Youth Ministry Blog

Hey y’all!

Sorry I skipped a week. I was at a conference all day last Friday.

I want to talk about authenticity today. Authenticity is important to every aspect of our lives — our faith, our relationships, our studies, and our professional lives depend on us being our authentic selves. Why’s that? Well I’m so glad you asked…

We often put up a facade in different areas of our lives. We are one person with our families, another at school, another at work, another with our friends, and another with God. First of all, that’s exhausting. Maintaining all these different personas takes a lot of time, effort, and energy. When we take that time, effort, and energy to do this, we can’t invest it into the areas of our lives that really need it.

Secondly, we’re not being honest with ourselves or with those around us. We are giving a second-rate version of ourselves to people, and that’s not what we’re meant for. We’re meant to be a total self-gift to others. We are supposed to love our neighbors as ourselves, but how can we do that if we don’t know who we really are?

Both of these consequences are detrimental to our wellbeing and our relationships, especially our spiritual wellbeing and relationship with God. The Lord wants to have an intimate, loving relationship with each of us. He can’t accomplish that if we don’t let Him. Even though God knows us better than we know ourselves, we have to invite Him into every facet of our lives and show ourselves to Him. The Lord loves us when we have everything together, and He loves us equally when everything is falling apart. He wants to be a part of it all.

What does being authentic mean? Google defines the word as “of undisputed origin; genuine”. This makes complete sense when we think about what our origin is — God. Everything, including our very selves, comes from Him. When we know that without a doubt, and when our lives reflect that knowledge, we can be truly genuine and authentic. We can be real with ourselves and with each other. 

I invite and challenge you to be more authentic. This can look different for everyone. Maybe it’s being honest with a loved one when they ask “how are you”? Maybe it’s going without makeup for a week. Maybe it's apologizing for something you did wrong. Maybe it’s recognizing that God is our origin and that we need to stay connected to Him to be truly authentic.

That’s all for now. Know of my prayers for you and your families, and please keep me and this ministry in your prayers.

Peace of Christ,

Miss Jessica

A.M.D.G.