Self-Differentiation

Big word huh?  I only know what it means because my husband has been trying to teach me about it for decades.  He is the king of it, and I, frankly, am not good at it at all. 

The definition is this:

an act or instance of differentiating the self : a setting apart of oneself as distinct from others (such as one's family or classmates)

Differentiate means to:  identify differences between (two or more things or people).

In other words, to self-differentiate means to know who you are and only own your stuff and not the baggage of everyone else— to see your part in a situation and how you can fix yourself  but not try and own the mistakes, accusations, challenges and frustrations of everyone else.   

NOT EASY.

Jesus was such a great model of self-differentiation.  He is often an example of all kinds of good things, but you may have never considered the fact that he modeled healthy self-differentiation.

But in Luke 11 we read a story of how he cast out a demon and the response of the people was either to accuse him of being the prince of demons.   They were suggesting that if he was able to cast out the demons then He himself must be Satan.  

The ones who weren’t going quite that far asked him for a sign from heaven.

In the midst of this, Jesus remains calm.  I’m pretty sure that that would not have been my response in that situation.  But he remains calm and rationally explained things to the people.  He knew who He was and He wasn’t threatened or alarmed by their hatred or questioning.

As you go through today, be encouraged.  You are who GOD says you are.  You do not need to define yourself by what others think — you can simply relax in knowing who you are and WHOSE you are.   

You are God’s masterpiece and everything else that is said or done by anyone else doesn’t count as much as that fact.