IdentifYing As an acRONym
What was one of the first acronyms you ever heard or were taught? Growing up, I am pretty sure mine was WWJD. But as I have gotten older, I have been introduced to other acronyms. Maybe you can relate to some? OCD, PTSD, ADD, ADHD, ODD, BPD, GAD, MDD…or maybe you’ve dealt with CBT, EMDR, ECT, IPT, REBT. There are days when I feel like when I introduce myself, I shouldn’t be using my name but instead saying “hello, I am ADHD, OCD, PTSD (fill in the blank with what you’ve been told) and not my actual name because I think that is who I am on a daily. I am not the name that is on my birth certificate. I am the name of the diagnosis. It doesn’t even have to be a mental health disorder. It can be your physical medical diagnosis. “Hello, my name is COPD, IBS, PCOS, RA…” Again, fill in what you feel like. Both mental health and physical health can consume a person so much every day. It literally becomes your identity. I know it has for me in the past. The hate that has built into my system is something fierce, and I have to remember I am not an acronym. I am a child of God. Nowhere in the Bible did it say “and God created an acronym to identify yourself and saw it was good.” So why did we create that for ourselves? Now, let me do a little side note here. I am in the medical field, and I truly do appreciate the shorthand language mainly because I need to write it quickly before I forget or get pulled into another room. HOWEVER, I don’t see people as the acronym I am writing down. I see them as the person I get the privilege of taking care of, I see them as a person who was created by God. I see them for who they are and not for what they have. So why in the world am I doing that to myself? Honestly? Because I don’t see myself as worthy of having a title or a name. I am short-handing my worth.
Here is my bible verse plug for this blog:
Ephesians 2:10 ESV
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
You are not an acronym in God’s book. He’s not in a hurry to write down something, so he short-hands your worth. We were created by Him for Him. Not for the world, but to be a light of Jesus to the world.
Yeah, maybe you do have a bunch of letters following your name on some documents, maybe you have to go do certain things that have several letters strung together to help you make it through each day. Sister. Brother. I am telling you that is not who you are. As I am writing this, I have tears streaming down my face because the advice I am giving you is something I struggle with 24/7, 365.
The love of my life doesn’t see me like that, my family and friends don’t see me that way, and most importantly, Jesus doesn’t know me by those little letters.
WWJD? He would tell you to stop looking at yourself in the mirror as something that this world has labeled you with, and instead look at yourself in the mirror and see the child of God looking back at you, because that is who He created!
Your identity is in God. Not this world. I will continue telling you this until my very last breath, and then I will most likely have a recording to continue telling you that you can introduce yourself as a child of God because that is who you are.
