To thine own self be true

I saw a comment today, "Always be yourself," that really got me thinking. The world has it all wrong. The definition the world uses in suggesting that you "be yourself" is really suggesting that you rebel against everything that you have been taught and follow the world. It doesn't even seem to be about choosing your own path--just about breaking away from the "conventions" held by your parents.

I'm sure there are those who would be critical of the fact that I hold strongly to the things my parents have taught me. They have that right, though I disagree. You see, in thinking of how I can be myself, the first thought that came to my mind was that I am a child of God. I cannot very well be myself if I don't know who I am. But I do know. I am a child of God. As such, I have a divine heritage and destiny. I also have a responsibility to live up to that heritage.

I also keep coming back to a quote from C.S. Lewis in the Preface of The Great Divorce: "We are not living in a world where all roads are radii of a circle and where all, if followed long enough, will therefore draw gradually nearer and finally meet at the centre: rather in a world where every road, after a few miles, forks into two, and each of those into two again, and at each fork you must make a decision. Even on the biological level life is not like a river but like a tree. It does not move towards unity but away from it and the creatures grow further apart as they increase in perfection. Good, as it ripens, becomes continually more different not only from evil but from other good" (emphasis added). We become more different as we become more good, as we grow nearer to God. The differences develop because we open doors to new possibilities, to new options. Living the gospel does not make me a conformist. It makes me a unique person, part of a peculiar people. It makes me an individual. It makes me who I am and allows me to discover myself as God would have me be.

I also cannot help but think of Shakespeare's words from Hamlet (which prove that being oneself is nothing new!):

This above all: to thine ownself be true,

And it must follow, as the night the day,

Thou canst not then be false to any man.

Being myself, and being true to myself, does not require that I answer to anyone but myself. To become my true self, I must also be true to God, but that is because I am His daughter, and I cannot be my true self without being true to Him.

I find it interesting, in considering this quote, that "it must follow, as the night the day...." This suggests that we know darkness will come. While a pessimist might feel that morning will never come again, he/she will likely not question that night will follow day. It establishes this as a solid and undeniable truth, that remaining true to oneself allows us to be true to God and to all men (and women).

I am grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ, for a guide that helps me to know who I am and who I can become. I am not "conforming" to anything in the sense that the world usually means by conforming. Rather, I am learning and becoming and progressing, with new opportunities and new lessons and new paths opening to me. By following the gospel plan, I differentiate myself from others, even from those who are also studying and following the gospel. We are not all the same, because God allows us to develop into the people He knows we can become.

I know that I am a daughter of God, with divine heritage and potential. I know that as I continue to study and learn and follow His plan for me, that I will eventually discover my true self--the self that my Heavenly Father knows I can become. He knows me, and His greatest desire is for me to return to Him. I trust in that knowledge and in the atonement of my Savior, which makes it possible for me to improve continually and to be my greatest self.