T P O
A UTHENTIC
S A ELF
HE OWER F
CCEPTANCE
B y: L a y n e B r o o k s
A U T H O R & P L A Y W R I G H T
To be authentic means to be honest with yourself and others by living life as your true self. How can you live free and authentic if you hide who you are? You have to love and accept who you are including your flaws and imperfections.
I knew I struggled with self-acceptance and other people’ s opinions of me but I didn’ t realize how much it had robbed me of living free and authentic. I used to be adventurous, bold, walked to the beat of my own drum and didn’ t care who liked it or not.
Then I rededicated my life to Christ, and no longer felt worthy of who I naturally was. I became an unnatural version of myself in order to be accepted. I didn’ t see it happening but the real me had died a slow and painful death until I had fully buried the vibrant person I once was. Others’ opinions of me became more important than God’ s. I had stopped being the me God had created in order to be accepted by man. Now some thirty years later, I am fighting to become her again.
When did you take your eyes off of the Creator? Too often the image of ourselves is viewed through a fragmented mirror and through the eyes of others. I’ m not pretty enough, smart enough, charismatic enough... Who told you that you weren’ t enough, not God? So, if not God, then who? To deny who you are is to live in a world that is suffocating, depressive and causes spontaneous fits of anger. Why, because you have convinced yourself that you do not measure up to those you have put on a pedestal. So, your spirit man who knows your worth is fighting with the carnal man who keeps trying to denounce what God has already kissed with his love and acceptance.
As I try to navigate this Christian walk, I have learned that well-meaning Christians can knowingly and unknowingly deny you certain freedoms because they figured, if they can’ t do a thing or be a certain way, neither should anyone else; but God made you, unique. Do you not know, that when God created you, He already knew you; Psalm 139:13-16. The Creator is the only one able to judge you, because He alone made you. So today, say Yes, to God’ s creation.
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