I have been really down on myself a lot lately. In fact, it has gotten to the point that I just couldn't stand to be in the room with "me" anymore.
This weekend, that all changed. God spoke to my heart in the wee hours of the morning as I sat reading His word, and my whole view of who I am completely changed. I found myself excited again about being God's child. I found myself looking forward to all that He has for me in my life. It was just a major transformation.
It just amazes me how God will pull you away from all the things in your life that are distracting you so that He can get you to focus on what He wants you to see and hear.
I am glad that I had my listening ears on this weekend. Here is what I heard:
~I love you daughter...LOVE YOURSELF COMPLETELY.
~I think you are beautiful...LOOK AT YOURSELF THROUGH MY EYES.
~You are My child. . .HOLD YOUR HEAD HIGH AS YOU WEAR MY LOVE.
~I know you by name. . .YOU WILL ALWAYS BE MINE.
So what is God saying to you today? Listen with your heart first. Your heart is where God's love will bloom and grow.
Showing posts with label my thoughts about life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label my thoughts about life. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Beauty
This week I finished reading Anne Ortlund's book The Disciplines of a Beautiful Woman. In the last few pages, a verse that she was quoting stuck out to me so vividly that it made me stop reading altogether.
What Peter is trying to convey here is that we are not to be SO consumed with how we look on the outside that we forget to see how we look on the inside. He is telling us women that not only are you to be worried about your beauty on the outside, but take just as much care of the beauty that is inside of you.
Let's face it ladies. Our husbands do not like to look at ratty hair, stained clothes, unmade faces, and sourpuss looks all day. Men are visual--so why not give your man something strikingly visual to look at?
I promise God is not going to strike you dead for being concerned with what you look like on the outside--especially if it is to please your husband. In fact, God would most definitely be smiling and nodding in approval if you are doing something like this to make your husband a happy man.
Beauty is not bad--it is a good thing. God created beauty. So I am no longer going to worry about the fact that I love my makeup and I love to fix my hair and I most definitely love to buy clothes. As long as I am focused on my heart being right before God, He is okay with me making myself beautiful and presentable before my husband!
So I am off to go buy me a dress and new shoes and see if I can get my husband to go out on a date with his beautiful wife!
Let not your adornment be external only--braiding the hair, wearing gold jewelery, and putting on dresses; but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit., which is precious in the sight of God. For in this way, the former times the holy women also, who hoped in God, used to adorn themselves. (1st Peter 3:3-5)As I read this verse yesterday the word "only" just really jumped off the page at me. For some time now, I have been feeling bad about my appearance because so many women say that Godly women don't worry about what they look like on the outside. After reading this verse for the umpteenth time, I have a hard time believing that.
What Peter is trying to convey here is that we are not to be SO consumed with how we look on the outside that we forget to see how we look on the inside. He is telling us women that not only are you to be worried about your beauty on the outside, but take just as much care of the beauty that is inside of you.
Let's face it ladies. Our husbands do not like to look at ratty hair, stained clothes, unmade faces, and sourpuss looks all day. Men are visual--so why not give your man something strikingly visual to look at?
I promise God is not going to strike you dead for being concerned with what you look like on the outside--especially if it is to please your husband. In fact, God would most definitely be smiling and nodding in approval if you are doing something like this to make your husband a happy man.
Beauty is not bad--it is a good thing. God created beauty. So I am no longer going to worry about the fact that I love my makeup and I love to fix my hair and I most definitely love to buy clothes. As long as I am focused on my heart being right before God, He is okay with me making myself beautiful and presentable before my husband!
So I am off to go buy me a dress and new shoes and see if I can get my husband to go out on a date with his beautiful wife!
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Learning To Love Yourself
I have always struggled with low self esteem of myself. Even now today, I struggle with the ability to love myself. I mean, I know God loves me and that to Him, I am the most beautiful of all the ladies and I am a jewel in His crown. But in real life, let's face it. . .I am just another face in the crowd.
I try really hard to think back to my childhood when my low self esteem started. Did it start during the time I was mistreated by boys during a very young age? Did it start during the years I began to develop earlier than all the other girls and I had to hide myself? Did it start in high school when I was searching for someone to love me, even though I knew the way I was searching was the wrong way? When did it start?
I think that is a question that will forever live in the back of my mind, because I still do not have the answer. But there is one thing that I do know. I know that I have a God who loves me more than anyone or anything. He picks me up when I feel down and tells me to keep my head up. He is there to wrap His arms around me and tell me everything is going to be okay.
Today my struggle is not as bad as it used to be. I have come to the point in my life that I like myself. I don't feel I am fully there to love myself as freely as I want to, but I am learning. What about you? Do you deal with feelings of low self esteem?
