I've known you since the day you were created, and was with you only a few days after you saw daylight for the first time. We had a special bond, me and you, almost immediately. There was something I saw in you so familiar, but I just didn't know at the time what it was. As you grew, your boldness was unlike anyone else in your family, not quite two years old, you told me in exacting words that you were coming with me, and you just needed to get your shoes. My ears thought I didn't hear that until my eyes saw you trying to put your shoes on. You were friendly, and how your face lit up when you were happy. You were also very intelligent, and had a thirst for knowledge fulfillment that I hadn't seen since, well, me. It was exciting to see, and I prayed for the best for you.
With proper fostering you grew, but your thirst for knowledge did not stop you from noticing that others around you did not have the same. In fact, the more you learned the more bewildered you became about your surroundings. As a kid, you want to be just like everyone else, or find that person who is like you. It can be lonely in those days, when others can't understand you. It makes you more sensitive to what others around you are saying about you. For a while, you may be committed to the idea of "acting" just like the others, trying to find the pleasure in the things that they are doing and while it may be fun, you always know in the back of your head that it isn't enough. This is the age that you blossom and go to your greatest capacity or you shrink to the background and everyone remembers you as the smart little girl, who could have gone so far. I pray that you choose the former.
It's really hard, right now growing into a teenager, hearing things that you are unsure if it is true, having a limited base to figure things out, but believe me it will become clear. Everything that you want you can have. Everything you think you would want to work hard to achieve, you can achieve. I just want to caution you not to limit yourself. Don't listen to anyone but God and your gut (which for me are often the same thing). Be very careful, people who are unsure about things, will try to tell you not to something, but question why they would say that. Do they have a good reason? Do you have a good reason for doing it? Do you want to do something good, something that will better your life? Something that will get you noticed to help your future? Please I hope and I pray that you do it.
Little girl, you are not different, you are not weird, you are not something to be put up with, YOU ARE SPECIAL. God's has blessed you with a special, amazing beautiful talent that no one around you has. Do not hold your light in, let it shine. Let everyone see it. I promise you that things will change, things will make sense, you will meet so many people like you, who will love you, succeed with you, grow with you.
Little girl, if I can give you any advice at all, it would be go to college. A 4 year college. An educationally challenging college. Have the experience of your life, do the most that you are prepared to do, and be prepared for this world. You are able to do it, do not let anyone sway your belief. Not for money, not for anything. And I will help you. I will always be here for anything, just let me know, you can always call. I know what you are going through and I want you to be victorious. Always ask questions. Grow, learn and love.
Cause I was once that 12 year girl that they called "different"
Love,
Naturally Black Me
Wow, and today after I wrote this I got, this message in my email(below) It's like I speak through God and God co-signs.
ReplyDeleteStop the Masquerade
Micca Monda Campbell
“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” Psalm 139:14a (NIV)
During elementary school, my daughter was friendly and outgoing. But when she entered middle school she changed. Being friendly to everyone in sixth grade wasn’t cool. Peyton quickly found out if she didn’t conform to her friend’s new standards she’d be an outcast. Worst of all was the betrayal. When she didn’t change to be like her friends, they spilled her secrets.
That’s when it happened. Peyton started wearing masks to fit in and please people.
She hid her accepting and sweet personality, and lost her true identity. Almost like a masquerade ball, she’d wear a different personality or mask, acting in ways her friends would want.
There was only one problem. Peyton was miserable hiding behind her masks and pretending to be someone she wasn’t. Sound familiar?
I think most of us understand Peyton’s need to fit in. It’s one reason we wear our own masks. To please others. To hide our pain. To disguise fears and failures. We put on fronts to protect ourselves from an unaccepting world. And in doing so, we mask our true identity and lose our individuality.
Why do we keep up the masquerade? Because we want acceptance.
And often we’re willing to lose who we truly are in order to keep important relationships, like friends or family members. Most of us can recall a situation when a trusted person hurt us by judging our God-given personalities, traits and talents.
In our attempt to hide our insecurity or avoid betrayal and hurt, we create a mask—a look we’re willing to let the world see in order to be accepted.
I was determined to help Peyton stop doing this very thing. I encouraged her to return to truth. God didn’t create us to conform to other’s standards, but to stand out through our own God-given uniqueness. Our key verse reminds us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. This truth gave her the courage to remember who she was before she put on the masks.
Soon Peyton found friends who were like-minded, and started participating in activities that reflected her interests. By being true to her identity and rekindling her dreams, Peyton has followed her God-given purpose. Today, she’s studying foreign language in college and hopes to teach in Japan or work on the mission field.
Maybe someone along the way has discouraged you. Put you down for being creative, quietly reading books, or loving adventures. Or maybe for dreaming big, or laughing loudly, or enjoying working with your hands. Perhaps a parent, teacher, pastor, friend or even a stranger didn’t accept how God created you to be and you transformed yourself to fit in their preferences.
God sees behind our masks; He loves us and longs for us to be free from the fear of being rejected. If you’re constantly changing masks to fit in, then you know the awful burden of maintaining the false you. Aren’t you ready to stop the masquerade? Listen closely and hear God confirming to your heart today, “You are wonderfully made.”
Dear Lord, I desire freedom to lay down my masks and be myself. Help me identify my false sense of self. Enable me to recapture the person I was before I started masking my fears and insecurities. I no longer want to fit in where I don’t belong. I want to be all You created me to be. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.