Day 8~ Be Yourself~ continuing with Joyce Meyer's 100 Ways to Simplify your life devotional and reflection

Welcome to day 8 in our continuing devotion and reflection reading from Joyce Meyer's 100 Ways to Simplify your Life. 

8) Be yourself~ Scripture reading is for us to focus on comes from the book of Galatians 6: 4 which reads, " But let every person carefully scrutinize and examine and test his own conduct and his own work. He can then have the personal satisfaction and joy of doing something commendable[ in itself alone] without [resorting to] boastful comparison to his neighbor."

We all face this fear of being judged in a crowd of people. Many of you know me to be sometimes loud or even obnoxious at times. I was never the one who hung out with the popular crowd in school. I tend to be by myself at times but I'm always  nice to those around me. I have many friends but only so many are close to me at a different level. Just like many of you do too. Many of you do not know that I have a reading disability that caused me a lot of suffering as a child and into my adulthood. I was labeled as a mentally retarded by my kindergarten teacher. I just was different! I didn't understand why I had to go to school to play when I could do that at home! My second kindergarten teacher changed my mind set one day when I asked her if she thought I was stupid too. She said," Jennifer, you are going to change the world one day! Now go play!" I developed a gift to write music as a child that allowed me to control my brain and my mouth from stuttering. About sixth grade I wrote words on a piece of paper that became my very first song I ever wrote called " The Blues." So I started writing songs! I just wrote whatever came to mind. I was releasing everything. I'm human how about you! I just write! Worst part was that I listened to country music so this set me apart even more from the crowd when they were listening to rock and roll! But then I started to major in music that I developed an ear for all kinds of music. My high school music teacher took an interest in my writing and read many of my lyrics. She showed me how make them flow more with rhythm! she said one day you will be a country songwriter! About 16 years old, I sent lyrics out to be put to music called " One More Minute." It was a launching pad for songwriting! In 2003, I entered a songwriting contest and won under gospel with my song called, " When It Rains." http://www.nashvillesongservice.com/winners07-31-05.html . Since then I have done numerous of demos with a producer in Nashville. T.D. Jakes talked about being set apart wasn't God's punishment but that he has something designed for His purpose in our life. Many of us do not know what our purpose is. The last few years I have been studying and praying that God would lead me to His purpose for my life that will bring Him glory.We were all created by the same God but we are uniquely different from each other. If we were all alike, things would have never been made or discovered and we all would have missed God's blessings in our lives. So here is the challenge: Find your purpose that God has called you and do it for His Glory! Let him decide what He wants You to do with it!

Reference:
Meyer, J. (2007). 100 ways to simplify your life. New York, NY: FaithWords.