{"id":255,"date":"2016-05-18T17:56:17","date_gmt":"2016-05-18T17:56:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/?p=255"},"modified":"2017-03-08T04:20:47","modified_gmt":"2017-03-08T04:20:47","slug":"who-am-i-ask-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2016\/05\/who-am-i-ask-god.html","title":{"rendered":"Who Am I?  Ask God."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/390\/2016\/05\/woman-on-balcony-A.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-763 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/390\/2016\/05\/woman-on-balcony-A.jpg\" alt=\"woman on balcony A\" width=\"900\" height=\"600\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>We live in a world that is structured to have other people define who we are. You are smart or dumb based on how a teacher grades you on a test.\u00a0 You are skilled or unskilled based on whether your boss gives you a promotion.\u00a0 You are beautiful or not based on the reaction you get from others.<\/p>\n<p>The problem with letting the world tell us who we are is that the world makes mistakes &#8230; all the time. A girl may go through an awkward stage in her early teens.\u00a0 Everyone may say that she is plain.\u00a0\u00a0 What the world doesn\u2019t know is that she has seeds of beauty inside her.\u00a0 Then in a couple of years, she blossoms into a beautiful young woman.<\/p>\n<p>The kid who fails high school history may be viewed as dumb. But what no one realizes is that he has a gift for computers.\u00a0 Inside him is a computer science genius who is waiting to shine.<\/p>\n<p>An employee may make mistakes all the time as a receptionist. Everyone shakes their heads because she can\u2019t transfer a call or properly schedule appointments.\u00a0 But what no one knows is that she loves looking at advertisements in magazines and watching commercials on television.\u00a0 She analyzes them, and she knows which ones work and which ones don\u2019t.\u00a0 She is meant to be a marketing whiz, but no one sees her gifts.<\/p>\n<p>To put it bluntly, the world \u2013 your friends, family, colleagues, etc. &#8211; doesn\u2019t know who you are. They don\u2019t know the natural gifts that you have.\u00a0 The world doesn\u2019t know your enormous potential.\u00a0 People like to sound smart and tell others what they are good at versus what they are bad at.\u00a0 But truthfully, other people don\u2019t know the amazing things that you are capable of doing.<\/p>\n<p>Truly wise teachers and parents understand this concept. I recently listened to an interview of my band director from high school.\u00a0 He said that he never discouraged a student from learning an instrument.\u00a0 He had learned from experience that a student who was an average musician in high school could suddenly flourish in college.\u00a0 Something would click, and their musical abilities would take off.\u00a0 So he encouraged everyone, regardless of their current abilities.<\/p>\n<p>Who truly knows what gifts you have? God.\u00a0 And do you know who else knows your potential? <em>You do.<\/em> In your heart of hearts, you know that God has inclined you to be interested in certain things.\u00a0 God has given you certain talents.\u00a0 And most importantly, God has placed certain aspirations in your heart.\u00a0 God has done this because He has specific things that He wants you to accomplish with your life.\u00a0 It is up to you follow the path that He has laid out for you.<\/p>\n<p>This week, consider whether you are using all your God given talents. If someone has discouraged you from believing in yourself in the past, today is the day to see yourself with the way God sees you.\u00a0 Today is the day to take ownership of the gifts and talents that God has given you.\u00a0 And today is the day to start using them in order to be a blessing to the world.<\/p>\n<p>(Photo Courtesy of Pexels)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; We live in a world that is structured to have other people define who we are. You are smart or dumb based on how a teacher grades you on a test.\u00a0 You are skilled or unskilled based on whether your boss gives you a promotion.\u00a0 You are beautiful or not based on the reaction&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":593,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Who Am I? Ask God. - Your Morning Cup of Inspiration<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2016\/05\/who-am-i-ask-god.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Who Am I? Ask God. - Your Morning Cup of Inspiration\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; We live in a world that is structured to have other people define who we are. 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