I was in a hair salon a few days back.

As the hair stylist worked on my hair, I can't help but notice the woman sitting opposite to me. 

Who is this person? Why is she avoiding my gaze?

And that's when I knew I needed to spend time reconnecting with myself. 

What are my values? Where am I in relation to who I want to be in the future? Am I healthy, physically and emotionally? What are the issues I fear addressing?

As I dug deeper, I realised the more time I spent elsewhere ie social media/work, the more I tend to forget to nurture the one thing that matters most: 

Myself. 

It is proven that prolonged social media use results in negative feelings towards ourselves. When we look at pictures of people excelling in life, we unconsciously compare ourselves with the false narrative displayed online. 

Worse, work tends to mask underlying issues that require time to fix. When we use supposed relax time from work to use social media, we are then bombarded with false perceptions of people having it better than us. 

What else are we supposed to think but to feel even more exhausted at the end of the day, feeling that we are never going to measure up to society's standard of "good enough"?

It is the perfect recipe for a self-criticism avalanche.

However, being a Christian, there is a fundamental part of my identity that I hold onto even at the worst of my self-critical times:

I am a child of God, and absolutely nothing can change that truth.

So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.-Galatians 4:7 (NIV)

As children of God, our Heavenly Father loves and cares for us so much that He gave his one and only Son (John 3: 16).

Referencing Pastor Chris Kam's (DUMC) sermon on 7/10/18 (Part 2: Breastplate of Righteousness & Shoes of Peace), the devil will always claim we are not good enough, but it is only the half truth.

We are good enough because of salvation by faith (Ephesians 2:8–9).

Truly as Christians, the only way to live life the way God wants us to is to follow the Word and live by it, striving to be the salt and light to glorify our Father in Heaven (Matthew 5: 13-16).

Anything else is just an illusion created by the evil one to deceive us of our true identity.

As children of God, let's put away our fears and insecurities, and instead boldly advance forward in Truth.

I look forward to the next haircut.

PS Thankful for a timely reminder in the form of Lauren Daigle's song "You Say". God is good indeed!



PC: mentatdgt (Pexels)