Guest article by Lacey Davenport

I have found myself thinking lately about the importance of being true to who we are.

When reflecting on times of being true to oneself, we can often muster up a few bad memories or situations where things didn’t go as planned… but when we talk about those situations in hind sight, we often reference them as times that made us strong, or times that we learned a lot about who we are, or times that we most affectionately refer to as “Our Journey”.

We are mostly thankful for these lessons, while at the same time we harbor feelings of rejection and hurt. So much was learned in these seasons, but we often have trouble letting go. However frustrating, there is an undeniable need and desire inside all of us to be loved and accepted by our family, friends, co- workers, etc. We isolate parts of who we really are for the necessity to protect ourselves. It is easier to fit in than put yourself out there in a real way.

I think that a great deal of people, specifically women, deal with the idea of authenticity. Not because we aren’t authentic people, but because of comparison (the biggest authenticity killer). We look at other women as individuals, as wives, as mothers, and we measure our success with an impossible scale. We feel that our journey needs to look like that, or worse, that we would rather it look like that. It’s easy to look at someone else and think that their life looks better, prettier, or more put together than ours, but we were never created to fill someone else’s shoes. It can be easy to fall into this false way of thinking, “if my life looked more like that, then I would be happy”, but it’s simply not true. True joy doesn’t come from things and circumstances, but from The Lord and being the person that HE has called you to be. If we are ever truly going to live a life of authenticity, we must deal with the things that want to remove our uniqueness, worth and individuality!

We are created, by God, to be uniquely, beautifully, and authentically who we are!

It seems like such a simple concept. We all believe that we are being true to ourselves, but are we being true to who God has called and created us to be? Are the decisions that we are making to try and garner the affection and approval of others? I love the quote by Leslie Cassidy, “Don’t trade your authenticity for approval.” Living a life of authenticity means that there are going to be times when you are extremely unpopular. There are going to be times of loneliness and isolation. People may not “Get You”, or “Understand You”…and you know what? That is okay!

It is completely, totally, and 100% okay to be exactly WHO YOU ARE! You don’t need to explain yourself, or to hold back, or to minimize who you are so that you can fit into the box of acceptance. It’s empowering to be abnormal and quirky and unique. It is fun to be original.

When we are completely and unapologetically who we are, we can empower others to do the same!