How Well Do You Know Yourself?

What's your favorite color? food? sport to watch or play? game to play? What type of books do you like to read and movies you like to watch? What music do you like to listen to? What are your likes and dislikes? Are you more of an outdoors person or an indoor person? What are your strengths and weaknesses? Who is your role model and why? These are questions we should be able to answer about ourselves. A lot to think about, right?! In this season of quarantine and stay at home orders, we have time to think about these questions. If we didn't know the answers before quarantine, we should be finding them out now. You see, God knows us very well! He knows every detail about our lives. That's not just a select few, but everyone in the whole world. That's a lot of people! Psalm 139:1 tells us that God has searched us and knows us. He knows when we sit down, when we get up, what we're thinking and what we're going to say before we say it (v.2-4). That's awesome! It also means that while others may not know what we're thinking or saying, God does. We have to be extra mindful of what we do and where we go because God is watching. There's a lot going on in our world and personal lives, but God knows about it all. He also cares about it all. He thinks about us so much (v.17). When we think about something or someone a lot, it usually means we care about them a lot. If God takes that much time to care about us, we should take time to care about us too. We should appreciate who we are and who God made us to be. Before we can really appreciate others, we must first learn to appreciate who we are. The beauty of it is that our answers to the questions mentioned earlier don't have to look like everyone else's. In fact, they're not supposed to! Sure, we will have a few answers like someone else, but for the most part, they'll be different. That's perfectly okay. God loves diversity! We're different for a purpose. We all have our different gifts, talents, skills and abilities for a reason. With each of us using what we have and working together, it can be very beautiful and unifying. So take some time to get to know you. Acknowledge it all. It's important we know ourselves. When we meet someone for the first time and want to know more about them (singles especially, where you at?!), questions need to be asked and answered and we need to be prepared. So let's keep learning about ourselves. Let's keep asking ourselves questions and look closely at what we do and why we do it. We have to ask God to search us and clear our heart out of anything not like Him (v.23). He will show us when we ask Him. We want what's wrong to be replaced with something right and better. We need to embrace our uniqueness and what makes us special. When we do, we'll be able to say with the writer David in Psalm 139:14: "I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well." Don't forget to love you. There will never be another you. We need you. You are you!