It's amazing what mere acquaintances or even strangers see about you that you may not even see in yourself. This keeps happening to me. Apparently, I need to start viewing myself differently...
Sometimes the view I have about myself is a bit off - behind the times I guess. God is constantly changing me. I know this. But do I really see it? I know it because it's something I pray about - often. I want to change. I desire to be more like God, and this requires transformation. Oftentimes we don't even recognize the changes He makes in us - we aren't really aware until we have an experience that shows us who we are.
A few months ago I was talking with one of my pastors and he said that the first time he met me he was impressed with not only my passion, but my positive attitude. I had to literally hold back from laughing out loud. Anyone who has ever really known me well, could tell you that I used to have the most negative attitude. My dad always used to get on me about my negativity. He'd do this thing where he would point to his head and say "it's all up here." I used to HATE his little saying. I always felt like I was never going to make the team, or make the grade, or whatever. But I always did (well.. not always.. but you know what I mean - I never gave myself enough credit..) I had this negative view of myself. It did cause me to work hard, but that's not the point.... The point is, I used to have a bad attitude. God changed that. I had asked him to. And I hadn't recognized that until one of my pastors, someone that I had only spoken to once or twice, made a comment about how my positive attitude was something that stuck with him.
I had a similar experience just this past week...
I've never really been a confrontational person. I don't like it when people don't like me. It bothers me. I guess you could say I'm a "people-pleaser." Well... I was a people-pleaser. I was talking with someone at work the other day and we were trying to figure out who we could contact to tutor a man who was interested in studying to get his GED. This person told me that he was hoping I would tutor the man and he asked me if I ever considered being a teacher. (I hadn't.) It's funny because this is actually the 2nd time in the past 2 months that someone had thought that I was a teacher, or I would be a good teacher. Anyways, I proceeded to tell him that I didn't think I was really cut out to be a teacher because I was too much of a "people-pleaser." He didn't see that in me. God had again changed something else in me that went unnoticed until someone pointed it out.
I guess I'm saying all of this, to say something simple: my perception of myself was off. This is problematic. We need to see ourselves as God sees us. We need to see ourselves as God created us. When we don't see ourselves as the person we were designed to be, we don't operate from that. I'm a child of God. I'm a King-Priest. I have access to the Kingdom of God. I have authority to call God's will to earth. If I don't see myself as these things, I won't operate from them.
See yourself as God created you to be. And operate from that.
