And don’t even get me started on the lure of “Pinterest Perfect Living” that creates a perfect storm in too many hearts.
Don’t get me wrong. This isn’t one of those BOOOOO social media posts. Oh please.
I love Pinterest and use Social Media for my business (and have met some AMAZING people over the last few years).
But let’s be honest with how many times we are jealous, envious and comparing our reality with a “perfect face forward” image we see displayed. Best photos, best moments, never struggling… Sound familiar??
THIS is what we need to stop. THIS comparison is stealing our joy.
Let’s be clear about one thing. Comparison didn’t start when social media flew into our lives.
Nope. That little beast has been around for generations, assaulting and shutting down the hearts of men and women alike. Social Media has heightened our awareness, and we need to be on guard of where our hearts are.
But I want to address you, dear daughter, and the fight that you are in.
Did you even realize that? YOU are in a fight for your life.
There is an enemy that is hunting you, doing everything it can to steal your joy, your heart and your core identity. Evil is hunting us all and more often than not, we are completely unaware of the assault.
No wonder I feel like I can’t get out of this pit I’m in...
You, dear daughter, were made in the image of God. You were made PERFECT. Beautiful.
Don’t give me the “But I’m overweight… I’m not pretty… I’m not good enough… strong enough… smart enough” ENOUGH WITH THE LIES!
We have a choice to STOP believing them.
WE have to stop waking up every morning HATING what He so beautifully and purposefully made.
But only you can make that choice.
Please know that I get it. Its real and I have lived most of my life in that space. But we MUST believe what God says that defines us instead of believing what culture is screaming down our necks.
BE this… DO that… LOOK like this… ALWAYS be on… Never fail… SUCK IT UP… BE perfect… STAY quiet… DONT rock the boat… ENOUGH! I can’t take it anymore!
I am so tired of living up to a standard I was never meant to reach.
I am so heartbroken watching my own life and those of dear friends crumble under the weight of comparison.
I am so READY to live in the peace and freedom promised.
We were created in HIS image and if we are accusing what He made, then ultimately we are saying that He is not good and made a mistake.
Go grab your Bible and open it up to Psalm 139 right now and let the truth wash over you.
For you createdmy inmost being; youknit 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. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts,God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand— when I awake, I am still with you.
Psalm 139 13-18 (Emphasis mine)
I want you to read that verse again and ask the Father what He was thinking about when He made you.
What were His emotions?
What was His desire?
What purpose were you created for?
Have you ever thought about the fact that you could have been born 100 years ago? 1000 years ago?
But God chose you for THIS time. To be here in THIS generation with THESE pressures and trials to give HIM glory.
We are all in the battle.
We are all in the struggle in some way.
Yet we have a God who is intentional, purposeful and perfect in His leadership.
We have a Father who sees us, knows us and has counted every hair on our heads.
This is who you are beloved. You are His and He is fiercely committed to you.
What if we actually walked in that confidence?
Believed what He said was true?
What if instead of comparing and tearing each other down, we actually spoke life over one another?
Love over one another?
Calling out the beauty we see in each other?
Offering rest to our weary souls and acceptance that we are ALL on the journey to stand before Him in love.
This is such a deep desire, and reach for my life.
I have not always loved well. I recognize this.
I have made many mistakes. I also recognize this.
But I know that God is for me and has given me grace to love, grow and lean into Him. Grace to love others as myself and speak life and truth instead of lies and accusation.
I invite you to ask Him some of these questions.
Let Him touch your heart and give you grace to love who He made.
You are enough. You are loved. You are worthy.
You are adored.
Start the dialogue and let Him pursue the deeper places of your heart.
I’ll do it with you. Who knows, maybe if we stop comparing ourselves so much, we could actually love well.
My heart feels like it is might burst; expanded to a capacity where I know something deep has taken place.
Why? I did something CRAZY!
I journeyed with a few women away to the mountains this past weekend and turned everything OFF.
Cell phone. Computer. Email. Social Media. OFF
MAGICAL.
Have you done that recently? Taken a day or two and unplugged?
Let go of the tangled web of comparison…
I can’t begin to tell you how clear-headed, clean and energized I feel.
Life comes at us at a million miles an hour.
Work demands our strength.
Family requires our attention.
Friends desire our time.
Daily tasks delay without attention.
But what about your heart, dear daughter? Is it alive?
Do you remember glimpses of YOU before the swirls of life took over with its needs?
Are you living from your heart?
In returning home from this weekend, I am pondering the idea, the notion, the audacious and terrifying longing of living from the WHOLE heart.
Not living from my daily task list, work demands or even family necessities. (They never seem to stop, do they?)
But the heart? I’m not sure I have time for all that…
In Biblical language, your heart is the center of the human spirit, from which spring emotions, thought, motivations, courage and action; thus it is the ‘wellspring of life’ (NIV Study Bible Note on Psalm 4:7)
Our heart houses so many beautiful aspects of our identity. It is the source of our thought life, what we feel and all of our deepest desires. How many of us feel like our heart is barely beating, our dreams have fallen under piles of laundry and the feeling of opening up brings up pain and heartache.
