Let Yourself Become Who God Created You to be All Along

You were created on purpose, for a purpose, friend.

I know I talk a lot about this on this page, but that’s because it’s something that I am really passionate about. Because, if I’m being honest, for many years of my life (actually most of it), I was living more for the approval of others than for the approval of God. There are so many voices out there - friends, family, media, culture, you name it - that tell us which way to go, when in reality, there is only one voice we should really be listening to - God. The Voice of Truth. The voice that will never lead you astray. The voice of someone who has created you and loved you eternally with a love that never, ever ends. Now THAT is a voice you can trust. A voice you can bank your life on. And I don’t know about you, but that’s the voice I want to listen to when I am making the biggest decisions of my life.

A dear and trusted friend of mine is extremely wise and, when I was trying to process through hard decisions a few months back, I remember her saying something that will stick with me forever - “You may waver in your decisions, but God, He never wavers. Listen to Him.”

Wow. Truth, right? How often do we try to seek a million opinions from others, when God’s voice is really the most important of all. I mean, He is the Creator of the Universe, after all!

I love being able to “create” so much beautiful and unique artwork for y’all through this business, but what drives all that I do is knowing that I am simply a creative inspired by the true Creator – God. God created us on purpose, for a purpose. Whether that is lettering art, mothering, teaching, preaching, business, medical care, or whatever path He has called you to – there is a specific reason He has you there and it is your job to follow His lead. Even when other voices try to count you out for the count…only YOU get to decide which voice you listen to. Listen to trusted friends and family, but most importantly, listen to God and let yourself become who He created you to be all along.

So often, sadly, I see people count themselves out before they even take a step. For some reason, human nature tends to cause us to idolize fear and let it keep so many of us from having faith that God can do the supernatural in and through us…if we let Him. Sometimes, I believe, God purposefully calls us to things that we feel completely unqualified and inadequate for. But the beauty of this is that, at the end of it all, God gets all the glory because He was the One behind and through it all. We don't even try to take credit for it, because we know good and well that He is the one who did it and gets us through.

I don’t know about y’all, but something I have always really struggled with is fear of man. Being the “people pleaser” that I am, it can be hard to follow God to new and unique places that make me “different” than what others think I should be. And I know a lot of y’all struggle with this too, because a lot of you have reached out and told me. Whether it is fear of man in starting your own creative business, or fear of man in growing closer to God because you are scared what your friends and family will think about you.

And let me tell you now…I have faced every single one of those fears. When God called me to transfer schools after my freshman year of college, I was terrified what everyone would think about me. When I felt called (and was asked) to lead in a Christian ministry in college, I was scared that I wasn’t “good enough” or “qualified enough” to do so because I didn’t really know the Bible well. When I became a teacher upon graduating college, I battled inadequacy every single day, but kept showing up because I loved those kids with all of my heart. When I felt called to be a missionary in Uganda for the first summer after teaching, I felt scared that I was going to miss out on things here in America. Upon returning home from Uganda and meeting Wes (my now husband) right after committing to go back to Uganda the following year, I was scared that he was "too good to be true" and wouldn’t stick around if I actually followed God's call. And once we got engaged and He kept encouraging me to still go to Uganda and follow God’s call to another continent, I went and was still scared I was missing out on things here at home. And upon returning home, getting married, starting graduate school and feeling called to start this creative business (and start writing this blog), I was terrified to put myself out there. But did I listen to these fears? No. Only WE get to make decisions that impact our whole lives, and all fear wants to do is keep us from living out our glorious, God-given destinies that make us more and more like Christ.

But you know what I have learned through it all? Sometimes, we just have to “go for it,” and have faith in the midst of fear. If I had let fear hold me back during so many of these seasons and big decisions of my life, I would not be who I am today. My faith definitely would not be this strong, and I would not appreciate all of the many blessings in my life that way that I do now.

The other day, my amazing husband shared this quote by Theodore Roosevelt that really stuck with me, and I wanted to share it with y’all, too:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

– Thedore Roosevelt

So instead of fearing failure and letting fear and negative voices speak louder than our faith, I pray that we will listen to God and let Him turn us into who He created us to be all along. His beloved Sons and Daughters who are living for His Glory and not our own, who take courage in the midst of fear and follow Him to the hard places, and most importantly, who dare to seek Him more than anyone or anything in this world.