A Prayer for Self-Identity
Heavenly Father, may our communication be animated by who we are in You and because of You. May we avoid the tendence to compare ourselves to others and perform ourselves into your grace. We offer this as a prayer:
“You are not what you do, although you do a lot. You are not what you have collected in terms of friendships and connections, although you might have many. You are not the popularity that you have received. You are not the success of your work. You are not what people say about you, whether they speak well or whether they speak poorly about you. All these things that keep you quite busy, quite occupied, and often quite preoccupied, are not telling the truth about who you are. I am here to remind you in the name of God that you are the Beloved Daughters and Sons of God, and that God says to you, ‘I have called you from all eternity and you are engraved from all eternity into the palms of my hands. You are mine. You belong to me, and I love you with an everlasting love.'”
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- Henri Nouwen (1932-1996), You Are The Beloved: Daily Meditations for Spiritual Living (2017).
Special thanks to Leonard Sweet’s Preach the Story online community for this Nouwen quote.