Today two of our three kids will get dropped off at school. It’s the yearly ritual of picking out the right first day outfit, getting back into the routine of making the lunches and getting up on time, pictures alone, pictures together, getting the right shoes on the right feet, and then eventually getting out the door.

And as the faithful minivan pulls up to the drop off point again, my wife will contribute her own part of this ritual. She will say the same thing to our son and daughter that she’s said every day at drop off for several years now. As the seat belts are unbuckled and the backpacks are grabbed, she will look at both our son and daughter and repeat to them:

“Remember who you are.”

She could say any number of things to them at that moment:

“I love you.”

“I’m proud of you.”

“Try and learn something.”

“Whatever they tell you, don’t eat the meatloaf.”

All good, and all valuable. But the phrase she has instead chosen to mark this point in the daily routine is instead, “Remember who you are.”

That’s very Pauline of her, don’t you think? What I mean is that in a way, Paul the Apostle is constantly saying that to anyone who picks up his letters. Sure, he’s going to tell them a lot of other stuff, too. He will tell them how to live in the world. He’ll have instructions for fathers, mothers, wives, husbands, masters, slaves, deacons, elders, older and younger women, and older and younger men. They will deal in subjects as wide and varied as his audience. All of these things will be very practical in their nature, and yet the vast majority of them won’t come until the back half of his letters. He will spend the first part of his letters, if you had to sum it up in a phrase, simply saying this:

“Remember who you are.”

That’s because what you do should flow from who you are.

Remember who you are. That you once were lost in darkness. That you were dead in your sin and transgression. That you were without hope and direction. But you have been changed by the matchless love and unending grace of Jesus. You have been made new in Him. So remember, and let that remembering fuel all the hundreds of decisions you will make today.

The pattern, then, is this: You believe. Then you become. Then you behave.

So says my wife to our kids, “Remember who you are.” Don’t forget it. Don’t forget the nature of your family and your faith that gives you your sense of self. In all the challenges you will face today, remember who you are.

Come to think of it, that’s a pretty good thing for me to say to myself as I get out of my own car today. Or, put more rightly, it’s a pretty good thing to listen to another voice inside of me who says this very same thing:

“All those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children…” (Romans 8:15-16).