“I wouldn’t want you to be my secretary“
These were the words of a professional, who is without a secretary at the moment. I love what this person does. That’s why I told him I would love to help out but didn’t think I was the right person for this job.
That’s when he told me:
“I wouldn’t want you to be my secretary“.
Immediately and before I could ask for the reason or feel bad about this statement, he added:
“That would be a waste of your potential.”
This little chat stayed with me for the next few hours and I decided to put my thoughts about it into an article.
Today, I completely agree with that professional.
It would be a waste of my potential.
Not because the job of a secretary is worthless. Of course not! I know the lady who did this job until recently and she was priceless for him and his work. She was amazing and did a wonderful job.
But for being a secretary, you have to have a set of capacities and talents I hold only in a limited quantity.
As I wrote in the last article, today I’m on a journey to discover always more who God made me to be. A journey where I learn to walk in my unique DNA, enjoying my unique personality.
I can go camping with my four kids and I thrive by doing that.
I can write an article for this blog each and every week and translate it into three languages.
There are many more things I am good at and I enjoy doing.
Caroline leaf puts it this way :
“True self-awareness comes from recognizing the true you. It changes you from the inside out. You are unlocked. This is much more than “finding your purpose.” It is about finding yourself. We all want to know who God is. We reflect his image. The world will lose out if you do not operate in your unique you: You are a specific part of his reflection, the missing piece that brings a unique perspective and hope to the world. There is none one like you, which means there is something you can do no one else can do. ..”
From her book ” THE PERFECT YOU“, Chapter one, sub chapter ” The power of choice”)
As a young adult, I did not “recognize the true me”, as Dr. Leaf puts it. I remember the deep feeling of insecurity, inferiority and the feeling of not being worthy because I felt I couldn’t live up to the particular standard of our society. I surely didn’t believe that I could be a blessing to anyone.
I believed that I was a burden, a challenge, a problem.
I was very much aware of the things I did not do well, and I was aware of my fears and insecurities.
I struggled with not being a person of relevance, and probably, in this situation, I would have tried to prove that “I can be a good secretary”…. Simply because I would not have identified with the second part of what this professional told me “It would be a waste of your potential.”
“What potential?”
I would have asked myself sadly.
“I am not really good at anything. I wish I could be a blessing, but I don’t have anything to offer to this world!”
I saw all these people around me, who were brilliant at many things. I felt inadequate. I wished I would be seen and celebrated as well.
I felt trapped in the expectations of how I should be and the feeling of not living up to those expectations.
Today I rejoice, and I am so deeply grateful for where I stand.
Because the more I understand who I am created to be, the more I rejoice over all the beauty around me. I see the obvious beauty – when people confidently walk in who they are meant to be – and I see the hidden beauty, when people are still on this journey of discovery. And I love to be a part of that journey, to discover this beauty God has put in every one of us.
It makes me grateful because I remember how it feels when you are unable to recognize who God made you to be.
Unable to recognize this amazing, unique, beautiful person he created you to be.
The unique blueprint he longs to bring you into, in order that you can celebrate who you are – and in the end who God is.
We reflect God’s image.
As Caroline Leaf puts it,
it is much more than finding your purpose. It is about finding yourself.
This blog for example, is not the purpose of my life. It is rather something flowing from the fact that I am finding myself. In other words, by discovering the person God created me to be, I can be a blessing….simply by being me.
The same goes for you.
The more you discover the amazing, unique, beautiful person God created you to be, the more you will marvel at how you will be a blessing… simply by being yourself.
I discover that in finding my identity I find my destiny.
You see, having a basic in pedagogy and psychology, I know that an identity is built in the first few years of life. After that, one can improve – but this basic identity (or lack of identity) is set.
The beautiful thing is that when we search for our identity in God, literally everything is possible. God is able to restore anything you have lost in your life.
He promises us in the Bible, Isaiah 61:7(AMP):
Instead of your [former] shame you will have a double portion;
And instead of humiliation your people will shout for joy over their portion.
Therefore in their land they will possess double [what they had forfeited];
Everlasting joy will be theirs.
This is true for everyone that is willing to enter into that journey of finding his and her identity in God. He is the one that created you, that made you in his image. Therefore, (and here I’ll quote Dr.Leaf again)
“you are a specific part of his reflection, that missing piece that brings a unique perspective and hope to the world. There is no one like you, which means there is something you can do no one else can do… “
From the view of pedagogues and psychologists, my life was doomed to be very limited. The impact of blessing I could have around me very poor.
But God is good. He is faithful.
And if he was capable to do it with me.. then he surely can do it with you too!
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