Understanding ourselves is what I believe is the first step in any kind of growth or change that we need or want to make. Gaining that understanding can often be a challenge as we tend to place blame, fault, excuses, or reasoning behind our actions or ways. In order for us to understand ourselves and to face the truth of ourselves we have to be willing to be completely honest with ourselves. It takes facing and taking 100% responsibility for our faults and wrong doings, and paying attention to what makes our heart at peace and joyful and uneasy or hardened. While we are in this process we can learn a great deal about ourselves that can open the door for God to work in and through us, changing us into who we were created to be. Take time to ponder the following questions and then answer them as honestly as you can. The key to answering many of these questions is to focus on the inner-self (the deepest part of your being/your spirit) instead of others, situations, or materialistic things. We can not control others, most situations, or any materialistic thing but we can control ourselves, who we are, and who we become. When we discover truth about ourselves we open the opportunity to make it better.

1. I feel that I have a void in __________________________- area of my life.
2. I have felt unfulfilled in this area for _____________________(amount of time)
3. I feel this void in _____________________________(what part of the body)
4. If I could snap my fingers and be whole in this area it would look like ________________ ______________________________________________________________________
5. What has been stopping me from fulfilling the need? ____________________________ ______________________________________________________________________
6. What can I do to take the 1st step into fulfilling the need? ________________________ ______________________________________________________________________
7. What am I  putting up with that I know is not serving me any good? ________________ ______________________________________________________________________
8. Why am I choosing to put up with it? ________________________________________
9. What am I  afraid of happening if I decide to not put up with it anymore? ____________ ______________________________________________________________________
10. What am I  doing or not doing that I know I should  or should not be doing? __________ ______________________________________________________________________
11. Why am I  choosing to do or not do that? _____________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________
12. How would life or I change if I decided to do or not do the thing____________________ ______________________________________________________________________
13. How would I feel if I just did or didn’t do the thing? ______________________________ ______________________________________________________________________
14. What is most important to me? _____________________________________________
15. How am I  honoring and dishonoring that? ____________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________
16. What can I do to honor what’s most important to me more? _______________________ ______________________________________________________________________
17. Do I feel that I have control over what I do and how I act? ______ Why or why not?____ ______________________________________________________________________
18. Do I think that I have to please everyone else? __________ Why? _________________

          _______________________________________________________________________

19. Do I think that I have to always put others needs ahead of my own? ________________ 
20. What would happen if I put myself 1st? _______________________________________
21. How would it benefit me if I were to take care of what I need before what someone else needs? ________________________________________________________________
22. How can I balance caring for my needs and the needs of others? __________________ ______________________________________________________________________
23. What do I do that I don’t really want to do but I get a positive feeling deep down inside after I do it? ____________________________________________________________
24. What am I doing when I have a happy, satisfying, or fulfilling feeling deep down? ______ ______________________________________________________________________
25. What have I been doing just because it is the norm or because it’s what everybody else is doing that I really don’t want to do or have that little nagging feeling deep down inside that I shouldn’t be doing? _________________________________________________ __________why do I do it? ________________________________________________
26. Life would be so much better if _____________________________________________ because_________________________________________________because_______________________________________________________________because ________ ______________________________________________________________________
27. I feel best about myself when ______________________________________________ because_______________________________________________________________ and I can ____________________________________________________________to continue that feeling.
28. I feel bad about myself when______________________________________________ because__________________________________________________________ and I can _____________________________________________________________to keep from feeling that way about myself.
29. I feel most loved when ____________________________________because_________ _______________________________because________________________________
30. I feel most valued when ____________________________________because________ ________________________because_______________________________________
31. I feel most fulfilled when_________________________________because___________ _____________________________because__________________________________
32. I can ___________________________________________________________ to bring more of those feelings to myself because _____________________________________
33. I deserve__________________________________________because______________ _____________________________because__________________________________ and I will_______________________________________________________________
34. I feel at my best when________________________________________because______ __________________________because_____________________________________
35. I can ______________________________________________________________to be at my best more often
36. Something that no-one knows about me is_____________________________________
37. I feel most comfortable about myself when____________________________________ Because____________________________________________________because__________________________________________________________________________
38. What I love most about myself is____________________________________________
39. What I like least about myself is_____________________________________________
40. What I like most about my life is_____________________________________________
41. What I like least about my life is_____________________________________________
42. I want to________________________________________________________and I will commit to myself to take the 1st step of ______________________________________ _______________________________________________________to accomplish that
43. I can honor what is important to me by _______________________________________
44. When life gets hard I tend to _______________________________________________ because____________________________________________________because___________________________________________________________________________
45. I know that I should_______________________________________________________ because______________________________________________________but I haven’t because_______________________________________________________________

   By now you should be able to see yourself a little better by the answers to the questions. Hopefully you have learned something about yourself that will help you to be a better version of yourself. The only way that we can find the wholeness that we deserve is to be who God created us to be instead of who we have learned to be or how life has caused us to become. Our experiences and the influences that we have as we grow up play a big role in who we become as adults. That person is often not who God created us to be. So we go through life feeling incomplete because that is what we are. We are not whole until we are living as the person that we are meant to be and I hope that these questions help you to take a look at who you are deep within versus who you have been on the surface.