In 6th grade, I attended a performing arts academy and I was asked to recite a poem by the late Maya Angelou. It’s title: Phenomenal Woman. Though at the tender age of 12, I probably didn’t know half of what I was really saying on that stage, but I what I could recognize was the weight of my words as I stated them aloud, about me, over me. It was as if I had become the words of that poem and my convictions about how I felt about myself were being formed in those short moments before the crowd. “Cause I’m a woman | Phenomenally. | Phenomenal woman, | That’s me.

Am I saying that I mastered the art of self-confidence in 6th grade–no. However, I am saying that what we speak over ourselves; what we choose to believe about ourselves; who we see ourselves as presently and in the future; it ALL defines how well we will be able to operate from a healthy sense of self throughout our lives. So much of our world is made up of how we connect with other, how we communicate,  who we choose to hang around, who and what we aspire to be, and without a healthy sense of who you are, you will drown in a sea of comparative culture whose waves attempt to crash over even the strongest of people. You HAVE to know who you are and you have to become confident in that person. I, personally, find my confidence and my true sense of self in my Creator. God created me for a specific purpose in this life and I won’t take it for granted. It was through His son that He gave me eternal life and made me a new creation IN HIM so that I don’t have to compare myself to anyone else at any time in any way because God sees the Jesus in me and in my weaknesses, His strength is made perfect in me. Therefore, I am made perfect in Christ.

Now, is it as easy as it sounds? Absolutely not. As mentioned before, we live in a society where everyone is aspiring to be someone else, to look like someone else, and to become something else other than themselves. It’s a daily task. You have to renew your mind in what the Word says you are; in what the Word declares about your future; in what God has called you to do and who He has called you to be. So get dig into the Word and find out just who God says you are! You are meant to be cherished, value, and loved!