Jesus Loves YOU

Proverbs 26:1-29:27

“The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is safe.” Proverbs 29:25

Of the many pieces of sage advice from the Proverbs today, this is the one that stood out to me the most. Perhaps because its the one I struggle with the most. I have always had a “fear of man”. No, not a fear of men, but I’ve been afraid of people; what they would think of me, what they say about me, how they feel about me. I’ve always been obsessed with wanting people to like me. To the point that I’ve gotten many a bad case of the stripes.

We’ve had this book in our home library for many years and I’ve always thought it was a cute story with a good message until I read it to Anna and realized “THIS IS ME!!!”

The story is about Camilla, a little girl who loves lima beans. But she’s afraid that the other kids will make fun of her for liking them, so she denies herself the pleasure of eating them. Then one morning she wakes up with these stripes all over her body. She has no fever and feels fine so she goes to school. At the pledge of allegiance her stripes turn red, white and blue with stars. Then the kids start yelling out for her to do plaid and polka dots and before she knows it every part of her is covered with a different color, shape or pattern. She sees the doctors, they give her medicine, she turns into a pill. She sees the herbalists, she starts growing leaves and roots on top of her pill shaped stripes. With every expert she sees she turns into something else until she becomes completely unrecognizable.

I had become that girl. If someone said “will you do this?” Even if I didn’t have time I would say “sure” because I didn’t want to upset them or make them not like me. I became everything everyone wanted me to be… except me. I had my arms so full of what I thought everyone else wanted me to do that I had lost sight of what God had asked me to do: write through the Bible in a year and take care of my family.

I’ve spent my entire life being who I thought everyone else wanted me to be and doing what everyone else wanted me to do that I never figured out who I was.

Who I am.

The last few years and especially the last few months have been a roller coaster ride of figuring that out. It’s been like a dog going through a cat door. It’s possible, but it takes a lot of work and the dog certainly can’t take anything with him from one side of the door to the other. It’s just him.

This has been a season of laying things down and doing my best to leave them where they lay. I’m learning that it’s critical to my development to learn the word, “No” and to use it liberally when people ask me for something. I have spent my entire life allowing people to take advantage of me. You know what God told me? “Grow a backbone. How will you ever be able to stand up and defend Me and My word if you can’t stand up for yourself?”

The example he used was a teenager at the Kroger deli-counter. I was there late one Tuesday evening after my Greek class picking up groceries. God had led me to fast all day. I went to the deli counter and asked him what was good. He said this certain brand of turkey and I said, “give me two pounds.” But then he insisted I try it first. I was fasting, I didn’t want to try it. So I told him I trusted his opinion and go ahead and give me two pounds. He pressed and I caved and took a bite. It was the best thing I’d had all day! 😉 Here I was, a grown woman and I couldn’t even tell this high school deli-worker, “no”.

I’ve been a pushover for far too long! It ends today! I am claiming my identity in Christ and holding fast to it! This is my faith and Jesus is my Savior. He tells me I’m beautiful and the TV tells me I’m not. I’m choosing to believe Jesus. He tells me I’m precious to Him and people may cast me aside like garbage but I’m choosing to believe Jesus. His opinion of me matters far more than anyone else’s so why do I listen to anyone else?

Word of the Day: Proverbs 5:1-9:12

“Take my instruction instead of silver, and knowledge rather than choice gold, for wisdom is better than jewels and all that you may desire cannot compare with her.” Proverbs 8:10-11

OH HOW MUCH I WANT TO SAY TO YOU TODAY!!! But alas, I am not able at the moment. siiiigh….

So, if you’re jonesing for something more to read after these GREAT Proverbs, here’s a link to another chapter from Dandelion Season.

Don’t Hold Back.

Proverbs 1:1-4:27
” Let your heart hold fast My words;” Proverbs 4:4

I’m spending today getting organized for the next few weeks so I’m reposting a chapter from my book Dandelion Season. You can find it here in e-book format or here for print format.
Enjoy the throwback Thursday post, on a Wednesday. 😉

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“I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.”  Psalm 139:14 KJV

What is it about youth that we are so obsessed with? Why is it that we even want to look younger than we really are? Think about every year of your life so far. Have some of them been really great? And some of them really hard? During those hard years, what about them was so difficult? What did you do about it? During that time in your life where you were being shaken where did you look for help? Did you look to the problem or God? And now in the aftermath of that situation, looking back, what did you learn from that shaking? Did you draw closer to God through it? Did you learn something about yourself? Him? Someone else?

For every wrinkle or silver hair on our bodies, there is a corresponding event. For every scar there is a story, every broken bone, and new strong point (they heal stronger than they were to begin with). Every single tear that we shed God collects (Psalm 56:8). He CARES about our hurts and He never wastes a single one. He USES them to teach us, to mold and shape us and help us grow to help us heal. So then why, oh please someone tell me why is our culture so ready and willing to cover all that up; to hide the help that God provided us in our time of need? If every silver hair equals a lesson well learned, why dye it back to the way it was before and cancel out your wisdom? Pretending it never happened? How do you think God feels about that? I mean He’s the one who painted that hair silver in the first place isn’t He? If He’s going to take the time to count how many are on your head (Matthew 10:30) I’m pretty sure He’s got them all labeled with a color too!

When my husband and I were dating we used to always talk about growing old together, what we’d do when we retired, and how we would spend eternity together. Now, keep in mind, this is when we were young teenagers! And now, every single silver hair on my head is a reminder to me how I am now getting to live out some of those dreams with my husband, and that I am one silver hair closer to that final dream of eternity with my husbands – both of them! So now, tell me, WHY would I want to try to hide the fact that I am literally living out my dream of life with the man I love?

The same is true of my spiritual husband Jesus, think about it; He numbers every hair, collects every tear, and counts every footstep. Does it sound like these things matter to Him? Then shouldn’t they matter to us? Every morning women get up and paint over the face that God painted first. His fingers traced those laugh lines around your mouth, “Aren’t they beautiful?” He says. His brush painted that stretch mark iridescent, “Aren’t those children wonderful?” He asks. Those spider veins are His handiwork too! Your royal purple blood shining through your fleshy exterior. “Oh, you are so beautiful!” He exclaims proudly, “I did such a work on you, and that’s just on the outside! You should see what all I’ve painted on the inside!”

She who has eyes let her see! We may think a child’s skin is beautiful because it is flawless, but really it’s because it’s still blank! God hasn’t painted anything on it yet. But you! You’re a half-finished work of art, painted by the Master himself. THE Master! Better than Picasso, or Rembrandt or hey, even Andy Warhol! This Master is the One who painted them! And He’s painting you too!

You may not like the way you look in the mirror, but God loves it! He doesn’t make mistakes (Deuteronomy 32:4) so why question His judgment on how low your breasts sag or how wide your hips are? And really, what’s the point? I mean where does it get you other than losing money on beauty “aids” and a huge loss of self-confidence in the beautiful woman God’s creating in you. No, He’s not done yet, that takes a lifetime, but look how far He’s come with you! Step by step He’s led you down life’s road, right by your side (whether you recognized Him or not) He was there the whole time. He is ever so fond of you, and loves you so desperately, will you choose to believe Him today? Will you choose to cling to His promise never to leave you, to never let go. Will you choose to believe Him when He tells you that you are fearfully and wonderfully made? If you do, it might just change your entire perspective on the world. Remember God doesn’t make mistakes, He makes miracles – that’s you sister!