Are You Smarter Than a Three-Year-Old?

Knowing your true identity is a fundamental part of getting back to basic health. In the most obvious way, unless you know your family history you are at a disadvantage as to dealing with possible hereditary health problems. Knowledge is power. Knowing your true spiritual identity is critical to health and wholeness. You are a one-of-a-kind, unique, priceless Designer original! God doesn't create any inferior "junk" or cheap knock-offs.

So what difference does it make to know how God sees you? The way God sees you is your true identity. When you are grounded in that identity, it affects how you approach people and situations. You don't approach them with a distorted perspective. What's a distorted perspective? That's when you constantly tell yourself - I'm stupid, I'm ugly, I can't do anything right, no one likes me, I'll never succeed, this will never work out. Those are distorted thinking patterns. They come from a distorted identity.

Your identity affects how you approach God and how you pray as well. Even though He sees you clearly, if your perspective is skewed and you see yourself through a very distorted lens, you will not approach Him confidently as we are instructed to in the Bible (Hebrews 4:16). If you feel unworthy and inadequate and hesitate to come to God boldly, confidently, knowing He loves you and watches for your arrival daily, you need to work on your identity. Here's a little story to illustrate:

When my daughter Elizabeth was three, my husband and brother owned a restaurant near our house. After dropping her two older brothers off at school, we would go and visit her dad and Uncle Georgie. It didn't matter how many people were in the restaurant, how busy they were or what was going on. Elizabeth would walk in and if she didn't see her dad on the front line, she never hesitated for a moment to walk behind the front counter and into the office in the back to find him. It never occurred to her that she shouldn't do that or she didn't have the right to be back there. After all this was her Dad's place and she had no doubt about who she was or what her privileges were!

Shouldn't we all approach our Heavenly Father the same way? Shouldn't our prayers be bold and confident and full of expectation? Elizabeth never doubted that her dad would be happy to see her. The thought that he would not give her something to eat if she asked for it never crossed her mind. If she walked in there expecting a piece of cornbread, that is exactly what she got. She approached him in total faith and he never disappointed her.

That's exactly how we should approach our Heavenly Father - enthusiastically, full of confidence, boldly and expecting to receive what we ask for. Why? Because He loves us and His greatest desire is to bless us. If we, as human parents treat our children this way, why would we think He would do any less? Sometimes we have to get back to the basics and let a little child lead us. That's one reason why I wrote my book, "The King's Daughter". I am not ashamed to tell you I have probably learned so much more from my children than they ever learned from me!

So, get back to the basics - let God show you in His Word how He sees you and then correct your vision - align your perspective to His. You'll find it makes everything else in life so much better.

On Purpose

Every single one of us was born with a specific purpose we are to fulfill with our lives. We have all the gifts and talents we need to do it and as we trust God and step out in faith, one step at a time, we receive the wisdom we need and God brings the right people and opportunities before us. Of course, we must be operating in faith - believing He is doing so.

Each purpose is a little different, yet there is one basic underlying purpose for each of us as Christians. For example, if you are a doctor your purpose is to heal people. If you are a teacher you are to inspire a thirst and love for learning. If you are a husband, you are to protect and provide for your wife and family. If you are a wife, you are to support and encourage your husband. If you are a mother, raising stable, secure, successful children who know, love and live for God is your purpose. You get the idea.

As a Christian, the foundation of the Christian life for each of us is to know, love, honor and glorify God with our lives. There's a specific part of that purpose I want to focus on. We carry the very power and presence of God's Holy Spirit within us. We have the ability and the responsibility to carry His love, grace, mercy and blessing with us into each and every situation we encounter.

We are to represent Him, be imitators of Him and be His ambassadors to our world. Every person we meet, every situation and circumstance we are faced with should be improved simply because they encountered God in us! To me, that is an awesome thought. I can inspire real hope and encouragement by sharing my faith. I can offer real, practical comfort and support to someone who is frightened, discouraged or facing difficulties.

My goal each day is to sow good seed into someone's life; to improve a situation or circumstance simply by my presence and prayers. My determined purpose is that no matter where I go today, who crosses my path or what I do - I will prayerfully bring blessing and the situation will improve or the person will be encouraged and lifted up. That is my basic purpose for each day - everything else flows from that. How about you? What are you doing - on purpose?