Who Am I?

I'm a big believer in counseling. Not only because I'm a social worker and believe in the power of consulting someone with adequate training, but because sometimes it's just good to talk to someone unbiased, someone with new eyes to your situation. Being a social worker, I sometimes see things everyday people don't, and have I mentioned I'm a hypochondriac? Not a good combo.

My counselor asked me today how I saw myself. I listed things I've heard all my life--I'm compassionate, I'm funny, I'm smart, I'm emathetic, I'm sensitive. And then (because she's a good counselor), she called me on it: "Is that how you see yourself, or is that how other people see you?" Me: "Um...it's how other people see me?" Her: "Then how do you see yourself?" Me: "Uhhhh......." You can see that this will obviously bleed into next week's session.

Being a child of the "self-esteem" generation that has given way to adults that believe they are entitled to it all, I'm not a huge believer in building myself up to something I'm not. So I struggle to identify my strengths--what I think are my strengths, and not what others define as my strengths. What I love about this is that I don't need to simply look inside myself to discover what I'm good at, or who I am--I have a Father who I can go to for help.
"^1-5 God, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand.
   I'm an open book to you;
      even from a distance, you know what I'm thinking.
   You know when I leave and when I get back;
      I'm never out of your sight.
   You know everything I'm going to say
      before I start the first sentence.
   I look behind me and you're there,
      then up ahead and you're there, too—
      your reassuring presence, coming and going.
and then, more miraculously:
 ^13-16 Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
      you formed me in my mother's womb.
   I thank you, High God—you're breathtaking!
      Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
      I worship in adoration—what a creation!
   You know me inside and out,
      you know every bone in my body;
   You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
      how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
   Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
      all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
   The days of my life all prepared
      before I'd even lived one day.

How amazing, that my heavenly Father knows exactly who I am, and I can speak to him about anything. He can help me discover who I really am, and then He can begin the process of helping me become exactly who He wants me to be. What grace, how merciful, what love.