When "Just Being You" Doesn't Feel Like Enough

You’re meeting someone new, starting a new job, moving, stressed out, going through a breakup—what is the one thing everyone tells you? “Just be you! Do your best! There is no one out there that can be a better you than you!” What happens when that doesn’t feel like enough, though? What if that really isn’t enough? This happened to me recently.
 
I started my first “big girl” job this summer, something that we all will do eventually. It has been going really well, but of course it isn’t perfect. I found myself struggling to find my niche, where I belonged in the hierarchy of the professional world. It’s all so new and can be so scary to figure out how to carry myself as a professional. When talking to my mom about it, she so lovingly said, “It’s all okay, just be you! People love you!” As much as I knew she was right, I couldn’t help but get teary-eyed. I couldn’t shake the feeling that “being me” wasn’t enough this time.
 
Friends, this is where Satan gets us. If he can get us to doubt, he can get us to believe. If I had kept going with this train of thought, there could have been dire consequences. Let’s talk about the snowball effect—a snowball starts small and continues to get bigger as it spins; our thoughts do the same thing. It starts with “maybe I’m not good enough” and ends with a broken spirit, too afraid and disparaged to move forward. Friends, do not believe everything you think. Do you hear me? I am going to say it again. Do not believe everything you think. Thoughts flow in and out of our head all day every day, hold tight to the truth and refuse to latch on to the lies.
 
You are enough. You always have been enough and you always will be. Do you know how I know that? Before you were born, at your lowest point in life, at your best, God loved you so much that He sent His son to die for you. He knew you were worth it, and He knows you are worth it now. You were and are enough, there was never a shadow of a doubt regarding your worth.
 
There is a video on YouTube called, “Beyond the Shadow of a Doubt.” It is a spoken word by Joseph Solomon. Watch it. Watch it. In seven minutes, I was reduced to a puddle of tears as I realized just how much I doubt myself and worse, how much I doubt my God. Watch it. Joseph cries into the camera and in one of the most powerful moments exclaims, “Doubt your doubts, don’t doubt your God.” Friends, doubt your doubts. Next time you are doubting yourself, your purpose, your faith, doubt those doubts, do not doubt your God.
 
As I sat on my bed questioning if being myself was enough, if I was enough, I was wracked with guilt as I realized that doubting myself was doubting my God. When we don’t believe we are enough, we are saying God made a mistake somewhere along the line in creating us. Friends, He doesn’t make mistakes. He created you in His image, with His son’s blood covering you, making you completely capable to walk this Earth as an image-bearer of Himself. You are enough. Don’t believe me? Let’s take a look at what the scripture says. Romans 8:17 says, “Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” What does that mean? An heir is someone who will inherit something. So, this verse is saying that we as children of God are inheriting His kingdom, just like Christ did as we are co-heirs or co-inheritors with Christ. How incredible is that?
 
Next time that you are doubting yourself or questioning if you are enough, I want you to take a pen and write that verse down: on your wrist, a post-it note, somewhere. You are a child of God and a co-heir with Christ, you re unrivaled. There is not a force on this Earth that can take you out of the game, because God is within you. You have always been and always will be enough.
 
Friends, I leave you with a challenge. I want you to go through scripture and make a list of what scripture says you are as a child of God. I will get you started with a few of my favorites: without rival, relentlessly pursued, redeemed, free, accepted—the list goes on and on. Next time you are questioning if you are enough, I want you to pull out this list and hold your head high. You are enough.

Written By: Adyson