True Identity

When I was growing up I loved baby dolls and Barbies. I loved to play with my baby dolls and envision myself as the Mama with all her little ones gathered close. I could pass many hours teaching and training them and just enjoying being near them. As I got older, I played with Barbies a lot. “Playing Barbies” usually consisted of “setting up house” and getting everything the way I wanted it so I could invite people (my friend’s Barbies) into my Barbie home and make them feel comfortable and welcome. I used an endless supply of cardboard boxes to expand my home and build custom furniture because I had a clear vision of what I wanted my home to look like so there would be a place for everyone.

When I wasn't playing, I passed some of my happiest hours reading and writing. I loved to read and my favorite reading spot was on a pretty quilt, in the soft grass under a poplar tree in our front yard. I wrote short stories (emphasis on short) on an old typewriter under that tree and as I got older I wrote lots of poetry as a way to express my thoughts and emotions in order to make make sense of things in my mind.

I was recently reading about David. You know, the little shepherd boy who later become the King of Israel. In His book, Living Fearless, Jamie Winship talks about how David, as a child, learned to watch sheep, write poetry and throw stones at enemies and, in that moment, I had one of the biggest “aha moments” of my life. When I was nurturing those babies and building that home, and when I was reading and writing and learning how to sort out my thoughts on paper, I was learning to live out who the Lord was calling me to be. He was leading me to my true identity as a “gentle nurturer”, “safe-place creator” and “proclaimer of hope”. 

Why? Because that was going to be how He used me in His Kingdom to draw others to Himself. And while all this is so amazing to ponder, it is also not lost on me that I now collect quilts and I come alive when my feet hit the grass and I see the trees because it’s often where I do my best thinking. He’s just good like that!!

Do you see His beautiful attention to detail?

Do you see His kindness in preparing me, as an unsuspecting young girl, for the woman He was calling me to be?

I’m so grateful for the journey He has me on to show me who I am, why I am here, and how He wants to use me in the exact way that He has hard-wired me from the very beginning and, of this thing I am very sure…He desires to do the same thing for you!!