Faithfulness – To thine own self be true

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“To be nobody-but-yourself—in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else—means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.” ~ e. e. cummings

“This is the true joy of life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.” ~ George Barnard Shaw

“To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.” ~ William Shakespeare

“It is better to follow the Voice inside and be at war with the world, than to follow the ways of the world and be at war with your deepest self.” ~ Michael Pastore

“Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.” ~ Judy Garland

“If you have anything really valuable to contribute to the world, it will come through the expression of your own personality, that single spark of divinity that sets off and makes you different from every other living creature.” ~ Bruce Barton

“What you really have to do, if you want to be creative, is to unlearn all the teasing and censoring that you’ve experienced throughout your life. If you are truly a creative person, you know that feeling insecure and lonely is par for the course. You can’t have it both ways: You can’t be creative and conform, too. You have to recognize that what makes you different also makes you creative. “ ~ Arno Penzias, 1978 Nobel Prize winner for physics

For the most part, I enjoy being me. I now understand after years of fighting to be like someone else, it was never God’s intention that I be anyone but myself. I fought it for years, seeing only my shortcomings and rarely my strengths. But somewhere along the way, I figured out God can use our weaknesses just as well (and sometimes better) as our strengths. It’s not always easy being me, just as I’m sure it’s not always easy being you. But I believe to be comfortable in your own skin, to accept the person God made you to be, allows you to serve Him and others.

God gave you your own light to shine in this dark world, be faithful to that light and not only will your own light shine, but you will better reflect His.

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This post was written for the One Word Blog Carnival: Faithfulness hosted by Bridget Chumbley. To read more posts, please visit her at One Word at a Time.