Well Show Off Then God!

What if who you are right now is who you’re suppose to be in this moment? What if everything you’ve gone through thus far is the sum total of something amazing that God is doing your life? we spend so much time pulling to pieces what makes us who we are that we tear down everything God has been building up. What we look like, how we think, how we interact with others. All the things that make us who we are. God did that!

For the majority of my childhood (and for the better part of adulthood if we‘re really being honest) I struggled with self esteem issues. I was always the chunky cousin and the ”bigger” sister or the one who hadn’t lost all her “baby fat”. As adults I don’t think we recognize the kind of power our words hold when we’re directing them toward our children. What we perceive as harmless family “nicknames” actually turn out to be volatile bombs that reck the self image and worth of a young child. God’s Word tells us, warns us, about our words; ”The tongue can bring death or life...” Proverbs 18:21. What we say has power!

I carried the nicknames, the underhanded comments, and even the nonspoken judgement with me for years. It affected the way I saw myself, the way I regarded myself, and the way I allowed others to treat me. Sure I knew the scriptures, that I was fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalms 139:14). That everything God makes is good (check out Genesis when you can) including me. I knew all of that as I got older but it still didn’t change the fact that I hated my reflection in the mirror. It wasn’t until I began dig deep, and allow the Lord to change me from the inside out that I began to see myself the way He sees me. When I allowed Him to turn off all the voices that contradicted what He says about me, I was able to truly hear His truth. Not the lies that I had been clinging to for so long. Now I can confidently say I am who He says I am. Not who they said I was. When God made me there were no mistakes. When He was preparing me for this world He didn’t hold anything back. He didn’t leave anything out. I am exactly the way God purposed me to be. Yes improvements can be made to better care for that purpose but all in all I’m exactly the way I supposed to be.

Now that I have a child of my own, especially a daughter, I will make it my mission to help her to know that God made her especially well. That she is beautiful inside AND out. My prayer is that it won’t just be my words she hears that tell her what a healthy self esteem is but also the way I live that will show her what a healthy self esteem looks like. The goal is to take the power that my words could have toward her and fuel it with the truth that God has set before all of us. That when He made us it was good, and when He made us He was showing off!

Be blessed!