I try really hard to think back to my childhood when my low self esteem started. Did it start during the time I was mistreated by boys during a very young age? Did it start during the years I began to develop earlier than all the other girls and I had to hide myself? Did it start in high school when I was searching for someone to love me, even though I knew the way I was searching was the wrong way? When did it start?
I think that is a question that will forever live in the back of my mind, because I still do not have the answer. But there is one thing that I do know. I know that I have a God who loves me more than anyone or anything. He picks me up when I feel down and tells me to keep my head up. He is there to wrap His arms around me and tell me everything is going to be okay.
Today my struggle is not as bad as it used to be. I have come to the point in my life that I like myself. I don't feel I am fully there to love myself as freely as I want to, but I am learning. What about you? Do you deal with feelings of low self esteem?
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Through His Eyes
This week as God has been dealing with me on some serious self esteem issues, I have had the chance to take a really good look at myself.
For the most part, I rarely see myself the way that God sees me. I like to point out all my flaws to Him, and all my weaknesses and remind Him how horrible a person I am for eating like a glutton, or for yelling at my kids, or arguing with my husband, or just being plain lazy.
I recently have been dealing with "the look". Oh, you know what look I am talking about. If you are a homeschooling parent, then you know all too well "the look". The look is the stare and the whispers you get, because you homeschool your kids instead of working to help your family financially. The look is also what you get from people when they think you perceive that Public or Private school is bad and they are wrong for sending their children there instead of homeschooling them(which most of us homeschooling parents don't feel that way). And the look could be from those who think that what you are doing is wrong and that we are going to cause our children to fail in the "real" world because we have sheltered them too much.
Well this week, God has shown me more than once, that it is not about the way the people see you that is important, it is the way God sees us that is important and very vital. You see, we can go around all the time, and do everything the way that everybody is asking us to do them, and in the end, what do we benefit from that? Absolutley NOTHING! We get a broken heart (because if you don't do it the way they think you should then you could possibly get the cold shoulder), we most defintely disappoint God for being a people pleaser instead of a God pleaser, and we become disobedient to God.
Peter states it so well in Acts 5:29 But Peter and the apostles replied, "We must obey God rather than men." Notice that he says we MUST. Not that we might, or not that we should, but that we MUST!!!
If you are homeschooling your children and people are trying to persuade you that they would be better off in a public or private school setting, but God has not shared that same vision with you, hold strong to your obedience to God, so that in the end, when you stand before Him, you can answer, "Master, you gave me two talents,and look I have gained two more talents." Then God will reply, "Well done, my good and faithful servant."
My husband opened my eyes last night on that statement. God does not call us to be perfect,or to be beautiful, He just calls us to be FAITHFUL. How are we faithful? By being obedient to Him, and following His ways, and by looking to Him who is the Author and Finisher of our faith.
Look at yourself through God's eyes, and follow HIM and not the world! Keep up the pace, fight the good fight and finish your course, wherever God is leading you to run!
For the most part, I rarely see myself the way that God sees me. I like to point out all my flaws to Him, and all my weaknesses and remind Him how horrible a person I am for eating like a glutton, or for yelling at my kids, or arguing with my husband, or just being plain lazy.
I recently have been dealing with "the look". Oh, you know what look I am talking about. If you are a homeschooling parent, then you know all too well "the look". The look is the stare and the whispers you get, because you homeschool your kids instead of working to help your family financially. The look is also what you get from people when they think you perceive that Public or Private school is bad and they are wrong for sending their children there instead of homeschooling them(which most of us homeschooling parents don't feel that way). And the look could be from those who think that what you are doing is wrong and that we are going to cause our children to fail in the "real" world because we have sheltered them too much.
Well this week, God has shown me more than once, that it is not about the way the people see you that is important, it is the way God sees us that is important and very vital. You see, we can go around all the time, and do everything the way that everybody is asking us to do them, and in the end, what do we benefit from that? Absolutley NOTHING! We get a broken heart (because if you don't do it the way they think you should then you could possibly get the cold shoulder), we most defintely disappoint God for being a people pleaser instead of a God pleaser, and we become disobedient to God.
Peter states it so well in Acts 5:29 But Peter and the apostles replied, "We must obey God rather than men." Notice that he says we MUST. Not that we might, or not that we should, but that we MUST!!!
If you are homeschooling your children and people are trying to persuade you that they would be better off in a public or private school setting, but God has not shared that same vision with you, hold strong to your obedience to God, so that in the end, when you stand before Him, you can answer, "Master, you gave me two talents,and look I have gained two more talents." Then God will reply, "Well done, my good and faithful servant."
My husband opened my eyes last night on that statement. God does not call us to be perfect,or to be beautiful, He just calls us to be FAITHFUL. How are we faithful? By being obedient to Him, and following His ways, and by looking to Him who is the Author and Finisher of our faith.
Look at yourself through God's eyes, and follow HIM and not the world! Keep up the pace, fight the good fight and finish your course, wherever God is leading you to run!
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