By Tanya Jolliffe
I remember hearing I was a “tomboy” in grade school. I don’t remember my parents, grandparents, or other relatives saying it, but my classmates, family friends, and acquaintances were happy to tell me WHO I was.
I lived an extraordinary life on a twelve-acre farm with a creek running through the pasture field, three brothers, and a hard-working mother and dad at the table each evening. I loved wadding in the creek and pulling the leeches off my feet afterward. I enjoyed dirt-clod fights with my brothers in the freshly tilled field. I regularly helped muck the horse stalls and spread the manure. Maybe that didn’t seem like a great life to others, but it was heaven on earth to me.
As I look back, I understand why people labeled me a tomboy. At school, I loved playing dodgeball at recess instead of jumping rope or joining the girls in four-square. I was competitive and related more to the boys in their games than the girls, who didn’t like being beaten. I didn’t enjoy wearing dresses daily but found joy in dressing up for church and on special occasions.
Looking back at my picture from my “sweet sixteen,” I see that I looked like one of my brothers. But I also remember how much I LOVED the outfit I had put together, and my hair, although short, was easy to care for as I played and excelled at my sports. I was happy with myself regardless of what other people thought. But as the years went on, the comments would sting a little more and make me question and doubt. The enemy got in his licks with this label and its implications, and it caused me to question many things. As I reflect on those experiences, I see that my generation was just a trial run for what the enemy would bring next. If I had grown up in today’s society, my life journey would undoubtedly have had a different outcome.
Luckily, I had a wonderful pastor who was speaking truth into my life at the same time the world was labeling me. Pastor Franklin D Cody was a Gospel-loving minister that led our mainline denominational church for ten years. Those ten years also happened to be the most influential years of a child’s life, my life – age eight to eighteen. I thank God regularly for sending Pastor Cody.
One of the lessons that he taught me that has never left me was to remember WHO I was and WHOSE I was. “You are not who the world tells you you are, Tanya. You are who God says you are,” he told me. Maybe he heard what people said about me. He certainly saw me. Perhaps he knew of my involvement in athletics and wanted to remind me of the truth, so I could tuck it away and hold on to it for the journey ahead of me. Whatever the reason God nudged him to speak life and truth to me, it made a world of difference.
The labels you have received may be very different than mine, or perhaps you experienced some of the same remarks. Whatever labels you have received from the world, let me remind you today of WHO you are and WHOSE you are.
You are a child of God. “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12).
You are fearfully and wonderfully made for a purpose. “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful; I know that full well” (Psalm 139:13-24).
You were bought for a price and belong to God as a temple of the Holy Spirit. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies” (1 Corinthians 6:19.20).
You are entirely forgiven and blameless before God. “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13,14). “But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation” (Colossians 1:22).
You are seated with Christ in the heavenly realm and a joint heir. “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6). “Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ if indeed we share in his sufferings so that we may also share in his glory” (Romans 8:17).
Christ chose you to bear fruit. “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name, the Father will give you” (John 15:16).
Let these scriptures fill your heart, mind, and spirit and get down into your soul so that you can genuinely know WHO and WHOSE you are, regardless of the labels the world tries to put on you.
Looking for a way to connect with God daily? Check out our daily devotional books: Living in Truth Day by Day *** Living in Truth Mind, Body, Spirit
