Discover IDU

Every two seconds someone in America becomes a victim of Identity Theft.  Criminals steal secret information from victims and use that information to destroy their reputation, personal image and credit worthiness.  It’s an invasive crime since our identities stand at the very center of our person-hood. 

In my life, one of the more difficult faith principles to get my mind around is how I am made in God’s image.  As I try to imagine God being like me he seems very small.  As I try to imagine me being like God it seems too big.  Honestly, it’s overwhelming the more I understand my shortcomings standing in the shadow of God’s goodness. 

   

As I've dealt with my own image problem over the past two decades I've benefited from some very insightful mentors and practical tools.  I can still remember the feeling of freedom I felt realizing that I wasn't “backward” (a term popular in Appalachian families) but was simply introverted.  Realizing I wasn't “stupid” but was instead contemplative, allowed me to embrace my truer self and quit pretending to be something I wasn't. 

In my work over the past several years with struggling families I have noticed an undeniable trend.  Poor people, struggling people, people in vulnerable places too often believe some terrible things about themselves.  What’s worse is that they usually express those traits in hopeless terms, discounting their value or ability to change.  Without using terms like “generational curse” or “ancestral jinx” they describe their circumstances as if they are predestined to live in their current difficulty.  Poverty isn't always a result of poor choices but there are changes that must be made to break generational poverty.   These changes start with a belief and self-awareness about the “uniqueness of you”.  I’m not talking about the self-esteem movement that tells us we can “be anything we want to be” but about understanding better our unique identity and our purpose.   I believe generational change starts with individual disrupters.  Someone deciding to see themselves differently and stand in the gap for future generations.

 To help these disrupters we (Joshua’s Place) have created a development course called Discover IDU (Identity University).  The idea came when I realized I had been the benefactor of some great tools throughout my personal and spiritual development.  Meyer-Briggs, Strength Finders, Disc and many other tools used to help me know me better.  These tools help with self-awareness and create a foundation of change.   Individuals stuck in generational poverty usually don’t have access to these types of tools and rarely are given the opportunity to reflect on personal uniqueness. 

We will be utilizing The Birkman Assessment tool that expresses individual results in terms of Strengths and Needs and in relational terms.  Using this tool as our basis, we will then teach through the four key relationships we all have; the relationship with our self, others, our community and God.   We believe a foundation of self-awareness coupled with relevant teaching, in a trusted environment can help generational disrupters change their futures.   We also believe we can help them reclaim the God-given identity that has been robbed from them.   

If you’d like to know more about this you can email me at kpeyton@joshuasplace.cc.