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Learning to accept and love who we were created to be is no easy task. I think it’s a journey, because we are always changing throughout the seasons in life. Some are easier than others.
It’s easy to assume we need to change ourselves in order to be liked, in order to have friends, in order to be anything at all, because it’s a message that’s thrown at us everyday in a hundred different ways. Not just how we look, but who we are.
Even with the whole feel- good self love movement, the underlying issue-searching for who we are and what we created for-cannot be found in one’s own heart.
I remember when I was little, I had a friend named Ellen. Ellen was a couple years older than me, carefree and outspoken, and I wanted to be just like her. ( I was particularly jealous of golden curly hair) One day, we went ice skating with another one of our friends, Beth. On the way there, sitting in the backseat of the car with all three of us squished together, Ellen said “I want to have a play date with you, Beth. But I don’t want her to come, “Glancing at me, “I want it to be just you and me.”
I remember the way my stomach dropped, and I turned my little head to the window and tried to hide my face, wiping away a tear on my puffy pink coat. “they don’t like me.”
Unfortunately, my mind often seems to draw that conclusion, even when it isn’t true at all. I start to overthink the way people perceive me and try to act or be who I think they must want me to be.
And then I thought, “Why do I care so much about what they think?” At the end of the day, it’s just another person with another opinion.
You aren’t designed for everyone to like you. If you were, you wouldn’t be your lovely unique self.
Yes, words can hurt. Especially if you are tender hearted like me. They are hard to forget. They stick in your mind, like a garden full of weeds. The longer they exist, the bigger they grow, and the more pain they seem to cause.
But whatever hateful comments that people say, or whatever hateful comments you may say about yourself, I promise you those things are not from God.
"For you are a people holy to the Lord your God, the Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession." -Deuteronomy 7:6
You and I are treasured possessions of God. The same God who created the moon and the stars and those beautiful hazy sunsets that take our breath away.
This quote I heard in church yesterday: "You were not made his because you are valuable, but you are valuable because you are his."
I know it's a challenge to believe this, for many of us. But God wants you to know how much he loves you. He wants you to see your beauty and your value. And if you open up your heart to him, he has the power to change the way you see yourself, and the way you see him.
But whatever hateful comments that people say, or whatever hateful comments you may say about yourself, I promise you those things are not from God.
"For you are a people holy to the Lord your God, the Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession." -Deuteronomy 7:6
You and I are treasured possessions of God. The same God who created the moon and the stars and those beautiful hazy sunsets that take our breath away.
This quote I heard in church yesterday: "You were not made his because you are valuable, but you are valuable because you are his."
I know it's a challenge to believe this, for many of us. But God wants you to know how much he loves you. He wants you to see your beauty and your value. And if you open up your heart to him, he has the power to change the way you see yourself, and the way you see him.
2 comments
This is perfect. Thank you so much for the reminder. ♥
ReplyDeleteI love this so much. <3
ReplyDelete