an identity in Christ

I have heard that term before, but I never understood it with my heart...probably not even with my head. But today at my MOPS group, we were discussing our identity as mother's, and how many of us grieve the identity's we once had. Whether we miss being our profession, or how we looked pre-kids, or even just how we presented ourselves to the world in college and high school--just how much of our identity is tied to the children now and how we can lose ourselves in that.

But we didn't just stop there, which is the part that really stuck with me. We can't just identify ourselves as mother's either. We need to seek an identity in Christ. Because ANY of those identity's we have created (whether those old ones, or the one I've taken on now as "MOM") can disappear in an instant. Our jobs can change, our looks will fade, our children will grow....what we NEED to cultivate is an eternal identity....one in (drumroll please) CHRIST.

Oh it was such an a-ha for me.

The bible gives us scripture quotes on who we are supposed to be....we are beloved, we are saints, we in the likeness of God. And yes, I could go dig out the verses, but its the basic premise that was so striking to me.

I've been lamenting, that I'm just a "mom" and I miss the old me. But neither of these is a true and real identity. Who I am must be examined and found in God. And that was just huge for me today.