Do I want to be myself?

Oh, just be yourself!  We've all heard that phrase before.  But, do I want to be "myself"?  Myself is...well... to put it plain and simply...a sinner.  I am a sinner, a big ol' sinner.  I am human...therefore...I am a sinner.

I have written recently about whining and having the blues...and that does happen.  Myself equals so many sinful things.  I am a complainer, a worrier, a negative thinker, a screamer, an over-reactor, and in reality I can just be plain ill somedays.

But, thank goodness there is a but, I am a child of God.  I don't want to be anything but that!  "Myself" is forgiven, loved, cared about, protected, accepted, and yes I am even important to Him!  I am His!

Doesn't that list look so reassuring?  It is so uplifting, and I am so thankful to have that list...and there is so many more positive things we could add.  But all the positives are because of Jesus.  He gave His all so we could have life more abundantly (John  10:10).  We just have to choose to live our life more abundantly.

I am not doing a good job of that lately.  I feel like there have been too many changes.  I feel like I am inadequately handling all that is going on around us right now.  I feel like "myself" can't measure up or even keep up for that matter.  "Myself" cannot do the things I need to do, but thankfully my God can.

Today's Verse
"Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass."  Ps 37:5

We have to commit our lives to Him.  Give Him full control and stop allowing ourselves to try to gain control back.  We have to trust in Him and He will bring it to pass.

I recently participated in a 10-day Optimist challenge written by Tracie Miles (Her website is below).  Thankfully I had a lot of breakthroughs, but sadly I still need a LOT of work.  There are days when I only want to focus on the negatives.  That's just "myself".  There were a few quotes that really stuck out that I would like to share.

First, on day two, she writes "God could change our circumstances at any time, but He is always more interested in changing us through our circumstances."  Ask for wisdom when you are going through a difficult period or trial.  Ask for patience in a time of wait.  Seek to learn and grow when things are just not making sense in our world.  He wants us to learn to trust more in Him with every circumstance He puts us through!

The second thing I would like to share from Tracie comes from day ten in the challenge, "Trying to be who God wants us to be, and who we ourselves want to be, can be exhausting at times, but is certainly well worth the effort."  I am not perfect.  I will never be perfect.  But I have a perfect example to follow, and that is Jesus.  Yes, it is hard to be what He wants us to be.  It is against our sinful nature.  But no matter how exhausting, we have to keep trying.  That is the key...keep trying...you can never mess up too much.  The devil will throw his darts of doubt and make us think we are too sinful for God's love, but that is never the case.   He will always love you no matter what!

"Myself" will always fail, but I still have to strive to be my best for Him.  "Myself" will always make mistakes,  but I have pick "myself" up and keep trying to be what He wants me to be.  Yes, "myself" is not perfect, but "myself" is God's child, and that is the best thing there is for me!

http://www.traciemiles.blogspot.com/