Identity: Pricless Pearl

About a year ago I got involved in a mentor program through my church.  It was one of the best things I have done.  My mentor was amazing and she challenged me to grow in my faith and my relationship with God and I grew so much in those 9 months.

I will never forget one of the first exercises we did was on identity.  Of course I read in the Bible that we are all sons and daughters of God because He adopts us into His kingdom.  I always read on keychains and bookmarks that 'Jesus loves me' so it had to be true.  But this one thing that really opened my eyes and helped me to see things more clearer.  My mentor told me to take a piece of paper and write some words that describe how I see myself and then pray and ask God how he sees me and to write those words down.  That night I went home and as I sat on my bed, I took out a piece of paper and started to think about how I saw myself.  I began to write: Broken, bruised, scarred, ashamed, shy, quiet, afraid, not good enough, not strong enough.  Then I closed me eyes and asked to God to reveal to me how He sees me.  Then I began to write: Precious daughter, beautiful in His sight, "Little Lamb", washed clean, forgiven and set free.  As tears began to roll down my cheeks, I looked at both lists, they were complete opposites!  And for each word I had, He had one to cancel it! "Little Lamb" stood out to me because that is the meaning of the name RACHEL and when I picture a little lamb I picture a pure, white lamb.  And when he gave me 'washed clean', He gave me Psalms 32:1-2 Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

As I just soaked in His love and His presence that evening, I began to see myself in a whole new way.  I had a new identity and I knew exactly who I was in Christ and no one could ever take that away from me.

A few months later, God was just reminding me of who I was and speaking to me more about my identity.  I remember I was at a retreat and I can't tell you the speaker or what the message was about but God just whispered to me, "You are a priceless pearl."  If you don't know how pearls are made, it actually pretty amazing.  Pearls are formed when something gets inside a clam (usually a grain of sand) and as a defense mechanism the clam releases a fluid to coat the irritant.  It will layer it and layer it with this fluid until it becomes a pearl.  Of course we've seen many different shapes and sizes and colors of pearls but only about 5% of pearls are perfect, quality pearls.  This really settled in my heart and kind of became my theme for my life and my identity in Him.

Therefore, it is the name of my new blog!

I love you all and HE loves you more than you'll ever know!!