When Difficult Change Challenges Your Identity – A Good Thing?

Change, especially unwanted or life-altering change, can challenge what we perceive as our identity. As painful as it is, that can be a good thing. 

I knew I’d be sad, but the intensity of my feelings surprised me.

This past month I followed my youngest on a four-hour drive to his chosen college. Two adult sons were already on their own, now our third and last one would be spending most of his time away from home. That left our 21-year-old daughter, who has special needs, to keep my husband and me company.

I cherished parenting my children. Now, no longer needed to fulfill a full-time mothering role, I feel a bit lost … directionless. I had equated my identity with being a mother. When that role lost its primacy, I lost my identity and, thus, my sense of worth.

We tie our worth to all sorts of things. Our vocation, whether we have children, whether those children are making good choices, the amount of our possessions, our health or fitness level, even our looks. But God has a different idea of what constitutes worth.  

Our value is not based on what we do, what we own, or how we look. Our identity as as a child of God presents us as invaluable in His eyes.

We tie our worth to all sorts of things, but God has a different idea of what constitutes worth. Our value is not based on what we do, what we own, or how we look. Our identity as a child of God presents us as invaluable in His eyes! Share on X

“Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in your book and planned before a single one of them began.”  Psalm 139:16,  CSB

I’m thrilled to be guest posting on my friend, Kristine Brown’s encouraging site, More Than Yourself. Click here to read the rest of my blog post and be reassured of your worth.