For a lot of my life, I’ve always felt like someone’s something. In my small town, as a kid, I was often recognized as “Kyle and Vicky’s daughter”. A few identities cropped up in between, and now I hold the title of “(insert one of 3 Powell children’s names here)’s mom”.

Maybe you’ve felt the same? Maybe you knew (or thought you did, anyway) just who you would be and how you would become her.

And then it changed.

Life threw curves, people didn’t behave as you’d expected, more “no”s were given in place of “yes”s…and now you’re not who or where you’d planned at all.

Or maybe you’re just the opposite. All the things are just as you’d envisioned. The career, the relationship, the car, house, city. All in line with your plan. I sometimes tell Austin there are people I just don’t know how to talk to. The folks who paid $5,000 for a prime parking spot at their child’s school during a recent fundraising dinner and auction we attended (with complimentary tickets, I might add), I don’t know how to talk to those people. You, Ms. Mastermind, I don’t know how to talk to you. You are a whole level of together that I have no box in my brain for. It’s fine.

Then there’s door #3. Those of us who, wether by design or force, have struggled most of our lives to really know who we are. We’ve always found comfort and security being someone’s something. It can be intimidating and downright frightening to find out who YOU are. What YOU think. How YOU feel. I, personally, avoided it unknowingly for a long time. Much too long.

Just over a year ago, a man came to speak at our church’s mom’s group. I won’t lie, I showed up largely for the free breakfast, but what he spoke about identity planted a seed in me that God has been gently tending since then. Shortly after his message, I found myself sobbing in the shower. My mom always says it’s the best place to have a good cry. It’s also often the only place and time that mom’s of littles can think and pray. It was in that mundane, everyday, seemingly meaningless moment that the seed planted began to sprout as Pretty+Powerful. For the past year, it’s been just my online boutique/small community name, but I believe it’s ready to bloom.

But back to my name. Back to your name. I truly believe that no matter which category you fall into, no matter what path your life has taken, no matter what people might know you as, you have a God-given name and purpose. And even if your life has lined up just like you wanted, you probably still feel an inkling and pull toward more. Toward true identity. Sister, my prayer is that you’ll let Jesus start showing it to you. That you’ll dig past being someone’s something, or maybe even release the grief of feeling like nobody’s anything. Almost always, we have to lay down things we think are good, for God to fill our hands with His best. We have to sacrifice hiding places and masks to find true identity. We have to take off labels so He can give us our name.

I pray that this little corner of the interwebs can help you do just that. That we can be better together than we are alone. And that with Him we can be Pretty+Powerful.