All too often we hear voices scream “Suck it up… You don’t have time to feel… You are too much and no one cares…”
Yet God, in the riches of His goodness, has called us to live wholehearted, alive in love with Him. He has crafted us to represent His glory and beauty, aspects of His nature that only women can display. Our heart is essential to our very being, the core of who we are. Without it open, tender and vulnerable, we fall into deception, confusion, isolation and despair. (Anyone else out there??)
Yet there is a Father who loves, sees and cares.
A Father in heaven who wants to take us on the journey to discovering how we can learn to love US.
To be patient with the process, gentle with the journey, humble in the breaking and loving what He intentionally made.
You, beloved, are not a mistake.
You, dear daughter, are not too much.
You are bright, beautiful, astounding, capable, tender, fierce, courageous, inviting, beautiful and life-giving.
You have much to offer and much to experience.
Find a safe place to sit in silence, even for just a few moments, and ask your Father to take you on a journey of discovery. A journey into the place of loving yourself, accepting your faults and patiently opening your heart to His love.
The adventure is worth it.
You have a huge part to play in the most beautiful of stories.
YOURS.
I don’t know about you, but most years I have struggled with my birthday.
The longing to feel celebrated… but the fear of being seen.
It is a tension I’ve known all too well.
But this year is different. This year is full of beauty, wonder and freedom from fear.
Freedom from the fear of being truly known. The fear of walking with an open and vulnerable heart, fierce in love.
The fear of rejection and abandonment. The fear of being truly seen for me.
“Show me your face, let me hear your voice; For your voice is sweet and your face is lovely.” -Song of Songs 2:14
This year I am on the journey towards releasing fear and entering into the adventure of living from the heart.
Truly letting my heart believe what God says about me and allowing my heart to feel and believe that truth.
Living from the place of total surrender.
Living free from comparison, performance and striving.
I want to come to learn how to live a beautiful life.
Did you know that your beauty is shouting and beckoning those around you.
Your beauty speaks. Your beauty is inviting.
Your beauty is real, raw and vulnerable. Your beauty nourishes those around you.
Your beauty is comforting and alluring. Your beauty is meant to inspire, encourage and bring life.
Your beauty draws those around you to God.
This year I am choosing to live open and vulnerable, and I want to invite anyone willing to embark on the journey.
Living with the goal to know and be known by those around me.
Taking down the walls of preservation and letting the gift of love soften me.
Sometimes life hardens us, shames us and causes us to hide. Not anymore. I welcome you 34, with a heart tender, open and expectant ❤
Ok.
So I have a thought and need to know if I am the only one… Or if perhaps, there are many of us in the same place.
My thought is about the importance and value of being JUST YOU.
I’m talking about being ALL IN, no matter the season. About loving FULLY, no matter the heartache. About being all that God has made YOU to be, even when its downright HARD.
YES. HARD!
My heart is reflecting this morning on BEING (who God made) ME (to be).
Just me. Quirks, humor, personality, dreams and desires… ME!
Not comparing myself to my nearest and dearest friend.
Not being what I presume my husband wants me to be.
Not living under the shadow or cloud of who I was a year ago, but JUST BEING ME. Today.
And you know whats amazing about this?
I AM ENOUGH! Just the way I am. TODAY!
Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. (Matthew 7:13-14, ESV)
Did you catch that? THE WAY IS HARD.
From the mouth of Jesus Himself!
HARD!!? But everyone said that when I came to know Jesus, life would get better, easier, simpler, blessed, money, provision etc…
Anyone heard these phrases? Lived under them? Questioned God when life didn’t go quite the way you thought??
He gave us a tender yet sober warning that the WAY IS HARD… Hard, but so incredibly and deeply worth it.
Shame tries to silence us and make us believe that we are not good enough, strong enough, pretty enough, skinny enough, patient enough or loving enough to truly walk in the fullness of God. Yet the moment we allow shame and condemnation to take even the smallest foothold, we are allowing those lies of the enemy to crush us into despair and a false identity of who God says we are.
The silence and isolation that follow shame are real and debilitating in the process of allowing others to speak life into the deep places of our heart. How then do we crawl out of the pit? How do we walk as God made EACH of us to be!?
My challenge to us all today is asking The Lord what HE sees and thinks of us in every aspect of our lives. EVERY Arena.
Its not about what others think. At the end of the day, God’s opinion of me is the ONLY one that matters.
He is the giver and of life and breathes truth into my weary soul… He gives abundantly when I ASK.
YOU ARE ENOUGH. You are created in His image. You are FEARFULLY & WONDERFULLY made!
My mother always told me growing up that “Hard is not bad, its just hard.”
There is always a light at the end of the tunnel. Weeks, months, years of wrestling produce a patient endurance inside of us.
Let your heart be free today to just be you. Thank The Lord for making you EXACTLY the way you are. Take a deep breath (literally) and thank Him for your beauty, your strength, your wisdom, your friends, your family and your eternal relationship with Him.
He is near to you today and LOVES every part about you. Ask Him to reveal a deeper measure of His nature and character today and let the beauty of who YOU are be enough!
Comment below in any capacity you would like to share and let me pray with you, agreeing with the truth that He speaks over you.
