Not I Should, but I Am

Take a good look at yourself in the mirror and realize that Jesus is living inside of YOU.  The fact that we are important enough for the Holy Spirit to indwell in us should be enough for us to realize how much He values us.  So drop the "I shoulds" and for today, KNOW that you are good enough as you are. God doesn't love you for how good you've been today.  He loves you for how good you've TRIED to be and for WHO you are as He created you.  That  knowledge is the first step towards peace.  KNOW how valuable you are to Him.

Putting Me First

After several nights of very little sleep, I am tired.  I'm dragging around and realized this morning how much physical effort it actually takes to shred cabbage for cole slaw!  During my prayer time I read a scripture in which David is challenge by yet another enemy, and before he does anything else, he makes sure his family is safe.  Then I read another scripture that says "Love your neighbor as yourself."  Well, from both of these I surmised two things:  We need to put family first, and we need to love ourselves.  What does that really mean?  Lately I've been volunteering a lot - giving and giving and giving.  As women we tend to do that, and put ourselves last.  But since I barely have the energy left to shred cabbage, I'm not much use to anybody else, am I?   :-)  So this afternoon I'm planning to take a nap.  Our discussion this month re; inner and outer beauty fits into this.  How beautiful can we be physically and in our attitudes if we are exhausted?  Another thing I've done all morning is take care of the house.  I've put the laundry away, washed dishes, and cleaned.  I want my family to come home to a haven, not a mess.  I hope that by putting my needs first, and taking care of my family, I can regain some sense of balance.  After all, you never see a beauty with dark circles under her eyes!  God bless you in your journey to become the woman God knows you can be!

Being Transformed

And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. – 2 Corinthians 3:18

What reflection do you see when you look in the mirror?  According to this passage, we should see a likeness of Christ.  Beyond the hair and make-up, our faces should glow with the glory of God.  It’s not a physical transformation – it’s a spiritual one.

 I don’t always feel like I’m glowing, but the beauty of this passage is that we aren’t there yet.  We are being transformed – in present tense.   We’re a work on progress.  Isn’t it exciting?

God Made You and He Don't Make Junk

            You are uniquely you.  God created you the way He wanted you to be, and had plans for you long before your parents ever gave a thought to having children.

            Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart;  Jeremiah 1:5

            Isn’t that exciting?  God likes you the way you were born.  Eye color, hair color, talents, personality -  He designed you that way.  It’s up to us what we do with what He gave us.

            Remember, you are fully equipped to be the woman God wants you to be.

In His Image

      A child was asking me the other day what God looks like.  I said He must look kind of like us.  After all, we were created in His image.  "Does He have arms and legs?" the child asked.   Well, I guess He probably does.  That made me think - if we are created in God's image, that makes us beautiful!  Otherwise, aren't we calling God ugly?  :-)  Just a thought...

     It was something else to remind me of how special we are to God.  He chose US to look like Him.  Not the alligators, or the birds, or the trees, but us.  Wow.  We are made in His likeness.

     When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God.  He created them male and female; at the time they were created, he blessed them and called them "man." - Genesis 5:1-2

    

Uniquely You

When I was in middle school, I was given the assignment in health class to write a short essay about what I would want to change about myself.  I was quite happy with myself the way I was, and couldn't think of anything to write.  Even at that age, I realized the teacher's assignment was detrimental to our self-image.  I told her I was okay with my body the way it was and my friends should be too.
    "Really?"  she seemed shocked.  "You wouldn't make your  hips smaller, or change your hair color?  There has to be something you aren't happy with."
     She seemed angry.  And was she trying to tell me my hips were too big?
     I don't remember how I finished the assignment, but her words have stuck with me all these years.  Fortunately, I've realized that God created me the way He did for a reason.  He knew who I was before I was even in the womb.  I have had a fun time this year writing the chapter on beauty for the Princess book, and have discovered a lot of verses in the Bible about how awesome God thinks we are, just as He created us!  I wish I had been able to share these verses with my teacher back then!

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made!

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  - Psalms 139:13-14

            To think that God made each of us uniquely special! 

            "Mom, I'm different," my son said to me the other day.  And it's true, he is.  God made him his own unique self.  It amazes me how different both of my sons are from each other, even, having come from the exact same gene pool!

            We are all uniquely made in the eyes of God.  He created us just as He wants us. 

            Our society teaches us from a young age to be dissatisfied with who we are.  I remember I was in a health class in middle school and the teacher gave us an assignment.  We were supposed to figure out one body part that we didn't like and tell why we didn't like it and why we'd like to change it.

            I told her I was happy with the way I was.  (And at the time, that was true!)   She got angry with me, and said that NOBODY was happy with the way they were.  Some women wanted their hips to be smaller, or their hair a different color.  There had to be something.

            But at the time, I was still young enough to believe I was okay just the way I was.

            Now, there are days (MANY days) when I wish I was different.  I wish I was in better shape.   I wish I didn't get tired so easily.  I wish I was younger. J

            What I have to remember is that I am  God's  creation, and I need to rejoice in that.  God had a plan when He created me, and He gave me this body and this mind, and my own unique talents for a reason.   I want to embrace who I am, for my children's sake if nothing else.   What a better example in self-confidence than for their kids to see their own mom loving herself for who she is? 

