A letter to my 16 year old self.

Dear 16 year old self,  Don’t try so hard. Those people you are trying to emulate will still be those same people in 10 years, and suddenly the tables will turn. You will look back at old pictures and think, …

Finding Peace with that Proverbs 31 Lady.

I really don’t like that Proverbs 31 lady. She is just so… together. Her life is perfectly organized and well managed. She has everything figured out. And everyone just loves her. She is not a normal woman- she stands out big time.

I want to like her, really. The problem is when I look at her I see all of my inadequacies. I see the inevitable dust on the shelves and the dog hair that reappears the second I put up the broom. I see the imperfect relationships in my life. I see my inability to master anything half as well as her.

So instead of looking up to Proverbs 31 lady, I bitterly resent her. I have this vision of her in my mind. She’s totally gorgeous- no acne, skinny, flawless. She’s balancing a quiet and clean baby on the hip with one hand, sewing clothes the other, and dinner is cooking in the background (and you can bet it won’t be burned!). Ugh.

But the closer I grow with God, the more I can stop picking at my flaws and imperfections. I can start to understand that I am enough, exactly as I am. And it has nothing to do with my performance or perfection. It has everything to do with God being the utmost priority in my life. More than a clean house or an employee of the month award is my relationship with God. When He is my priority, He spills out into all of the other areas of my life.

Every single day I need God’s grace to save me, heal me, and make me perfect in His sight. It is God’s grace that gives me a purpose, not my performance or perfection.
So maybe I can find peace with my friend in Proverbs 31 when I look at her with this light. She isn’t a checklist of who I ought to be, but a reflection of who I can be when God’s love is my first priority.

God wants us to be so filled with Him that others cannot possibly look at us without seeing Him. His love should change us and make us stand out. Others should see something different about us. Just like Proverbs 31, we should stand out.

God’s love for us is what makes us stand out. Despite my shortcomings, God chooses to love me. I can extend love and grace to others because love and grace have been extended to me.

We love because He first loved us. (1 John 4:19)

Walking Daily.

They received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.  (Acts 17:11b) How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. I have stored up …

All Things New.

My husband and I have been busy working summer camps with high school summer missionaries for over a month. This means we are spending the majority of our time out at camp, and not home. We had some fresh garlic …

the Lord God

I have loved the #shereadstruth bible studies and community for some time now. (If you’ve never seen them, go check them out here.)
We are currently working through a study called ‘A Fresh Start’.

One of the things that really stood out to me today was in Genesis 2:4. Up until that point, the bible only calls God “God” or “Elohim“, meaning the God of power. But in that verse, we see a new name, “Lord God” for the first time. Lord, or Jehovah, means the God of perfection. So when we call Him “Lord God”, we are calling Him the God of both power and perfection.

Isn’t that a beautiful thing?! I spent some time thinking about that truth. Think of something incredibly powerful. My mind jumped to a ruler, like Hitler- someone powerful but corrupt and far from perfection. Now think of something incredibly perfect. I imagined a snowflake, the kind you rarely see that looks exactly like a snowflake should! (Like this!) definitely perfect, but fragile and delicate.

I can hardly wrap my mind around the Lord God who is both incredibly perfect and incredibly powerful! How awesome is He!?

Welcome to this New Year.

Happy New Year friends! Please take a moment to read and share this- it truly blessed me! Let Jesus carry each day for you. Don’t worry about the weeks ahead. Avoid letting the activities and expenses of the coming month …