We’ve been told that our success or “goodness” is represented by the condition of our lives. “Successful” people are financially stable, fit, have an organized home, well behaved and intelligent children, vacation at least once a year, are well read and have taken the time to update their iOS to version 7.1.1/2! We measure ourselves by these standards and set goals that will move us forward toward these conditions. Unfortunately, this practice pretty much leaves us feeling inadequate in some or many areas of life. Guess what? Life wasn’t meant to feel anxious or unruly. Life was meant to be ennnnjjjjooooyyyeeeeddddd! 🙂

I remember when this idea of “proper life conditions” came into clear focus for me. I was divorced from my ex-husband and had just rentered the work force. Here I was, a stay at home, homeschooling mom who now needed to get a job, put the kids in public school and secure housing. After searching and searching I found and accepted an hourly contract position with no benefits and moved the three of us into a one bedroom apartment in a rough apartment complex in a suburb of Washington DC. The kids slept in the bedroom and I slept on the pull out sofa in the living room. I enrolled the kids at the neighborhood school and set out to work!

During this time I also purchased a 1998 “new to me” vehicle. That car was a tank but she had some issues. There’re were more lights on in the dash than there were off! I hadn’t had that car for a full day when the check engine light came on! LOL! The car had leather interior but the driver’s seat was beginning to tear open. After a month the guts of the seat were completely exposed. It also turned out that the car had a major oil leak. Here I was a single mom with a gazillion responsibilities. I was living in a rough neighborhood filled with crime. I had moved my kids and I into this tiny, one bedroom apartment. I had a degree and work experience but I was working for my keep, by the hour, with no sick leave or health insurance. Now the car that I bought in order to get around town was smoking and leaking oil everywhere. The news about the oil leak hit me hard. It wasn’t the oil leak that broke me down it was that the news of the leak communicated my inadequacy to provide for my family.

I wanted to be able to give my kids more. I didn’t want them to experience any of this. During this time in my life I slowly began to realize that I had been totally mistaken. Yeah, I had this car that smoked like a chimney and I had to be very mindful of where I parked, as not to leave oil stains at friends and family members houses. Yes, I had to keep the kids from playing outside in the neighborhood because it wasn’t safe. Sure, I had to think long and hard about sick days and I got really good at catching the mice that moved in when the weather turned cold but I was not my “conditions”. I learned that I was still amazing. I wasn’t amazing because I learned how to be resilience in the midst of my conditions. I wasn’t amazing because I overcame my conditions. I was amazing because I was made that way. God made us to be amazing. We were designed to be who we are.

Our innate amazingness is a completely separate truth that is not determined or affected by facts. The facts might paint a certain picture but the truth about who we are could be very very different. The truth is that God designed amazing into you. The conditions have nothing to do with it. Apartments, houses, junk yard vehicles, luxury cars, gourmet groceries, ramen noodles, Zara shoes, Thrift store finds, health insurance through a job or a government program have nothing to do with who you are. These things simply cannot contain the greatness that is you! I had to accept THAT truth and once I did the neighborhood, car, job ect didn’t weigh me down like it had before. I discovered and understood my position so the conditions became a moot point. I was empowered with the truth about who I was made to be and that gave me power over the messages that the conditions were trying to communicate to me. I no longer felt like I wasn’t good enough or I wasn’t worthy. I also didn’t feel that I was due something or owed certain things. I took a ‘Kingdom of God’ perspective on my life and that taught me that I was created for good things and that I wasn’t a victim. What a huge lesson to learn. I would be lying if I told you that I walked away from that season without a care. I did, however, walk away with the truth about who I was and that truth has served me like none other when conditions in life get a little rough.
Next are principles that will serve you when conditions try to communicate their power over you.

Repeat these to yourself when you begin to feel measured by the conditions around you.

1. “Amazing” is part of my design.

2. I am not defined by the things that are currently happening around me.

3. My life is not measured by the conditions around me. I am measured by my Heavely position.

4. My God is a King and His Kingdom is inhabited by kings. He is King of kings.

5. I was created to rule and to reign on earth like my King rules and reigns in heaven.

6. God gave me dominion over the earth just like He has dominion over heaven.

7. As a king I cannot rule over something I am subject to, therefore I refuse to be subject to the conditions around me. I rule and reign like my King rules and reigns.

8. I am defined by God’s definition of me, not by an assessment of success based on comparison with others.

Remember, you are made in His image and He sees you by your position in the Kingdom- a son/king.

Blessing 🙂
Danita