A couple of weekends ago I had the opportunity to help out with the student girls retreat at church. It was lead by ID ministries and their theme was fearless. They talked with the girls about fearless living. We discussed many of the fears that we may have. It was such a blessing to minister to the girls and discuss fears they have. I told these girls that we all have fears. As women we all struggle with the same fears. We struggle to please other people. We fear the fact that we struggle to please others. We fear that those around us will see who we really are, or that the things others say about us are true. We fear that we will fail. We fear to struggle and to let others see our struggle and join. We are afraid to take off our masks and be real. This fear becomes such an integral part of our life that we even approach God with our masks, even though He can see who we really are. At the retreat it was discussed that fear was present from the first sin that man kind committed. When Adam and Eve sinned they hide from God because they were afraid. Satan had deceived them, he had tried to tell them that there was something better that God was keeping from them. The same is true in our lives. The great deceiver tries to tell us that what God has given us isn't good enough, that we are not good enough, that we are failures, that we are not pretty, that we can't struggle, that we have to be perfect, and that we have to wear masks. But truth lies in our ability to recognize these fears as lies from the deceiver. When we recognize that we can turn our fears over to God. You see fears are common, we all have them. The problem lies when we hold to our fears and we let them rule our lives. God, our father want to take our fears and lead us into truth. The truth that He loves us just the way we are and we don't have to put a mask on before Him.
It isn't always easy to take our masks off before God and turn over our fears to God. It takes work and sometimes it can be painful because it requires us being vulnerable before God. But the handwork and pain leads to beautiful creations. God already sees us as masterpieces, He just desires for us to see ourselves as one. God wants you to be vulnerable before Him so He can finish the master piece he started. Recently my boyfriend Jarrod and I re-did my flower beds. If you have ever seen my flower beds you know what a task this was. You see my flower beds were full of monkey grass when I moved in. I had already cleaned out the "small" one out but it had a bunch of dead stuff in it. The big one was full of monkey grass. Jarrod used his rotatiller to help pull up the monkey grass and their roots. We had to rake up the grass to get it all gone. This was hard work. We planted beautiful flowers in the flower bed and covered it with lots of mulch to try and keep the monkey grass from coming back. You see my flower bed is a lot like our lives and our fears. We have lives that our full of annoying monkey grass. Monkey grass grows like crazy, its a weed and to get it to go away, you have to get at the roots. You have to pull up all the roots so it won't come back. Sometimes in our lives we just pick at the surface of our fears. Letting a few of them be known before God or in a particular group of friends, but we leave out what is at the root of our being. When we do that the fears come back and over take our lives like the monkey grass does when we don't pull its roots. I have to tend my flower bed to watch for any monkey grass that may come out and remove it from the bed. You see its hard work keeping my flower bed free of weeds. Its hard work keeping our lives free of fears. We can't do it on our own. We have to let God help us. We have to turn our fears over to Him and seek the truth that is in His promises for our lives. When need to enlist those around us to help us and keep us accountable. Because we all fear and we all struggle with it. But just like I needed help with my flower bed, we need to recognize that we can all help each other.
 |
| Cleaning the grass out |
 |
| Final Product |
"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well"
Psalm 139:14
