I was in a friendly debate with my friends last week and made some sort of rebuttal to do with a weakness of mine, and my friend had a really interesting response.  “Why are you putting that on yourself? That’s not your identity.”

Now, I’m definitely one to claim all my little quirks because some of them aren’t easily shaken off.  But when she said that, I was a little taken aback.  Should this be part of my identity?  What is part of my identity?

My friend was absolutely right.  I put way too much weight onto my identity, and so much of it is unnecessary.  I am one in a billion people who suffer daily because we simply characterize ourselves by the wrong things.  Instead of harmlessly admitting and trying to work through problems, we stuff them in our backpack and make them a part of us–this seems constructive, because we don’t necessarily feel ashamed about them anymore.  (And let me be the first to say, loudly, that shame is absolutely not good–it’s not what you should feel!) But it’s not constructive.  It adds a weight to our identity.  Suddenly we’re thinking of ourselves in terms of our weaknesses, carried around by our scars and burdened by our issues.

And this is not the way to go.

Your identity is sound and rooted in one premise–that you are you.  You are fearfully and wonderfully made.

You are not stitched together by weakness and burden.  Your issues and struggles do not define you and they do not belong in your identity.  Your name is not followed by a long list of problems you have, people don’t see you with your insecurities stacked up on your shoulders.  God does not see us that way and others don’t see us that way–so we don’t need to see ourselves that way, either.

For once, look in the mirror and see yourself. Your identity is not a makeup of your weaknesses. Stop adding unnecessary weight to the precious creation that is your identity.

Just be you–who you were made to be.