Pastor Rick Warren was on TV once, discussing his marriage and how he and his wife are complete opposites, and how they’ve worked hard to make their marriage work. 

He also spoke about his son (he committed suicide) who suffered from mental illness.

His quote, “Your illness is not your identity, your chemistry is not your character” made sense.

Sometimes we give ourselves “labels” as our identity, and label ourselves as the disease.

I’m a heart patient, I have cancer, I have mental illness.

We are not our illness, but we use it as our identity, and sometimes we even label others.

Remember my friend, you know the one with the brain tumor?

We are much more than our illnesses!

When we label ourselves, it becomes what we’re known for.

This reminded me of a friend, who is a cancer survivor!

She had two rounds of chemo, a hysterectomy, and after being in the hospital, suffered a blood clot.

Even though she made it through like a champ, she chooses NOT to label herself with cancer and rarely discusses it.

As she puts it, “she makes a conscious effort to avoid dwelling on the subject” because she’s a positive person and is always looking ahead for “what’s next”?

Not to minimize what someone with a debilitating condition has gone through, because it’s rough…but once again, we are so much more than our diseases and illnesses!

Years ago, I suffered from a hip, groin, back injury, and couldn’t do much for a very long time.

I would hate to be labeled as the “injured girl”.

I’d rather be known as energetic, happy, inspiring, and fun.

How about you?

What positive traits would you like to be known for? Please leave a comment!

TOPIC: Should We Be Labeling Ourselves?

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