Isaiah 64:8 TPT Yet, still, Yahweh, you are our Father. We are like clay and you are our Potter. Each one of us is the creative, artistic work of your hands.
Psalm 139:13 TPT You formed my innermost being, shaping my delicate inside and my intricate outside, an wove them all together in my mother's womb.
You, my friend, are a complete original. I began with the two verses above because they qualify some very important truths about you.
God created you.
The potter can only make one vessel at a time. There is truly only one you. Even identical twins, once the egg splits in two, you have minor gene mutations. In addition, there's a whole field of study called epigenetic's that is like a management company over your DNA. They may look the same but are handled differently.
Psalm 139:14 says in TPT that you were made mysteriously complex.
Psalm 139:15 says you were carefully and skillfully shaped from nothing to something.
Original definition: Created directly and personally by a particular artist; not a copy or imitation
Identity definition- fact of being who or what a person is
An intelligent teacher, thanks John Thomas, gave an example of recognizing an original (paraphrased). He used to work at a bank earlier in his life. They studied all the new ways of people making counterfeit bills. They learned the methods and were taught to recognize the fakes. But, no matter how much they learned or discovered, new ways to get around the system occurred. The ONLY way to know if the bill was real, was to know every facet of it so well, that you would recognize when something was off or out of place by using your senses.
We all wear masks, perform to what someone else expects, emulate another because of who they are or where they are going, or have lived by others expectations that we don't underneath even know who we are.
The definition of you is distinctive qualities that make you unique. By definition, the word who is qualified by a specified person.
When you want to know something about yourself, to whom do you ask?
What I think is cool, in the natural, HOW you were as a child, is important. Ask your parents. Ask your siblings. Of course they have probably some biased opinion but it give you an idea into behaviors or natural bents of how you were then. Are they present in your life now? As we age, we often pick up and say things like, "Ugh, the older I get I look like or do this or that like my ____________________(you fill in the blank). Usually we pick up on the facets we didn't like about them! Look at the good! One of my sons realized through contemplation as his gramma was nearing the end of her life, that he had her same sense of humor. Our daughter, in jest over the years, using the same humor in accordance with their humor, named each other Flat Pancake Granny and Cactus Butt. Precious memories. My other son, over the years has realized he has the same sensitivity with tenderness as his grampa (and me) and wears his heart on his sleeve.
You are uniquely you, created with purpose, an individual. You inherit things from your family. You were created exactly how you are to be, when, where and to whom.
God makes NO mistakes with you!
Those who know you best, the ones that see the real you, the vulnerable side, and loves you no matter what are the ones you choose in life like your spouse or friends.
But to know yourself, you must go back to the author, the originator, the one who made you.
GOD.
And then it naturally occurs to ask, "How well do you know yourself?"
I love this quote and used it in a recent Enneagram class for a very fun group of book club ladies:
There is only one problem on which all my existence, my peace, and my happiness depend: to discover myself in discovering God. If I find Him, I will find myself and if I find myself my true self I will find Him. Thomas Merton
The best way, real, daily relationship with God. Our true self is the only one that produces authenticity. Receive what Christ has in the gift of being the only you. Discover who he says you are, how you are made.
Engage in relationship. I love what David Benner says in his book The Gift of Being Yourself (my take on this words). Spending time with friends is never a waste of time. Spending daily time with God is the only way you can get to know Him and He reveal to you, who you are. He already knows!
After all you are made in His image (Genesis 1:27).
In closing,
Romans 8:28 TPT So we are convinced that every detail of our lives is continually woven together for good, for we are his lovers who have been called to fulfill his designed purpose. For he knew all about us before we were born and he destined us from the beginning to share the likeness of his Son. This means the Son is the oldest among a vast family of brothers and sisters who will become just like him.
KTWL
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