Who are you??

I learned a really important lesson this week.

Early in the week, a friend of mine told me that she has her kids say "statements of affirmation" about themselves every morning before school.  Things like "I am smart"  "I am beautiful" "I am a good friend" "I am a good swimmer"  "I am a good student".  Dang. So cool right??  I was sooo impressed.  What a great confidence booster to start off your day!  I mean seriously, before they face any of the challenging, discouraging, or frustrating situations with schoolwork or friends, they're equipped with the TRUTH about who they are and what they are capable of.

I couldn't stop thinking about how profound that whole concept is, and I was inspired a few days latter to suggest that someone else try it out.  They had really been struggling to reach one of their personal goals, and had been trying for months with little success.  As an observer in the situation, I could see that they were MORE than capable of reaching that goal, but because they had consistently failed at it previously, they had no hope that they could reach their goal.  That caused them to throw their hands up and quit each time they attempted their goal and wavered at all--before they'd even given themselves a chance to really TRY to improve!  They had all the right things in place to be successful, but refused to believe that they actually could be successful.  I thought about my friend and her kids' "statements of affirmation", and then asked this person, "Who are you?"  They blinked confusingly and answered with their name, but then I said "Did you know that you're good at this?  You are a good [fill in this blank with a hard goal to reach]-er."  They were totally taken aback by that suggestion.  So I took full advantage of the sheer confusion, and told them to say that with me, "Say 'I'm [their name], and I'm a good [their goal]-er.'"

They said it.  And then repeated it a few times.  It made them blush, and then smile.  It was incredible to watch what power they gained from saying outloud the TRUTH about who they were and what they were capable of.  It was almost like they couldn't deny it anymore, and any outside factors that made them think otherwise were simply not as powerful as that statement of truth that they were thinking, saying, and listening echo through the room.

And then, they started to reach their goal.  Literally like that.

So, I'm going to put that into practice myself.  I'm setting a goal to say "statements of affirmation" each morning to remind me who I really am and what I am capable of, starting with:

I am Amanda, and I am a daughter of God.