Living with behavioral health illnesses is a silent struggle that many people don't even realize is there. For years I lived with undiagnosed depression and anxiety. Only after realizing that weakness is found in not going to therapy and strength is found in going to therapy; did I begin to find healing.
One of the main things I discovered about myself is the limited thinking patterns I had placed on myself. Allowing myself and others to place "shoulds" on me limited my self-acceptance. I should do this; I should not do that - it is a constant process of adding and removing the bars of expectations.
During the first quarter of seminary, I remember sitting in a classroom frustrated with the instructors. They insisted we write academically, which usually means using vocabulary the general public would need a dictionary to understand. My frustration came out of the fact that academic writing is not my authentic self. I didn't go to seminary for another set of bars, I went to find freedom from the expectations others had placed on me and to find my own voice.
When we find our authentic selves, it's going to make people uncomfortable. People are not going to like what they see because you no longer fit into the box they try to keep you in. Being my authentic self has meant losing friends, upsetting family, being asked to leave two different churches, and it sucks. It absolutely sucks. My intentions are not to disappoint or hurt people. My intentions are to honor God with this one and only life I have been given.
So from now on, my life isn't going to look like Hallmark, it's not going to look like a Christian book store, it's not going to be filtered through some VidAngel filtering device. Instead, here I am, unapologetically, authentically, me.
Will you join me? Will you be you, the real you? God created you precisely the way you are on purpose. When you allow the "shoulds" and expectations of others to keep you from being you, you are actually denying the divinity, creativity, and supreme nature of God.
Be you because you looks good on you.
One of the main things I discovered about myself is the limited thinking patterns I had placed on myself. Allowing myself and others to place "shoulds" on me limited my self-acceptance. I should do this; I should not do that - it is a constant process of adding and removing the bars of expectations.
During the first quarter of seminary, I remember sitting in a classroom frustrated with the instructors. They insisted we write academically, which usually means using vocabulary the general public would need a dictionary to understand. My frustration came out of the fact that academic writing is not my authentic self. I didn't go to seminary for another set of bars, I went to find freedom from the expectations others had placed on me and to find my own voice.
When we find our authentic selves, it's going to make people uncomfortable. People are not going to like what they see because you no longer fit into the box they try to keep you in. Being my authentic self has meant losing friends, upsetting family, being asked to leave two different churches, and it sucks. It absolutely sucks. My intentions are not to disappoint or hurt people. My intentions are to honor God with this one and only life I have been given.
So from now on, my life isn't going to look like Hallmark, it's not going to look like a Christian book store, it's not going to be filtered through some VidAngel filtering device. Instead, here I am, unapologetically, authentically, me.
Will you join me? Will you be you, the real you? God created you precisely the way you are on purpose. When you allow the "shoulds" and expectations of others to keep you from being you, you are actually denying the divinity, creativity, and supreme nature of God.
Be you because you looks good on you.
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