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Tear off, throw away labels

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  • Ross Cunningham •
  • Originally published January 2, 2009 at 4:51 p.m., updated January 2, 2009 at 4:51 p.m.

This Christmas, some of us may receive gifts with the labels still on them - usually because the gift giver forgot to take them off.

So even though the giver probably didn't want to reveal where the gift came from or how much it cost, we know exactly where and how much because the label "brands" the gift.

Leaving the label on a Christmas gift is pretty harmless. All you have to do to receive and enjoy the gift is tear the label off and throw it away.

Well, today, I want to invite you to begin 2009 by tearing off and throwing another kind of label that is anything but harmless. These are the labels that people may have hung on you somewhere along the way in your life. For example, labels like "slow learner," "clumsy," "can't do anything right," "will never amount to anything" - or even more painful labels such as "addict" or "failure."

The problem with these labels is that, whether they were ever once true or not, they can stick for years and color the way we and other people look at us. Let's say someone important in my life slapped the tag "can't do anything right" on me when I was a kid.

If I don't get rid of that label, pretty soon it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and even as an adult with a career and a family, I can still be acting like that kid who came to believe he could never get it right because someone labeled him that way.

The world is great at labeling people according to their actions and upbringing - and that's not all bad. Most of us wouldn't think twice about being called a "student," a "father," a "mother," or an "American." But no label that anyone can hang on us can even begin to describe all that we are or all that we can be in the eyes of God.

So let me give you what I believe is some really news as we begin 2009. You don't have to simply sit around and accept the labels that others choose for you. Those things can restrict your potential, keep you from discovering the person that God made you to be, and block your access to all that God has in store for you.

We are told that most people never reach their full potential. I think one reason is that too many of us are still buying into the labels that have been stuck on our lives either by us or by others.

But for a variety of reasons, a lot of people would rather hold on to these labels and let them dictate their lives, rather than tear them off and reach for the great things of God. Which choice will you make in 2009? Are you willing to go "tagless" and see what God has for you? You are a gift from God to this world. Ask Him to remove those negative labels and help you become what He made you to be.

Jim Graff is the Senior Pastor of Faith Family Church in Victoria, Texas. www.faithfamilyvictoria.com



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