You want to be unapologetically you, be understood with total confidence about who you really are? Good. Bad. And ugly. How? Please tell me how? This was my question several years ago when I was trying to be ok in my own skin…..my own skin that was and still is wrapped around way too much fat on my frame, my own skin that embodied a heart that was broken, a mind that was confused about a lot of things and a thought process set on “REPEAT” with faulty patterns. I hope I’ve painted a clear enough picture to help you understand that I, though I was supposed to be a perfect pastor’s wife { so I thought – another messed up thought pattern } in reality I was a mess and not even a hot one!!

What changed? What can change for you? When we finally realize whose we are, only then can we begin to actually walk out who we genuinely are. What do I mean?……..

We are kids of the MOST high God, the dude who created all that is, the Man with THE plan. The guy who made the heavens and the earth and all that is within it. As long as we doubt The Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the Restorer, the Comforter, the Prince of Peace, the Source of our joy, the Only One true living God, we have no compass. As long as we are angry with God about how he made us, questioning why He made my body this way or why didn’t this happen or why did He allow that to happen; as long as we question His every move rather than understand that we don’t understand and that we are finite beings while He is infinite and all knowing, we will wrestle ourselves into anxiety and depression and despair nonstop.

A little while after my mom went to heaven I found a note she had jotted down that said – Hold loosely all things which are not eternal. It was such a sweet moment and a note from heaven I needed desperately in that season of my life as it seemed then like my entire world was falling apart.

We will not get through this world and live this life well without Jesus. There just isn’t another way. He is The Way, The Truth, and The Light. This has to be settled 1,000 % in our minds before we can go any further. Animosity toward God gone. Anger and frustration replaced with a holy respect and faith that trusts everything to Him. There is no in between if you want to know how to be ok with who you are. What? How is that the secret sauce to being unapologetically you?

Here’s how: because once we understand we are loved by the King of all kings and the Lord of all lords and that He is our daddy, finally (and here’s the biggie) we are made in His image, then we stop putting our trust in ourselves (who we know and have experienced will let us down, fail, and make a mess of things). But when we put our trust in God, knowing that He loves us anyway, has our back, is our rear guard as scripture tells us meaning He is our huckleberry, He is our sure guide, He is our solid foundation, THEN and only THEN we understand that our confidence is “in Him in us” not in ourselves anyway!

When we slip and when we are attacked with the human condition of “not enough-ness” as we are putting our whole heart into something and we see with our own eyes how it doesn’t “measure up” we can relax and know it was never about us. Our confidence in being authentically us is fueled by basically surrendering our will to His and understanding again that we don’t fully understand but thankfully we know intimately the One who does & will figure this most current awful problem we are facing out too! He shows us things to come and when we know Him, spend time with Him, and fear Him over them, He reveals to us wisdom that helps us walk out who we really are!

Hey, if you struggle with this issue, please join my Adrienne Cooley FB Group and page so you can keep up with all that is going on that can be encouraging to you and so you can take advantage of resources, books, events, and books and even just candid conversations that happen there in the comments and on lives that are life transforming….at least for me they have been. Hope to see you there! Please comment and share and help me get this message out. Your repost matters way more than you realize. Pleeeeease don’t keep it to yourself! Help me spread the happy and share the love to a word that needs it so badly! And also AdrienneCooley.com has the books and online course if you haven’t gotten those yet! I believe they will change the landscape of your relationships like it has mine!!

Happy Monday!

XO,

Adrienne

PS…..if you liked this today, you will

L O V E

my #WomanCrushWednesday this week, Heather Palacios @wondherful! Go follow her on Instagram. She is hilarious, wise, and just a ton of fun! Please join us on my Instagram at 9am CST this Wednesday & at 9:30am CST for #WCW with Heather as we go LIVE & discuss how to make sense of the hardest times in life and how to stay sane in the middle of it all.