A young girl named Maria was once embarrassed in class when she mispronounced a word, and her frustrated teacher said in front of everyone, “You are terrible at English; you’re just not smart enough.” The whole class laughed, and although it was only one sentence, it became a wound that shaped her identity for nearly ten years. She began believing the lie that she was not smart, stopped participating in class, avoided people, and carried deep insecurity despite being raised in a Christian home. At age 17, during a youth camp, she heard a preacher say that the enemy uses criticism to attack identity but that only God defines who we are. When she heard Psalm 139:14 — “I am fearfully and wonderfully made” — she broke down in tears as the Holy Spirit touched the root of that lie. Through prayer and reading God’s Word about identity, she slowly healed, regained confidence, and her grades began to rise. Years later, she graduated with top marks and eventually became an English teacher — in the very subject she was once criticised for. She later said, “The teacher’s words created the lie, but God’s Word destroyed the lie. My identity is not in what was said about me but in what God says of me.”