What ID are you carrying around?

It is sometimes difficult not to get caught up in the material definition of ourselves. Often I would see only this imperfect image of myself in thought—a short, overweight, out-of-shape mortal. I realized that this was like looking at the wrong identification card. I didn't want to be that way. I didn't want to see myself that way. I thought about all the identification cards we carry around in our wallets. A driver's license, credit cards, social security cards. For important events we have birth certificates and passports. Each card defines us as individuals with specific height, weight, hair color, eye color, address, telephone number, and so forth. All provide legal means for telling the world who we are.

But there is another form of identification that we have with us always, and that, in order to progress, we need to look at daily. It's the one that has no numerical classifications. No photograph. No description of physical appearance. It is who we are and how we are perceived through the eyes of our Father-Mother, God.

When we first meet someone, we usually don't size him or her up according to such data as height, weight, and age. Instead, we instinctively look for people's identity in the good qualities they express. This is their God-given ID.

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Letters
Dear Sentinel
November 27, 1995
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