Not The Boss Of UsSample

Day Five

More Than Labels

Scripture: Galatians 2:20

Identifiers play a major role in our self-worth. They include things such as professions, sports teams, colleges, families, groups, and even gangs. Identifiers tend to find life based on what we value. In broad terms, Washington, D.C., thrives on power; in New York, money drives; in the Northeast, education and intellect; in the Northwest, a different kind of green—the environment. For kids today, it’s fame. 

Identifiers are now based on and driven by image creation. Curated pictures posted on platforms tell the story. Then they do what we can’t seem to stop them from doing: inform us about ourselves in relation to others as well as to our own expectations.

If we’re healthy, with our self-esteem anchored in Truth’s solid ground, we can manage identifier pressures. As with all issues that feel overwhelming, we can try to find balance while enjoying the process—all of the process, whether arriving at or coming short of landing hoped-for goals—without allowing the product to take too much ground and over-inform core confidence and self-worth. 

Identity plays such a big role in reframing Life’s Overwhelmed. What a challenge it is at all stages of life to believe that our identity can be anchored in more than labels or identifiers. What if identity and image management pressures can be toned down as we consider the deep significance of image bearing that goes back to gifting and purpose rather than image creation?

Due to my life stage and that of the people with whom I travel life, I find myself in an almost daily battle with a kid’s grade identifiers. Just this morning I noticed my daughter’s fingernails practically nonexistent, since they had been nervously picked to the quick. For this child, grades are fighting to gain ground.

“Sure, grades affect you,” I implored. “But they just don’t inform who you are as a person.” My daughter rolled her eyes, audibly sighed, and shook her head. Identifiers are loud and tend to drown out reason. 

We need to fight to make labels descriptors rather than definers. Because despite the many hats we wear, we are people needing to be loved and reminded that we each have purpose and worth. Perhaps we need to remember to treat and be gentle with ourselves the same way we are directed to treat others. 

What identifiers in your own life define you more than they should?