GET TO KNOW YOURSELF - FOR GIRLS AND YOUNG WOMEN

To grow is to change. In order to grow up properly there are three questions that every boy should ask himself: Who am I? Where am I going? How do I get to where I am going?

By constantly asking yourself these questions as you grow, you will be able to reflect on your life and make the necessary adjustments to help you pursue your life goal. This article is intended to help you find the right direction towards womanhood.

WHO AM I?

A HUMAN PERSON

Every human being is a total person, who is composed of body, mind and soul. These three aspects are inseparable. This human being is you or me from the moment of conception until natural death.

THE BODY

This is the physical aspect of the person through which human basic needs are expressed, e.g. the need for clothing, food, shelter, warmth, and security. Emotional needs and expressions, such as feelings and desires, are channeled through the body.

THE MIND

This represents your intellect. Because you are intelligent, you are able to learn new things, to make choices and decisions. God has given you a free will with which to make choices and decisions.

THE SOUL

God breathed into you the "breath of life" and because of this you have the potential for goodness, the knowledge of good and evil. You are therefore able to develop values and good intentions in life.

As a human person, you need to understand both the changes that take place in you as you grow physically and how to try to cope with them.

A DISTINCT PERSON

Being a human person distinguishes you from all other creatures because you possess an eternal soul and your intellectual powers are high. This is a gift from God, Who wishes you to live with him eternally. You are therefore expected to develop human values.

A SEXUAL BEINGS

The majority of young girls today have distorted ideas about their sexuality and hence unhealthy attitudes towards it. Most think of their sexuality in terms of the reproductive organs and their functions. However, sexuality is not what you do but what you are.

When God created human beings, He created the distinctly "male and female." By this definition a girl will behave very differently from a boy because she is feminine, while a boy is masculine. Our sexual nature is acquired from the moment of conception until death. As a girl you will undergo changes as you mature but your sexuality remain feminine.

CREATED IN THE IMAGE OF GOD

BEING IN RELATIONSHIP

You are born from the loving relationship of your parents, and God gave you an immortal soul. Humanly speaking, a boy or a girl as long as he or she is within human society will not survive without social relationships. It is normal and healthy to desire and develop relationships and friendships with other persons. One of such friendships may lead to marriage and family life.

UNIQUE

Each individual girl is unique in every way. God created you at your own time and gave you an immortal soul. You are totally different from any other girl; you have unique talents, weaknesses, strengths, abilities and ways of doing things.

God deals with you as an individual girl, not as part of a crowd. As a young woman, you occupy a very important place in your family, school and society. Among your peers, you mean so much because without you, socially, there is a vacuum which can be filled by no one else but you.

LIFE AFTER DEATH

You will also die a unique death and occupy a place uniquely reserved for you in heaven.

A GIFT FROM GOD

As an individual person, you are a gift from God to yourself. God has freely given you life with its many gifts so that you can share with others. Also He has given you the gift of life within a given cultural context: African, Asian, European or whatever which you need to esteem and appreciate.

WONDERFULLY MADE

You may look at your face and think that you looks ugly, but remember, "you are wonderfully made." As a young girl, you may sometimes get discouraged at what grownups say about you and your behaviour patterns, and be tempted to give up trying. On the contrary, you have the power in you to awaken the original goodness which you possess.

God has given you the power and the will to do good if you desire and if you make the necessary effort.

ACCEPTING YOURSELF

You can get into excessive trouble with yourself if you refuse to accept yourself just the way you are. You will be happy if you learnt to accept yourself just as you are.

YOU CANNOT CHANGE YOURSELF

There are things about yourself, including physique, size, the colour of your skin that you can never change. It is therefore very important for you to accept yourself as you happen to be.

There are those original, natural aspects of your bodily make-up which you cannot change, and any attempt to do so can only spoil their originality. For instance, some girls/women spoil their natural, strong hair by excessive use of chemicals which change its colour and texture.

For anything to be good, it has to be real or genuine. For a woman to be a creature created in the image of God, it may be wiser to refrain from attempting to drastically change her natural bodily make-up.

IMROVE YOURSELF

There are other aspects of yourself which you can improve or change. These are in the areas of personality and character development. You can look smart and attractive by being well-groomed, clean and well-dressed. People will admire you if you are polite, pleasant and well mannered. You can improve your habits and character by accepting feedback (positive and negative), criticism and corrections. You can also improve your physical, mental and spiritual well-being by doing exercises, reading good materials, acquiring proper values and by praying.

God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our own likeness..." - Genesis 1:24. This shows how special each person is, and the dignity God has given to us. God used dust to create male and bone to create female yet breathed the same spirit into each one of them. This means that girls should respect their own uniqueness and the uniqueness of others.

To your success, Robert Malugu 1. I love comments on this blog: They are as important as anything I write myself. They add to the knowledge and community that we have here. If you want to comment then you are more than welcome; whether you feel you are a beginner or an expert, feel free to have you say.   2. Relevant links in comments are actively encouraged: If you are leaving a comment on my blog and want to point to a link on your own or someone else’s site that is relevant to the topic then please feel free to do so. This adds to the conversation and improves the blog.  "We are disturbed not by things, but the views we take of them." EPICTETUS, first century A.D. About the Author Robert Malugu is the founder and editor of Malugu Robert - The Positive Thinking Site. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, at Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn.