I used to have my entire life planned out on paper.
One of my best friends and I would spend entire sleepovers dreaming up our futures. We would talk about it for hours: the man we would marry, the job we would have, where we would live, how many kids we would have, the size of our homes and how we would decorate. Really riveting stuff.
I remember writing out every detail on a piece of paper and keeping it for really long time.
I was going to be a fashion magazine editor in New York. I would marry a husband that had blonde hair and have a couple kids, and I would live in a beautifully curated house with my beautiful, picturesque life.
Let’s have a moment of silence (or laughter) for how clearly opposite things turned out.
I was a teenager. I had no idea what I wanted, let alone what God wanted for me. What He gave me was the best life. The hallelujah life. The one where I see God in every single detail.
What I really wanted, if we clear away the details, was to be a writer, to be loved, and to love myself.
It took me a long time to figure out the difference between who I wanted to be, who I was, and who I was meant to become.
I tend to over-complicate things, and I think this category of Identity and Purpose was always one of those things. I spent time overthinking. I spent time dreaming about the “one day”, totally ignoring the present. I thought that I needed all my ducks to be in perfectly straight rows before I was anything close to the woman I knew I was meant to be.
I think that’s where we start: simplifying. Simplifying where the problem lies, and simplifying the solution.
The problem? It isn’t you.
The problem is that we’re forgetting what we need. We’re forgetting what God says about us. We’re believing that we are the issue, we’ve been the problem since the beginning, and there is much to fix within us.
You need to redeem your thinking.
Quit thinking you need a plan, a goal setting book, a better situation. Great tools, but not necessary. You know what you need and have? The most powerful Truth: the Bible. Start reading it. Get it in your head. Read it to be in it. Read it to be closer to God. I really think it’s that simple.
The woman I am and the woman I want to be are one in the same. Do you believe that’s true of yourself? God is not a far-off guy. He’s as close as the Bible in our hands, the prayers that go through our heads, and the praise that echoes around us.
Press into the simplicity of doing what we know to do:
Read. Your Bible will change your life.
Pray. Talk to Him. Shut up and listen. Allow Him in every part of your day.
Praise. All day, every day, He should get the glory. For everything. If He isn’t, change something.
God doesn’t see how much we fall short. He sees us through the blood of His Son. He sees a good, worthy, lovable woman. He sees someone who has everything she needs right in front of her.
JANELLE DELAGRANGE 