Some of you may be familiar with the NOOMA dvd's. They're like these short little Bible study/devotional dvd's. I had seen 1 or 2 of them a few years back and decided to buy one the other night called Name. You wouldn't think a video so short would impact you so greatly but they do! I highly recommend them.
One of the first questions asked is why do we worry so much about what others think of us and why does it matter what normal is? You'd think as we get older, we'd start to move away from that. Yeah, in high school we all wanted to fit in so we'd dress like everyone else and we'd use the "cool slang" everyone else was using. But honestly, we still do it. Some days it feels like adulthood is just a continuation of high school. We all want to be liked! It's true. In some way or another, we want to fit in somewhere. We don't want to be alone.
But who are YOU? "How much of our pain comes from not knowing how to answer that question? "In the ancient Near East your name was more than just words. Name was identity. Your name was reflective of your character, your substance, I mean the very fiber that made you, you. Your name told who you are." I keep saying "Deidra" over and oever in my head but what does that mean? My first thought was "what do people think when they hear my name?" And I can easily answer that for quite a few people! But then it occurred to me that it doesn't matter. This is about WHO I AM - not who others think I am. And I get pulled away from that all of the time because I allow people to have the last word over me sometimes. And that distracts me from who God intended me to be.
"You and I have pasts, families we come from, things we've done, mistakes we've made, and were we've been and what we've done has shaped us into who we are today. So we have to embrace our story, our history. YOu don't have to be proud of it, but you must claim it because it's yours." How hard is it for us sometimes to claim our past? We often don't want the world to know what our family life has been like or the mistakes we've made. We don't want people to know about our divorce, our bankruptcy, or our drug addictions...but why? Because a lot of times people write us off. They decide that based on our mistakes we're not worth it. But does it matter what they think? Actually, the better question is SHOULD it matter what they think? We should claim who we are and be who we're meant to be! No, those mistakes were not the paths God would have chosen for us. But once we ask him for forgiveness, those things no longer matter to Him!
Everyone is going to have an opinion of you. Honestly, we have opinions of others, don't we? And even though we may feel those opinions are true, it's not fair to them - just like their opinions of us are not fair to us. I do NOT want to be defined by som eof the opinions people have had of me lately. That's a hard place to be - knowing someone thinks so lowly of you and is trying to voice their opinion to others. But I can not allow that to define me. I can not allow their words to be my name. That doesn't mean I don't want to be liked by people. I do! But I want to be liked for me - DEIDRA - because that's who God intended me to be. "He knows my name...He knows my every part..."
One of the first questions asked is why do we worry so much about what others think of us and why does it matter what normal is? You'd think as we get older, we'd start to move away from that. Yeah, in high school we all wanted to fit in so we'd dress like everyone else and we'd use the "cool slang" everyone else was using. But honestly, we still do it. Some days it feels like adulthood is just a continuation of high school. We all want to be liked! It's true. In some way or another, we want to fit in somewhere. We don't want to be alone.
But who are YOU? "How much of our pain comes from not knowing how to answer that question? "In the ancient Near East your name was more than just words. Name was identity. Your name was reflective of your character, your substance, I mean the very fiber that made you, you. Your name told who you are." I keep saying "Deidra" over and oever in my head but what does that mean? My first thought was "what do people think when they hear my name?" And I can easily answer that for quite a few people! But then it occurred to me that it doesn't matter. This is about WHO I AM - not who others think I am. And I get pulled away from that all of the time because I allow people to have the last word over me sometimes. And that distracts me from who God intended me to be.
"You and I have pasts, families we come from, things we've done, mistakes we've made, and were we've been and what we've done has shaped us into who we are today. So we have to embrace our story, our history. YOu don't have to be proud of it, but you must claim it because it's yours." How hard is it for us sometimes to claim our past? We often don't want the world to know what our family life has been like or the mistakes we've made. We don't want people to know about our divorce, our bankruptcy, or our drug addictions...but why? Because a lot of times people write us off. They decide that based on our mistakes we're not worth it. But does it matter what they think? Actually, the better question is SHOULD it matter what they think? We should claim who we are and be who we're meant to be! No, those mistakes were not the paths God would have chosen for us. But once we ask him for forgiveness, those things no longer matter to Him!
Everyone is going to have an opinion of you. Honestly, we have opinions of others, don't we? And even though we may feel those opinions are true, it's not fair to them - just like their opinions of us are not fair to us. I do NOT want to be defined by som eof the opinions people have had of me lately. That's a hard place to be - knowing someone thinks so lowly of you and is trying to voice their opinion to others. But I can not allow that to define me. I can not allow their words to be my name. That doesn't mean I don't want to be liked by people. I do! But I want to be liked for me - DEIDRA - because that's who God intended me to be. "He knows my name...He knows my every part..."
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