“What’s your name?”
“Who are you?”
“What do you do?”
These are probably three of the most asked questions in our culture and our generation.
They’re the go-to questions when you’re getting to know somebody. The sad part is, often our answers get mixed up with the questions being asked. We answer the “who are you?” question with the “what do you do?” answer.
To be honest, this has been a CRAAAAZY year for me. I would say some good and some bad – but because of where I’m at now, and God’s continual faithfulness, I can now say it was ALL good because He uses EVERYTHING for our good. (Romans 8:28)
This year came with a lot of changes and a lot of letting go of what I knew, and what had been my “world” for the last few years. I found myself asking God the question, “what do I do?” A lot. Not just in small situations, but in big picture too.
Jesus what do you want me to do with my life? Now that I’m not doing that, what do you want me to DO now? Asking again and again…and again. Finally, one night I heard Jesus say so clearly to me, “Laney, I’m not concerned about what you do, I just want you to know who you are… and out of knowing that, then you will know what to do.”
Throughout my life and still to this day, I like to do a lot of different things. Sometimes I’m backup dancing, sometimes I’m styling or re-making clothes. Sometimes I’m singing, sometimes I’m doing who knows what, to be honest. Probably something ridiculous that one day I will regret posting on social media! But hey, yolo! Right?!
I’ve also been a nanny, and I’ve worked at Chick-Fil-A…but none of those things told me who I was. Shoot, if that were the case id be exhausted by now! Trying to be all those different people.
So, instead of asking God “what do you want me to do?”, I began asking Him to remind me of who I am. The Lord reminded me of a video my mom found recently of me from when I was a little girl. In the video, I pick up the mic from our little Karaoke machine and I said “I (long pause) love (long pause) Jesus”.
I felt like He took me back to when I was a little girl, to remind me that I was a daughter. Before I was old enough to have any kind of job title or social status. Before I walked through a painful season, or won or lost or succeeded or failed. Before all of life had happened, I was HIS. And when I know I’m His, I will freely tell the world I love Him, I’m loved by Him, and I will share what ALL He has done for me.
Not only did this change how I saw myself and my situation, but it changed how I saw other people. I stopped looking at what he or she did or didn’t, does or doesn’t do, and began to look at who they are. A son. A daughter. HIS kid! Sometimes it can be hard to walk in relationship with people once we realize we may not like certain ways they do things, or if we feel like we’ve been wronged by them in some way. But if we see them for who they truly are, and not just what they’ve done or do, we can walk together in real relationship and a genuine love for one another.
Before anything else you’ve ever been, you were His. You are not what you do, or what you’ve done. You are not the model, the dancer, the singer, the actor, the speaker, the brains, the athlete or the muscles that come along with that. Although it’s easy to find temporary confidence in these things because they’re all things the world has a tendency to hold highly and admire, these things will never truly satisfy our soul or fulfill our purpose. Whether we ever acknowledge it or not, our souls long for MORE. To belong. To be accepted. To know who we are, and whose we are.
Life with Jesus is an adventure and it’s a journey. The titles people give you throughout this life will likely change many, many times…. but this truth will never change. You belong. You are accepted. You are child of God. You are HIS!
Wow this really spoke to me Laney. Thank you for posting. I can’t wait to meet and hang out with you.
This is so awesome! Your words uncover the truth fully without any confusion, you plain out say it WE ARE ALL GODS CREATION! We are his and what we do should not define us for who we are. Their should not be any judgement towards one another because at the end of the day we were made to live through our journeys and find who we are meant to be through the help of our God.
You are "Fearfully and wonderfully made" by our God! -Psalm 139:16. Thank you so much for this, I love you Laney!
love love love this? I needed this so much.
That was so powerful! Thank you for allowing God to speak through you and your experiences. ??
This was truly life changing for me. I am struggling with deciding where to go to college and I have been asking God “Where do you want me to go”! And now I can ask “God remind me who I am” . I look up to you and sadie so much, how y’all use your plate form for Him. That’s awesome! Thanks for sharing.
I’ve been so inspired by your love for Jesus! I would love to partner with you in prayer, for the influence you have for our generation. I love the platform Papas given you. You are so Loved & He so trust you. Keep seeking his face! Thank you.
– Stephanie aka, haha this is silly, but you can find me under “Simple Treasures✨“ I’m pursuing his calling on my life, with the same heart to influence. Lots of love?