            I am fearfully and wonderfully made.   I am a creation uniquely made in the image of God.  He even knows the number of hairs on my head.  Wow!

            Let's go into the day rejoicing in who we are!

Inner Beauty

Do not let your adornment be merely outward; arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel; rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God.   - I Peter 3:3-4

            This passage was written by Peter, who lived in a world where women wore wigs, especially blond wigs, made from hair imported from Germany.  It was a big deal at this time for women to arrange and dye their hair, or wear a wig.  In this passage, Peter is not forbidding women to do these things; instead he suggesting that while all that may be fine, our outer appearance is not our true source of beauty.

            The incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quite spirit is what is precious in the sight of God. 

            A gentle and quite spirit.

            The dictionary defines these words as:

            Gentle:  Mild in temperament or behavior; kind or tender.

            Quiet: Absence of noise or bustle; silence; calm

            As I read this, it occurs to me that most of our culture desire this exact thing.  Gentleness and quiet. 

            I had oral surgery last week.  I had a lot of pain, but I also lost a lot of blood due to a clotting problem, so I put in several days of couch time recovering.  I had some rare free time to watch TV and read.

            What I noticed was that a lot of TV ads are for anti-depressant drugs, or help with over-eating.  Stress, they said, is the culprit.  (Oprah and Regis had a few things to say about that too.)

            I also read several women’s magazines, (Woman’s Day and Ladies Home Journal…).  There were a lot of articles on how to get better sleep, how to declutter, and how to juggle it all.

            It seems that we are all looking for more gentleness and quiet.  Since God is looking for that in us too, maybe we should start inwardly. Outward things will fade.  We’ll get older and get wrinkles.  Our fancy clothes will get worn out and our jewelry may go out of style.  But inward beauty will last our whole lives.

            Some beautiful people I can think of: Mother Theresa.  Gandhi.  Jesus.  But more personally: My grandmother.  A particular nurse at the hospital.  My son’s teacher.

            These people are beautiful to me because they literally glow from the inside.  Their acts demonstrate an inner peace and a clear focus on others.  They radiate joy.

That’s my goal for March:  to gain inner beauty, so that I will possess a beauty that doesn’t fade over time, but instead grows stronger and more apparent.  I want to be radiant.  I want to be beautiful in the eyes of God.

           

Pondering

We've had a few family crisis this past month so I  didn't get a post up on Monday.  One of my readers (and a cousin!), Jon Ventura, sent me the below write-up and asked me to post it.   I really enjoyed the content and it reminded me to appreciate the little things, even in the midst of what I have going on in my life right now.
        I also think it fits in well with our March topic:  Beauty, Inside and Outside.
Thanks, Jon!

                                                         FORTY

Forty , I have been pondering on that number for several days now. Why? Because my daughter Ann Marie is turning forty March 8^th. As you ponder, several things go through your mind, did I do everything I could in the past forty years to help get through her first forty years?  Did I provide the best guidance?  Did I spend enough time with her?  

A cousin of mind recently wrote a book entitled “ Why is there a Lemon in my Fruit Salad”.  On the cover of the book she has a picture of herself (looks about 40) holding a lemon and a salad. She is wearing an apron covered with the words from Galatians 5 -  Fruits of the Spirit- “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control ”.  She ponders on these words to help her get through life’s difficult moments and struggles   

Then I  pondered in the pew at Sunday morning worship service, Transfiguration Sunday.  This is when Jesus took Peter , James and John up to a high mountain top and where he was transfigured before them. They were so frighten that he said to them “fear not” to assure them.  They were so changed by that experience that they went and literally changed the world,   even giving  their lives so that others would know about the “Fruits of the Spirit”. Paul, the author of Galatians 5,  also had a similar transforming experience for which he gave his life to uphold his beliefs. So what does that have do with forty?  It is said that life begins at forty.  What life?  Maybe a transformed life. A life that does not dwell so much on materials things but a life more in tuned to the Fruits of the Spirit. After all, after 40 years, most of our materials things are worn out and need to be replaced.

Then we have the Sunday’s hymn –( also a song sang at Ann Marie  wedding) “It only takes a spark to get a fire going, and soon all those around can warm up to its glowing, that’s how it is with Gods love once you experience it,  you spread his love  to everyone, you want to pass it on”. March 8^th, spring time, “What wondrous time is spring when all the trees are budding, the birds begin to sings the flowers start their blooming, that’s how is with God’s love once you experience it, you want to sing (joy), its fresh like spring, you want to pass it on.   Third verse  “I wish for you my friend this happiness I’ve found, you can depend on him, it matters not where you’re bound (lemons in fruit salads),  I’ll shout from the mountain-top, I want the world to know, the Lord of love has come to me, I want to pass it on”.

When I wake every morning, I wake up to a sunny morning, a sunrise looking out over the Atlantic Ocean.  It is an original oil painting painted by my daughter Ann Marie, I ponder over all the hours she must have spend painting it (patience)and what inspired her to paint this scene of peace.

 

For year to come, each morning as I view the sun rise,  I will ponder how we will relate to such words as “mountain top, transfiguration, fear not, fruits of the spirit, it only takes a spark, and passing it on”.   

Our Sunday’s response to the benediction, “This little light of mine I going to let it shine”. I pray  my light did so shine and was it the necessary spark.