Don't Lose Yourself

Written by Sherri Bergmann

Identity is a big concern for youths in schools and their parents. This Back-to-School blog will help you, as a student, find your real Identity so you can start building confidence now on who you really are before your peers tell you what they think and try to influence you to live a lie.


In school and all around us we are plagued with bullies and negative people who shrink our self-confidence to about zero. We even tell ourselves things such as, “I’m terrible, I can’t do anything.” “Everyone else is better than me because they say they are, and do things I wish I could.” “I can’t measure up, I’m no good.”



God specifically designed you with special abilities to meet high expectations – His. He has equipped and empowered you to do good works to achieve great things.  

Some don’t know what talents and unique abilities they have. If they do, they often ignore, or feel too lazy, or not confident enough, to improve their natural abilities and as a result become depressed, and fall into traps that deceive and prevent them from being the person God created them to be. 

Satan tells us to give up, God says we can do better.

To find and develop your real identity, answer the following questions:

1. What are you good at? God endowed you with talents – your natural skills and abilities. Some are creative thinkers, others are good with numbers. Some can easily learn multiple languages and some are special problem solvers, athletes, writers, and more. For the sake of space, all of them cannot be listed here. However, you can research the internet for the vast range of natural abilities and talents, and can relate to many. Now is the time to find yourself, not lose yourself.


2. What do you like to do? Like to build? That can be craftsmanship or architecture. Draw? That’s artistic. Play an instrument or write music? That’s musical abilities. You will find that what you like to do is often what you are naturally good at. This is important when considering a career so you can enjoy your job and contribute well. Working for 40+ years is a substantial portion of your life. You can grow more successful using your talents, or flounder ignoring your special abilities and trying to do what you weren’t created for. 


3. What’s your passion?
 Once you identify what you’re good at and like to do, two things to do next:


• Improve your talents. You can only get better. People become successful because they continuously hone their skills and don’t give up. Satan doesn’t want you to develop what God made in you to make you great at some things. Your natural abilities also will lead you to use them for what you have a passion to do.

• Develop your passion for a mission. Singers use their voice to uplift. Analytic thinkers find strategies to help make discoveries in medicine and to solve problems others have been stumped by. God gave you special abilities to make a difference. 

When you don’t use your abilities, you and others miss out on what could be. 


4. How were you born?  
Were you born as a male or a female? Your identity is also based on how He created you. He made men and women very different for specific purposes. Messing with His design can cause unforeseen problems, grief, and regrets. 



A 2022 government study (not religious) found that 82% of transgender individuals have considered killing themselves and 40% have attempted suicide, with suicidality highest among transgender youth.¹

Those are huge percentages! Others encouraging that it’s ok to alter what God had specifically designed is a nasty lie. Indirectly, they are saying they know more than God does.



Furthermore, a recent Foxnews article revealed that some (of the many) unhealthy side effects from using transgender medical interventions have included increased risks for certain cancers, loss of normal bone development, interference with normal brain and social development, infertility and sexual dysfunction.² Many of the effects are irreversible.
 
Satan is an illusionist. He’ll make an idea attractive, he likes to confuse and pull you from what God intended and once you fall for it, he just watches you decay.



God knitted you together in your mother’s womb. You developed traits that come with your sex, and He gave you many special abilities that no one can compare. You have been “fearfully and wonderfully made.” Psalm 139:14. You are as unique as your fingerprints. There is only one you.  


5. Be the person God created YOU as. You can’t show your real identity copying someone else. This is common among those in junior high and high school to behave like the most popular person or their favorite idol. When you copycat another by mimicking the way they dress, talk, value, you are losing the only time you have to improve the real you. What you improve in you can far outshine the person you think you want to be like. Also, they may sizzle today but can fizzle tomorrow.

You’ll also find that what you are naturally good at will also make you happier. Developing your real self will lead to greater personal satisfaction, and honor your Creator.  

Remember – school is very short-term. High school is only four years out of the 90+ you could potentially live. Those who live a lie, and lie to others, are watched by their Maker and are His business. Pray for them. How they live in the future may be very different than how you see them today. Also, after you graduate you may never see them again.



When you walk with God and use the special abilities He gave you to help others – you’re fulfilling His commands to love Him and others.


You are a child of God, and brothers and sisters with Christ. It is in Him, and through Christ, that you are enabled to conquer over this world and shine as YOU.