Will the real YOU please stand up?

Why do so many people feel confused about who they really are and how did the issue of personal identity become so challenging? While it may seem like you should automatically know how to be yourself, in reality that is not always the case.

When you think about it, so many things in life depend on our ability to connect with our true self of who we really are. After all, how are we supposed to know what we should be doing or who we should be doing it with if we don’t even know who we really are?

It seems more and more common these days when people can’t seem to make up their minds on who they are or who they want to be. You would think that people would want to be themselves instead of trying to live their life as a carbon copy of someone else.

A writer by the name of Alan Watts once said, “Waking up to who you are requires letting go of who you imagine yourself to be.”

From the time when most are very young they begin to experiment with a variety of different identities because chidren are impressionable and so it is only natural that they try on new versions of themselves at fairly regular intervals. The less inhibited they are, the more readily they will try to imitate whatever appeals to them at the moment.

During these young years most have no idea who they actually are or who they will become, so they take their cues from those around them. Of course, there are some who know who they are because it shows in their actions or lifestyle. Even if they don’t realize that they are displaying the characteristics or traits of who they will be.

A good example is my husband Producer Robbi Spencer or myself, Recording Artist Shirl Spencer.

When Robbi was only 8 years old he was already playing piano and singing. By the time I was 10 years old I was singing, and putting musicals together with my 5 brothers and cousins.

But unfortunately too many people, even as adults are still trying to figure out who they are or who they want to be. They are as confused as their life appears to those around them. There are some well past their 30′s  living the life as someone they admire and the following month they act like someone from another country talking with an accent. Only to change again,  they have a new identity, lifestyle, quoting things they have yet to live by. Still trying to find themselves when all they have to do is look in the mirror and within themselves. Who did God create you to be…. YOURSELF!

When people question them as to their different lifestyles, they respond “Well, you know me!” But you have to ask yourself, how can anyone really know you if you’re still trying to figure out who YOU  are or want to be? 

The Bible makes it clear in James 1:8 “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” Yet too many times when you question someone on their different identities or lifestyles of living as someone else they have a tendency to get very angry, very quickly.

They say they are one person while living the life of another. Bouncing back and forth on who they want to be or constantly changing their lifestyle to mimic someone else or to obtain a status. These type of people are known for always changing their minds on most everything in their lives.

A good example would be hiring someone to work for you then changing your mind soon after and firing them using whatever excuse you can so they don’t feel bad. Then re-hiring them again and repeating the same process over and over which becomes an endless circle, while leaving others feeling very leery of that type of person. It shows instability and double mindedness. Meaning no stable relationship of any kind can ever come from a person who can’t decide who they are from one month to the next or who they want to be.

God created each and every person to be different. It’s what makes each and every person special. Being different, being who God created you to be… YOU!!! For God did not create you to imitate someone else’s life and change who you really are.

Jeremiah 1:5

“Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.”

Isaiah 49:16
“Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.”

Psalm 139:13-16
“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.“

Remember, every person was created differently and specifically for a purpose that only you can fulfill and you can never fulfill your purpose or destiny if you’re living a lie by trying to fulfill someone else’s destiny.  Being different by being yourself  is what makes you special, beautiful and unique. As the quote says above, “Be Yourself because everyone else is taken.”