.

Who are you?