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The highlight reel was playing in my mind. Credits would soon roll on my daughter’s elementary school years, and I was reliving sweet memories. First steps. Birthday parties. Toothless grins. But the lump in my throat dropped to a sick feeling in my stomach as a preview of the next chapter flashed in my head: middle school.

Soon, my little girl would walk hallways full of hormones and souls searching for purpose. How could I silence the voices that would confuse her identity in Christ? Then I noticed something in an old photo of my daughter and me. It wasn’t our hands linking together as we walked into her first day of preschool or her perfect pigtails. It was the fact that I was guiding my child into uncharted territory with the tag on my dress sticking up.

Through Isaiah, God tells His people not to fear. He had redeemed them, and they belonged to Him (Isaiah 43:1). As Christians, our identity is as clear as the tag on my outfit. The message in that picture was just as much for me as it was for my daughter: Keep your tag up.

Society screams that success defines us. But as followers of Christ, we shouldn’t set our hearts on what we do but on what Christ has done for us. Our tag comes with specific washing instructions. The Redeemer has cleansed us.  

Earthly wisdom points to maintaining a specific image. But God created us in His image. Our tag bears the name of the same Divine Designer who filled the oceans and molded the mountains.  

No one can forecast the falsehoods we’ll face any more than I could predict what my daughter might encounter in junior high. But I understand the struggle. I’m often so busy listening to the voices that tell me to make a name for myself that I can’t hear the one who’s calling my name.

Join me in carving out quiet time to listen to the one who knows and loves us intimately. You are God’s child, and that is enough. Stand strong in who and whose you are. And next time someone tells you your tag is up, smile and say, “I know.”