Remember Who You Are.

"Remember who you are"

-My Pastor,Arron Chambers

He would say this almost every time I left his house. And still does on occasion. 

At first I thought he would say it as a joke, and I remember rolling my eyes the first time he said it thinking "of course I'm not gonna forget who I am" I am Stephanie Bankston!

But, I know he really means it, and I never really gave it a second thought. 

(He felt SO passionate about it he even wrote a book and titled it "Remember Who You Are." You should read it! :))

Well, what if I don't know who I am or what I stand for? What if I think I do but both are so easily swayed like a blade of grass in the wind?

Back when he first started to say it to me, I definitely didn't know. 

I would leave the Chambers' house one person and come back later another. 

And I still do. 

I've recently been challenged, by I don't really know what, to look at myself and decide who I am, who I want to be, and what unfaltering things I stand for. 

Because if you don't know who you are, you'll become anything. And if you don't know where you stand, you'll fall.

So, I wrote down a list of who I know I am. 

And a list of who I want to be. (Which is kinda boring) 

And then I wrote down a list of what I stand for. The things I know without a doubt that I want to fight for. 

The things that keep me grounded.

The solid rocks that I build my life around, or strive to build my life around. (Which are less boring, so they'll probably have a post of their own someday.)

And it helped me so much to make the things I've been taught my whole life tangible and visible. To be able to pick and choose the things to discard and the things to keep. To have a reference of these things so I never forget again. 

I think we so easily forget. 

It's sad. We forget:

who we are, 

our purpose,

and the things that keep our feet from slipping.

I forget so often. I let myself be swayed by the standards of society, or the standards of other people, and forget that I have standards of my own. Standards that I shouldn't be willing to compromise.

Standards from God. 

I forget that each cell of my body is there for a purpose, along with each thought and emotion. I forget that my feet belong on these solid rocks and everywhere else is sinking sand. 

Remember 

who you are and what you stand for.

Because if you don't know who you are, you'll become anything. And if you don't know where you stand, you'll fall.