My favourite part was when you talked about the video of you as a kid… almost made me cry tbh. God is our first love and that is so beautiful
So true! Great post! Love your heart!
Laney- I love this so much!! Ive always placed my worth in what I do… This has encouraged me to seek peace in who I am in Jesus!! Love you friend!!
I love this. Exactly what I needed in this season in my life. Thanks for being so open and authentic. <3
Wow Laney this is truly amazing. Changed my view point on a lot of things. Thank you for all you do!
Amen!!! Being in college and having God change my whole world, I have struggled with agreeing to things I have seen people do because I know it hurts God to watch, as well. I am no where near perfect, and I sin just as easily, so I have prayed to look at them in a different perspective; the way God sees them. It is beautiful to see the beauty God brings before you when you’re really living for Jesus. I am so utterly thankful for individuals like yourself, who are not afraid to stand up and live for God in a world that’s full of pain, deceit, and sin.. Praying for you and your journey with Jesus! And always remember, YOU. ARE. HIS.
Thank you for this reminder! It’s so easy to get stuck trying to figure out what I do and who I am, but I’m so thankful to know that I am loved and I am His.
I love this!! and I am so thankful for this reminder. It could not have came at a better time for me.
I love this!! Thank you for sharing, Laney! For the past couple of years I’ve been pushing myself to do so much every day as I’ve been trying get one of my many small business ideas off the ground. My to-do list is always a mile long, and I feel like there’s never enough time. While it has become easier with practice to spend my time methodically and I appreciate having that skill, I often feel that I’m not free to say yes to breaks or spontaneous opportunities that come up because I want to keep working so that I can get the results I want. But when I do take breaks to be creative, or play outside, I feel more at peace. I don’t HAVE to be supporting myself financially right now, so I wonder why I’m putting so much pressure on myself to get my business going. I guess I just really want it to be successful, and I want to have something to do. I do want to have a purpose.
You’ve reminded me with this post that I’m free to be who God created me to be. If that means that I move through life slowly, that’s okay. If it means that I jump from idea to idea and nothing has taken off yet, that’s okay too. I think I need to be more patient with God’s plan for me. There are a lot of people in my life right now who I could be having a lot of fun with if I wasn’t so busy trying to make a business happen, so I’m going to try to put my plans aside and see what happens when I make a greater priority of investing in my friendships, and family. I’m not giving up my hopes and dreams because I know that God wants to bless me and gift those to me, but I’m feeling warn out, so what a great time to take a break and regroup. He loves us, he loves us!!☺️
Wow what good truth! I just watched your and Sadie’s stories on instagram, and wow you too have a great friendship! Treasure each other!
Great post Laney! I hope you’ll write another one!
Thank you. Im a young, 21 year old, wife with a hard working husband and we’ve been blessed abundantly recently. We have moved from one city to Baton Rouge and I cant tell you how stressful it is getting used to this area. With that, I just recently lost my job due to odd reasonings, but I believe that God put me in that place for as long as I was meant to be. Even if it was a short while and because it wasnt fate he took it into his own hands. So theres struggle, fright, worry, and stress on top of my anxiety… and I guess Im ranting. But what I mean to say is, Ive been struggling with finding my place. Discouraged with work, Im not sure where to look. Yearning for a career, Im looking into a field of study but cant tell if Im also forcing that or if its Gods will nagging at me and telling me. "Keller, I brought you to that job to introduce you to the field. This is your path". … Im looking everywhere and praying for truth to smack me in the face. But I thank you for your reminder that I am accepted and his. That it is his will and he will guide me. I just need to focus myself on him and his will.
Finding yourself in this world is one of the most challenging things to do. It’s important to know your identity in order to be authentic and not swayed by what people say about you-their opinions.
I was reading the part when you started to talk about how God said to you I just want you to know who you are so before I started reading more I asked my self that question who am I ?and something came in my mind from God, and it was "you are the daughter of the True and Living God" so I started reading more and I saw that you got the same answer and I thought that that was so amazing, so I just had to share this, Thank you laney and live original for sharing your story’s they will touch the hearts of many people and I am praying for the live original team that God will use yall to speak his word where ever yall go and to always seek Him first even through hard times amen
I love all of these blogs but this one definitely got me. Thank you so much for this moving and inspirational reminder. <3 I needed that!
I read all these blogs everytime they are posted. You bring me so much encouragment Laney, thank you for that. This is changes the way i like at myself and asking God to remind me who i am in him. Thank you Laney, God bless you sister