Be Yourself

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”

—RALPH WALDO EMERSON

But let every person carefully scrutinize and examine and test his own conduct and his own work. He can then have the personal satisfaction and joy of doing something commendable [in itself alone] without [resorting to] boastful comparison with his neighbor.

—Galatians 6:4

For many years of my life, I tried to be like other people. I tried to pray like them, act like them, and even look like them. After many years of misery and struggle, I finally realized God would never help me be anyone but me. There was a reason He made me the way I am and not like someone else. It is very complicated trying to be someone else, and there is absolutely nothing programmed into us that gives us understanding of how to do that. It is much easier, much simpler to just be ourselves—God shows us how to do that because it is His will.

You don’t have to compare or compete with anyone or anything else, and that, my friends, is true freedom. Jesus came to set people free in many ways, and this is one of them. I want to say again, you don’t have to compare yourself or anything about you with other people; you don’t have to compete to be like them or better than them (see 2 Corinthians 10:12). All God expects is that we try to be the best we can be. I always say, “He wants me to be the best me I can be.” Since I have seen that, I have grown by leaps and bounds.

We can look at others as examples and even be provoked by others to work harder in various areas of our behavior. But we should not allow anyone except Jesus to be our standard. The people to whom Paul ministered were told to follow him as he followed Christ. He said he was an example to them, but he never told people they had to specifically be like him.

Learn how you can relax with others and just be yourself. If they reject you, they reject what God created, not what you have created. Of course, we all have areas we can improve, but only God can do the changing and He does it His way and in His timing. Sometimes we feel so bad about who we are, we create a fake personality to show the world. This is usually where we have trouble in relationships. But when we enter into the freedom of simply being who God created us to be, the anointing of God is present and gives us favor with people. I learned to stop trying to make people like me and began trusting God to give me “divine connections.”

I have to say, I like me for me, and therefore, other people like me—maybe not everyone, but there are plenty who do, and they keep me busy enough. If you will decide to accept and like yourself for who you are and who God has made you, you will find more acceptance and less rejection.