Trust God, trust yourself

"Every time you don't follow your inner guidance, you feel a loss of energy, loss of power, and sense of spiritual deadness." -Shakti Gawain

"If you do not ask yourself what it is you know, you will go on listening to others and change will not come because you will not hear your own truth." -Saint Bartholomew

"I believe, first of all, in God, and next to all in Mary McLeod Bethune." -Mary McLeod Bethune

Having spent a large portion of my life allowing other people's opinions shape who I thought I was, at some point I had an epiphany. I realized that some of those opinions were without merit and simply wrong. This one in particular:

"She's not really good at anything."

Because everyone is good at something.

If I believed in such things, I would say I simply stumbled upon the things I was good at quite by accident. But I have come to believe that everything happens for a reason -- even if God never reveals said reasons to us. I also believe we all know on some level what our gifts are and that we should not allow ourselves the luxury or the burden of being deeply affected by either high praise or profound criticism.

We trust God first and foremost, and we trust ourselves. Because the Master Creator of the heavens and earth reveals in His Word this assurance:

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

Psalm 139: 14-16

For most stories about Trust, visit the blog carnival going on at One Word at a Time.