Recently, I was rewriting my professional profile (I do that every now and then when I have a new direction/credential or something that I consider important to add).
This time, I ran into a weird conundrum as I was rewriting. Do I lead with my professional titles in Learning and Development? Where do I add my Coach or Counsellor training or my legal background? And oh, I shouldn’t forget to include the multifaceted work I’m doing with The Lifeaholic, right. By the way, do I add my family roles? Surely, that’s okay in these days of frontlining work-life balance, isn’t it? What about my hobbies, professional associations, volunteer experience…
While I reflected on this much later, I realised that I didn’t add my most important title. How do I fit in Beloved Daughter of the Almighty God somewhere in that profile?
Let us talk today about the most important, the most fundamental title we have – Beloved Child of the Almighty God.
This is our first, most fundamental, most innate identity.
This identity goes beyond our job descriptions, our family roles or professional associations. It even transcends our ancestral blood lines or our gender. I am first a Beloved Child of the Almighty God before I am a Yoruba-born Nigerian woman. It carries the most weight above any other description, role or identity I have, or at least it should.
It is not the only identity we have; but it is the one that comes before anything else and the one that affects everything else.
Every other description is a role and title through which we reflect this our most important identity in different ways. So, if my follow-up titles and roles are wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend, author, Coach, Executive, Fashion Designer, Doctor, Affiliate Marketer, Chef, Teacher, Gardener, Church Member, Neighbour, and so on, then I should carry out each one of these roles like a Beloved Child of God.
I should be a wife like a Beloved Child of God. I should mother like I’m a Beloved Daughter of the Almighty God. I should be teach like I’m a Beloved Child of the Almighty God. I should Garden or carry out my work as an Executive like a Beloved Child of the Almighty God would. I should be a neighbor like a Beloved Child of the Almighty God.
This first identity should be the one that informs every other one. We should reflect it in how we carry out every other role.
So, what does it mean to live and carry out our different roles like a Beloved Child of the Almighty God?
It’s basically a lifestyle of awareness. Of becoming and remaining aware of who we are and whose we are on a daily basis.
And this awareness should transcend periods of what we call spiritual activities – not just in church or during our quiet time or reading a spiritual book. But at work, on a regular Tuesday, in traffic, while cooking, while gisting.
This is how we can bring an awareness of God and who we are in Him into all of these roles.
And here are some specific things we should be aware of:
1. The love that our Heavenly Father has for us. His dedication and devotion to us.
2. The access we have to Him. We can be aware of the fact that we can come boldly to His throne because we are children. When we need help with our lives and our other roles, we can come to Him.
3. The fact that we can trust Him. We can trust His heart towards us. We can know that indeed, having been adopted and grafted into His family, everything in our lives have an eternal perspective and they are working out for good.
4. The fact that His Spirit, the Holy Spirit in us. Which means that we have the spirit of love, of power, of forgiveness, of courage, of excellence, of answers, of direction.
So, going forward, when you’re faced with a question, a challenge or a decision concerning any of your other roles, you can think: How would a Beloved Child of the Almighty God address this or react to this?
Knowing that He loves me, that I have access to Him and I can trust Him, that I have His Spirit, how would I tackle this?
Would it make me less anxious, less fearful, less vengeful, more courageous, more at peace, more creative, diligent or excellent? Would it leave me more assured?
As we wrap up, I want you to find something that reminds you of your highest title today. Anything, could be a song, a picture, a meme, a painting, a Bible verse, a memory anything.
I pray that you and I will understand the great love the Father has lavished on us and how He has made and called us His children, and that this understanding will be reflected in everything we do in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
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