Danielle Axelrod - Set Apart, Not Aside: Finding your identity through who Christ says you are, not what the world says youre not.

Set

Apart,

Not

Aside

Finding Your Identity

Through Who Christ Says You Are,

Not What the World Says Youre Not

Danielle Axelrod

Set Apart, Not Aside

Trilogy Christian Publishers
A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Trinity Broadcasting Network
2442 Michelle Drive, Tustin, CA 92780

Copyright 2022 by Danielle Axelrod

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Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Bible. Public domain.

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Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN: 978-1-68556-272-4
E-ISBN: 978-1-68556-273-1

Dedication

T o every girl who has stifled her sobs with a pillow, wondering why shes never enough

&

To every boy who has done the same but wont willingly admit it

This ones for you.

You are loved, chosen, and accepted just as you are to the One who created you.

This world does not define you. He who called you does.

You are not set aside. You are set apart.

Psalm 139:1316

Acknowledgments

M om and Dad, thank you for always being my number one fans. Thank you for continuously encouraging me and dealing with my dramatic self. You always believed in me and saw the potential I doubted having. Thank you for raising me up in the way I should go. I dont always get it right, but you have laid a foundation that Ill forever be grateful for.

I hope Im half of the parents you both are someday.

I love you so much.

To Pastor Rick and Kim Leonardi and Pastor Mike and Jill Grazioso, thank you for pouring out so much wisdom every Sunday and Wednesday night from the pulpit in LaGrangeville, New York. You have helped me grow in my faith and mature in my relationship with the Lord more than you know. Thank you for being faithful shepherds.

To everyone who has encouraged me to keep writing, even when I doubt my ability, thank you. You helped me find the courage to pen the words I wish I had when I was younger.

And, of course, to Jesusmy main guy. Thank You for giving me a million second chances when I deserved them least. Thank You for choosing me to pour Your words through.

Table of Contents

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart.

Jeremiah 1:5 (NIV)

Introduction

But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit. The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

Jeremiah 17:79 (NIV)

Before high school, they warn you about plenty of things. The time in between classes is not all that long, so dont mingle. Classes are going to get harder, so dont slack off on studying. Peer pressure will creep up on you, so dont forget to stand your ground and say no to anything that seems illegal or dangerous. These warnings become engraved in your little mind, playing on repeat to ensure you dont completely mess up the next four years of your life.

What they forget to warn you about, though, are the people who are going to take your nave little heart and split it right in two. They forget to prepare you for the hard-hit of heartbreakthe first blow to every bit of optimism you previously held about fairytale endings. I blamed their lack of any sort of foreshadowing for the shattered emotions in my fourteen-year-old soul the day my first boyfriend decided I wasnt enough for him anymore. And then, almost as quickly as I was blindsided by rejection, I turned the blame on myself for not being enough anymore.

I will never forget the pit that formed in my stomach the moment my best friend tried to warn me of what was coming that afternoon. We met at our usual spot after the fourth period, ready to head to the cafeteria to munch on pizza and Twix bars. When she squeezed my hand and told me that she heard boyfriend-I-was-sure-I-was-going-to-marry-after-dating-for-two-months was going to break it off with me after school, my appetite sank through the tiled floor. Suddenly nauseous and light-headed, I caught hold of the staircase railing.

She continued to hold my hand and, in true best-friend fashion, added, Hes a complete jerk anyways. Youre better off without him.

But being without him was the last thing on my mind. In fact, he was so far back in my mind I could barely see the outline of his shadow. Another person stood in the forefront, blocking the view of any other potential inhabitant of my thoughts. That person was me.

As though I were trying to decide if I would make a decent video game player, I scanned my attributes over and over again, on a loop. I stared at a broken reflection, trying to figure out why he didnt want to choose me anymore. Was there a new, better player in town? What attributes were the breaking point? Was it my wrinkly hands? My chubby hips? The way I sometimes snorted when I laughed? My braces? My athletic thighs? Did I talk too much? Oh gosh, I definitely needed to learn how to shut up. That had to be it.

The questions swirled with an unfamiliar weight, stifling my ability to focus on anything else. A foggy haze seemed to thicken the space around me. What was this awful feeling?

A hand squeeze seemed to bring me back to reality, somewhat cutting through the dense fog of uncertainty and inadequacy. Come on, Danielle. A slice of pizza always fixes everything.

Usually, my best friend would be right. But that day, she was wrong. I knew pizza wouldnt fix anything. In fact, I didnt feel like anything would fix this feeling.