At a recent concert, I heard one of the speakers sharing how a boy had told her in high school that she should never be as pretty as her sisters. She shared with great conviction, though she appeared to shrug off the words they stayed with her and became part of her identify. She said it was as if someone had handed her a Hello My Name Is label and written Ugly on it. And that she had taken that label and used it to identify herself.
I think is something that most of us can identify with. We are handed labels that others fill in for us, and we cover ourselves with those labels. For this young woman ugly led to worthless. But, she wasn’t ugly and certainly wasn’t worthless. Take a look at your labels, Hello My Name Is. What is written there? What should be written there?
Hello, My Name is daughter, friend, worker, creator, thinker, writer, sister, planner, dreamer, seeker. I can’t say that I have never had these labels attached to me. I have! I have had them handed to me by both those who are being malicious and those who are meaning to be kind. And I have accepted them, only to find them stuck to me. I felt like a walking sticky label. Not capable, weak, afraid, timid, intimidating, intimidated. The labels clung to me. But, slowly, they have been removed through the realization that they are wrong, Wrong with a capital W! I urge you to examine your labels. What is your name?
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