Women have a difficult time trying not to please. Listen to these wide words from Mary’s song “Take Me as I Am”:

“She don’t need No one telling her What to do and say. No one telling her Who to be. She’s on solid ground. She’s been lost and found Now, she answers to G-O-D”

And here is another line from her song “Just Fine”:

“No stress through the night, at a time in my life Ain’t worried about if you feel it. Got my head on straight, I got my mind right I ain’t gonna let you kill it You see I wouldn’t change my life, my life’s just fine.”

Here we go again with Ms Mary’s song “Just Fine” (I will refer to this song a lot because it says so much about being authentic and boy you should see Mary dance on that one -you feel her testimony)

Here is the line I want to share from this song that gave me a look into insight #3:

“Feels so good, when you’re doing all the things that you want to do Get the best out of life, treat yourself to something new”

What Mary says here in layman’s terms is that it brings joy to your heart when live out your dreams, desires, and passions. Now let me pause here because I don’t want nobody saying I believe in the Law of Attraction. That is a concept that I just cannot ascribe to because I believe that living in God’s will is the best way to live. What I am saying, and I think is Mary too, is that God gives you the dreams, the desires, and the passion. He does this because He loves you and he knows that you can achieve the best in life.

Listen to Mary from the song “Just Fine” her latest hit song and you hear this line:

“So I like what I see when I’m looking at me When I’m walking past the mirror”

Do you like who you see when you look in the mirror? Forget the moles, the dark eyes, and all of that superficial junk. God’s word tells us in Proverbs 31:30 “Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.”

Today’s woman is so busy getting tucked and sucked by doctors trying to be someone other than what she sees in the mirror. Even unto death. Case in point Kanye West’s mother. That was a tragedy that did not have to happen, but unfortunately somewhere Donya West was trying to hide the flaws because she did not like what she saw in the mirror. Even after warnings not to do the surgery she went ahead and made a choice that led to her death.

In “Take me as I Am” Mary says “So take me as I am, or have nothing at all. Just take me as I am, or have nothing at all.”

In essence what Mary is saying is that it is important to be You right where you are today. Don’t be someone else and don’t try to live somebody else destiny. And please don’t live your life to please others. You only play to an Audience of One – never forget that!

God made you just as you are; there is nothing wrong with you.

I have a question for you…What makes you authentic? Do you even know what it means to be authentic? Are you authentic or do you need to discover your authentic self.

Authentic: Having a claimed and verifiable origin or authorship; not counterfeit or copied

Today I want to share with you the wise Word of Mary J. Blige. Let me say that I think I am one of the BIGGEST Mary J. Blige fans on the face of the planet. Ok now that that is out of the way let’s move on.

Mary has been to through a lot in her life and she is not ashamed to share it. She was lost in the sauce and full of pain, turmoil, self-hate, insecurities, and a serious lack of authentic self-esteem. She has shared her life through music for so many years and her last few albums have really blown me away. It is almost as if her goal for the last few years has been to share her journey to authenticity through Christ.