See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him. -1 John 3:1
Recently I have been learning just who I am. For so long I have been a person. A girl. A daughter. A cousin. A granddaughter. A hard-headed woman. A softball player. But now, as I stare into the end of my softball career I am forced to look outside the box and think who am I really? I have put my identity into softball for as long as I remember. Marked by my latest accomplishment or failure. I didn’t know any better because softball was all that I had ever known. But God has started to show me that I am so much more than all those things. And so are you.
Being a college athlete when so much of your life is consumed with your sport and school you lose sight sometimes of what or who you are and focus on what or who you are not. Not just college athletes do this but everyone does this. We look at the person next to us and see they are prettier, or thinner, or more athletic, more musically talented, taller, shorter, whatever it may be. We wish we were those things instead of being pleased with ourselves. It is then that we start to focus on what we are not rather than what we are. We are so much more than our past, more than our failures, more than our latest accomplishments, more than what others see us as, more than our job, more than our bank statement, more than our sport.
It’s hard. I know this 100000%. I am a person who looks around her and looks at what others have and I forget to thank my beautiful, amazing, wonderful God for who I am. Psalm 139:13 says, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” He knew me. He knew you. He knew us long before we were born and knitted us together just how He wanted to make us. He makes no mistakes even when we do. And the next time you think I wish I was that person or had that ability, remember, God looked at you and knew the world needed you and made you exactly how you are for His will.
He calls us His children. Don’t forget that is who you are and focus on who you are and who God made you to be rather than what you are not. You are His, and that is enough.
With all my love,
Jordan
