Claim it!

I remember sitting in countless meetings and team buildings over the years and being asked “What are you most proud of?” or “How would you describe yourself?” or even worse, “Describe your best attributes”. Looking back, I can’t remember what my responses were, but I’m guessing surface answers like, “I’m a good friend”, or “I’m a hard worker”. I know the good intentions behind those questions, but they made me uncomfortable.

It wasn’t until I went to a Christian Women’s retreat that I really stepped out and claimed a word that I felt described me.

It was the last night of the retreat, a Saturday evening. I was surrounded by three hundred women singing worship songs together— it was magical. Towards the end of the night, with the lights dim and quiet music playing in the background, the speaker brought our attention to the stage where there were hundreds of sticky notes with words on them. We were asked to take or write one word that we felt described us. I felt the normal tug at the request, but I was relieved that we could choose from the words already written, and happy to hear that we didn’t have to show or tell anyone.

I watched as women approached the stage, taking the notes, sometimes getting a pen and writing their own word. I’m the type of person that will spend hours picking out just the right birthday card for someone, because it has to fit, so this felt like a big deal to me.

I gathered my thoughts, took a deep breath, rose from my seat and started slowly walking to the stage. As I was getting closer, the words came into focus. There were hundreds of them! Beautiful, chosen, blessed, loved, enough, spirited, lovely, strong, loyal, happy, courageous, and so on. All good words. All positive. Some that I could claim, but none jumping out at me, so I kept looking. And then my eyes landed on it. Capital letters with bold, thick print, right in the middle of all the others. It was my word. I felt my heart pounding and a sense of excitement washed over me as I bent down to pick it up. My word: “BRAVE”.

Relief flooded me. I am brave! I quickly folded the paper and slipped it into my pocket, as if it was a secret treasure. Eventually everyone returned to their seats and the evening continued on. At some point my sister, Martha, leaned over and asked me to show her my word. She read it, smiled and whispered to me “Good one, you are totally brave”. I kept looking forward and didn’t respond, but inside my heart was soaring.

It may be hard to describe myself as beautiful, lovely, smart, talented, brave, or any words like the ones that were scattered on the stage that evening years ago. But when I look at myself through the lens of my Savior, when I see myself as a loving daughter of Christ, I feel every one of those things. In Christ I am beautiful, loved, enough, brave, and strong!

I hope you feel loved. I hope you have many beautiful words that you claim with absolute certainty. And I hope you see yourself more often than not, through the eyes of our Savior, who created each of us in His own image. Rest in His promises and lean into His love, because my friends, it is yours to claim