Today I choose to be me.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/serendipitys/2848538749

Life is a series of choices.  You can choose to go left or go right. You can choose to stay home or go out.  You can make the choice between boxers or briefs. No matter what we go through in life we have the choice as to how we will react, how we will do something, or even how we will handle any situation that we face.

What I want to talk about today is something that we will all have to choose sooner or later, but the sooner you do it the better off you will be.  I want to encourage you today to choose to be you.  It doesn't matter if the you is flawed, perfect, unsure, or whatever.  Too many people out there have decided not to be who they are and instead try to be like someone else.  Being like someone else may work for a while and it may get you some of the things you desire in life, but when it's all said and done you will be missing out on a ton of things in your life.

I realized a long time ago that there were things that I wanted to complete in this life.  There were things that I felt drawn too and quite frankly knew that I needed to do.  I also figured out after many years of beating around the bush that I had to choose to be me, and not worry about what others thought or said about me.  We have a tendency as humans to care more about what others think or say about us then what we know to be the truth in our own lives.  Truth: you are a divine creation.  Truth: you are amazing and there is nothing that is not amazing about you.  Truth:  only you can make the choice to accept you for you and be who you were intended to be.

Deciding to be you is not a magic formula for escaping the trials of life.  Deciding to be you is no guarantee that things are always going to come out the way you want them.  Deciding to be you is simply not worrying about where things come out and knowing that things will be how they need to be, when they need to be, and why they need to be.

I wish I had a good understanding of why people have made the choice to forget who they are and instead pick up the persona of someone they feel is more hip, more acceptable, or more loved then they.  This all stems from not accepting who you are.  I know how hard it is to love yourself.  I spent years hating me.  I mean I could not go through the day without putting myself down, tearing apart every aspect of my life, and utterly desiring to be anyone else but who I was.  Face it, if you are unable to accept yourself then does it really matter in the long run what or who you try to emulate?  I mean when all the crying has stopped you will still not know the real you.

I chose to accept me.  You need to make the choice to accept you.  Certainly there are areas in each of our lives that need work, but that shouldn't stop you from accepting yourself and in accepting yourself accepting the calling on your life.  There is not a person on this earth that could not tear apart certain aspects of themselves.  I look at me and even though I would love to loose the reseeding hairline, that is the card that has been dealt to me so go with it.  If one sits down and starts nitpicking every possible flaw or imperfection in their life, there will be zero time left to do what they were sent here to do in the first place.

The decision to accept who you are is solely your decision to make.  There is no one else who can make it for you.  Deciding to accept you for you is the only way you will ever move forward and accomplish those things you desire to accomplish. I know I am repeating myself but there are times when you need something beat into your head.  I can hope that you will see what I am saying, but if I need to force feed it to you to get you to understand it then I guess I will do that.

Today I want you to choose you.  I want you to see yourself in all of your glory.  I want you to feel what it's like to know that you know that you are special, that you are marvelous, and that you have something that the world is in desperate need of.  Forget about trying to measure up to others, and simply see how God sees you.  There is nothing wrong with you.  You are who you are because that is what was intended from the very beginning.  Accepting you for you is what has to happen.

I have tried to be someone I'm not and the only thing I got out of that was misery.  Today I love who I am, I love being me, and I love that I no longer have to worry about what others say or think.  You are wonderful in your design, you are fully able to accomplish the things you have been sent here to do, and you can do all you hope for if you will make the choice to choose you.  Make the choice and then watch things almost magically come into focus.  I chose me, and you must choose you.  I know you can do it, and I will know joy and happiness when you do.