In a world full of options, opportunities, and opinions, it is vital that you know for sure, who you are and what you have to offer.  Because of all these options, opportunities and opinions, to be proud of who you are and of who you are becoming is often found to be one of the greatest challenges for some to conquer.  These challenges exist often times because too much attention is given, instead, to who somebody else is and what they have to offer.  Learning to place the many options and opportunities available and opinions of others in perspective is key to trusting God with your own existence and all that it encompasses.

With the access we have to one another today through the internet, social media, news media and cell phones, the act of comparing is at an all time high.  Because human nature sets you up to desire acknowledgement and acceptance, comparing has become a very important step, perhaps too important, in getting that stamp of approval needed to feel accepted.  But it’s not the comparison alone that could hinder your ability to trust God with your own.  It is what you do with and how you respond to feedback received from your audience or connections.

The danger in comparing yourself to others, especially unnecessary comparisons, is you may begin to form a distorted perception of yourself.  You begin doubting your own, what you already have, even what you have already learned to love and now discounting your own uniqueness.  What you once thought was a good thing, a good trait, about yourself, you can very easily begin to discount when you spend too much time comparing.  Relying too much on what others think or how they respond to what you choose to share can also contribute to a distorted perception of yourself.  Depending on the thoughts and opinions of others and their response or even lack thereof and comparing such to the responses someone else may get, can lead you to a place completely out of line with who God would have you to be.  Your desire to be acknowledged can allow the options and opportunities available to become much more enticing.  Self-respect can very easily be compromised when the opinions of others become more important than your own.  Not thinking of consequences that could occur later, possibly even years later, can very easily open the door to you doing things you never thought you would.  It is even possible that your need to compare has led to a state of desperation, to an unhealthy desire for attention simply because you’ve allowed the opinions of others to matter more.  But how do you keep from falling for this conditional love; a love solely based on how much of yourself you’re willing to share?

Trusting God with your own.

Anytime you open yourself to a need for acknowledgement, acceptance, and approval, you also open yourself to rejection.  Are you ready to receive any of these or maybe even none?  What does each one really mean to you? Sharing your life, your gift, and your services with others in the world of social networking calls for your ability to already know who you are and always on a journey of even more clarity; a journey fit for confidence-building.  An already existing awareness of your own comes through your ability to trust God with the way He made you, molded you and the way He has decided to present you to the world.  Already knowing you have His acknowledgment, His acceptance and His approval can alleviate a great deal of these needs from others.  Taking the time to address these needs within can help you get to a place where you already know.  Taking the time to really love the way you’re made and learning how to build on the intelligence that already exists will give you the stamp of approval that so many search for in all the wrong places.  Already knowing, accepting, and loving yourself, trusting God with your own, before you need it from others is how you keep from falling for the deception of conditional love.

Be careful with what you need from others, the attention you need, the acceptance and approval you need.  Get clear about the best ways to meet  these needs and understand how such acknowledgement can elevate your life and how it can completely deceive you.  An obsession with fulfilling needs of acknowledgment, acceptance and approval based on what others think can cause you to waste a lot of time and bring on lifelong regrets.  Such hunger can cause you to end up sharing too much of yourself and too much information about yourself over and over and over again, trying to fill something that can never be filled by others.  Trusting God with your own existence and all the beauty and strength it contains will help lessen your need for comparisons against another.  Already knowing and being sure about who you are and all the goods you have to offer will help you understand that the opinions of others is never a final say.

Acknowledgement, acceptance, approval…..when they all come from within, much less is needed from the outside which means you will have a much lesser chance of being misled about who you really are and how good enough you are.  Simply trust God so that you don’t have to compare and change and become somebody else because of those never-ending comparisons.  Learn to  trust your own and trust God as He works with you from within.

Author Tawana

How many times have you said, ‘I will get it done today, I will start today’?  How many second chances have you taken for granted?  What will it take to see your potential through?  Are you one who is living with so much potential, yet may never see it through?  When will you execute?

The truth is nobody really knows the potential you have like you know.  Nobody can really understand completely, your deepest desires to achieve like you do.  Nobody knows, like you, your daydreams or your imagination of becoming the greatest and being the best at what you do.  Underneath all of the daily distractions you encounter and behind all of life’s worries, there lie your greatest potentials, the desire and the ability to truly succeed.  What will it take for you to execute?

There are three things that are a must in your climb to executing your greatest potentials; three things you must understand and fully embrace everyday.  These three things are faith in God’s plans for your life, the step-by-step climb, and a tenacious spirit.  Any potential you have to exceed in success with real substance will rely heavily on this kind of foundation.  Whenever you need to remind yourself of the reasons for your existence and you need to encourage yourself to see those reasons through, the combination of these three anchors will keep you on an upward journey.  This foundation will give you the courage you need to execute every potential you dream of living.

Understanding and embracing faith begins with knowing God always has your best interest at heart.  When you know this and believe it, you understand that everything about your life will work together to make room for you to pursue and execute any potential you have.  Strengthening your faith in God’s plans for your life will involve understanding that God is not out to bring you to disaster and it is never His desire to see you fail.  Instead, even with all the mistakes you’ve made, God has a way of bringing it all together, teaching you lessons, making you wiser, and presenting opportunities that will allow you to execute your potential.

The second anchor to help carry your potential through is your ability to have patience with the step-by-step climb you will experience in success.  Believing that every step matters will help you develop the patience needed.  Even when time seems to stand still or when your hard work and dedication goes unnoticed, keep climbing.  One of the most important lessons in life is understanding that you don’t have to have all the answers today.  When executing your potential, do what you can do today.  Take advantage of opportunities set before you today.  There is no way you could ever see right before your eyes, the plans God has for your life or the blessings He has in store.  Proof of your faith, the first anchor, is displayed in the step-by-step climb you continue to take.  When you look back at all the steps you’ve taken thus far, big and small, you will see the staircase God has taken those steps to create.  Keep giving Him something to work with because your staircase is not even close to completion.  Keep climbing.

It takes almost nothing to daydream and very little energy to imagine but these two places, your daydreams and your imagination, often house something very important and powerful in your life; your potential.  You see it, you feel it, you even draw energy from it, but at some point, you must execute.  At some point you must stop daydreaming alone and get to work.  Spending too much time, too many years imagining your life as such will only create a home not only for your potential but for you as well.  Have you been daydreaming so long that you are now living life in your imagination?  It has happened to many.  Make the effort to draw energy from the life you constantly daydream about and begin your step-by-step climb.  Stick with it!  The more you take chances, the more you grow.  Your consistency in trying will help develop your third anchor; a tenacious spirit, which will cause you to want more, to try harder, and to please God with your faith.  Remain persistent knowing that although you can’t see the life your potential can create for you, you know it’s there.  A tenacious spirit will not allow you to do otherwise.

So today, if you can get honest enough with yourself and bold enough to acknowledge the potential that lives within you everyday to be great, I challenge you to do just that.  Step out of the imagination you’ve been living in and begin to execute.  Waiting until everything is set before you is not an option.  Faith is available today.  Take it and begin your step-by-step climb, executing your potential.  You provide the steps and God will take them and form the staircase.  Stick to what you know is inside of you.  Instead of trying to look ahead for all the steps, simply start climbing and keep climbing.  From time to time, you will get a chance to look back at the staircase God has formed with the steps you’ve given him to create it, but only if you begin to execute the potential inside.  I dare you to get started!

Author Tawana