By: Terryn Horton-Morton
Have you thought at times that you are an open mine field for adversity?
You can start your day off having the best intentions and then suddenly you arrive to your
business via Zoom or in person (welcome to hybrid life) and someone brings up something
underhanded or snide. Then instead of moving along with your day, you find yourself stuck in a self-deprecating space. I see this and at times feel this daily. Honestly, it reminds me how much we all really define ourselves by what others think of us. How we believe our identity is wrapped up being “cool” to others.
For the most part, we internalize this, allowing these opinions to change how we feel about
ourselves. We are all glutton for punishment and yet we do not know how to stop eating up so much of the junk food that comes out of other people’s mouths or keyboards (Teams chats get crazy these days). You must realize that hurt people hurt people.
I continue to have this battle with myself. I have at one point or another, dressed in expectation of receiving compliments. I have done extra work in expectation of receiving that pat on the back (which most of the time, does not come). I have also hung out with people(co-workers) and did the things they were doing just so that they would consider me a part of the crew. Even when everything in me said that they were not my people.
The opinions of others used to impact every inch of my mind. I would see myself through the
lens of what others thought about me, instead of enjoying my own amazing qualities.
As humans we are all weak to the will of our flesh. Our flesh craves attention every minute of
every day. There is nothing that feeds our ego more than hearing how great we look or how
much better we are than someone else (stepping on toes). There is no one I know who does not enjoy a compliment. Now, don’t get me wrong, compliments are beautiful and can provide the boost we need to navigate through our lives.
We all deserve to be recognized for good things, but the problem comes when we start to depend on these things to make any major moves towards our goals.
If we are using all those things I listed above to attract attention, then we are headed down a very slippery downward slope. The court of public opinion changes with the wind. And every celebrity, business owner, author, athlete, and or public figure knows that what was “hot” yesterday will not necessarily be “hot” today. We cannot base our expectations of
ourselves on how others see us, because we will never reach our full Godly potential. We must view our own selves how God sees us in order to live out our purpose.
We were all created in the image of God. Why punish yourself with wanting to be someone God did not intend you to be? The world would have us look at success as just the level of how others view us. The world would say you are not successful unless you have a million followers and/or likes on social media. The world would have us look at success as how much money is in your bank account or how many employees you have working for you. The world would have us look at success as how many expensive vacations you have gone on or how big of a house you own.
The only thing permanent is this life is God’s will and purpose for us. Why try to turn God’s
creation into something it was never meant to be? He built us to be better.
You are better than what people say you are. You just need to open yourself up to receiving more of the promise and less of the problems. It is your year to accept less worldly affirmations, to instead live in your Godly rewards.
The best business is kingdom business and anything you pursue, when you have God as your
anchor, will never sink to the temporary storms of life. You got this!
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