When I was a little girl,
I had all these dreams of what my life would be like when I grew up. At the
time I wanted to be a Meteorologist, despite my fear of thunderstorms. I would
go to the University of Oklahoma where I would meet the man of my dreams and we
would live happily ever after. Like many young girls and women I enjoyed
watching "chick flicks". I thought that this is how life would be for
everyone. As a teenager and even at times into to college I pictured this
fairly tale lifestyle often depicted in movies. Well I ended up falling in love
with medicine during high school and attending Oklahoma Baptist University and
graduating with a degree in Biochemistry. Now I'm in my final year of medical
school, dating an incredible man of God, and closer to my family than I have
ever been. I can honestly say I would have it no other way. I am blessed beyond
measure and I realize that God's plan and who he has made me is more important
than what my plans for my life were.
You see we all have had
these visions and dreams of what our lives will be like when we "grow
up." I recently finished reading the next section in the Resolution book.
It is called Authentically Me: A resolution to value myself and celebrate
others. In the first chapter of this section she described re-decorating a
room. She said that her decorator brought in this one little item as
inspiration to the room. She was afraid to choose it because she didn't want to
base her entire room design on such a tiny item. You know many times we do the
same thing in our lives. We base who were are on tiny things that may not have
significance. Or as I described above we strive to be something we are not
based on a movie or a book or some fairy tale we read as a child. I discovered
that in addition to what I described in the beginning I choose to base who I am
off of minor details of my life. For instance, I struggle with self confidence.
I tend to be rather difficult on myself. If I get a bad grade or don't do as
well as I would like or better than my fellow classmates I tend to think of the
worst possible situation. Through these situations I find my self deciding that
I must be a failure. This has lead me to be in relationships where I allow
others to continue these feelings of being a failure. At times this has lead me
to be a less confident individual who allows others to take advantage of her.
But in over the last two years I have realized that God has created me. He is
working on making me into a masterpiece. I am reminded by friends and family
that I am in fact a hard worker, that I am not a failure. I have learned
to be confident in myself and present myself confidently to those I come in
contact with. I realize that although there are several things that I struggle
with, these things don't define me but make me who I am. By embracing my
weakness I am able to recognize my strengths and use them to succeed in life. 1
Peter 2:9-10, reminds us of how God sees us.
"But you are a chosen people, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you
may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his
wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of
God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received
mercy"
We are royalty in God's
eyes. If God sees us this way then why do we allow our little imperfections to
define us?
We are not only seen as
royalty to God but He knows everything about us. And He desires for us to see
ourselves as the beautiful creation He has created us to be. We are daughter's
of the King of Kings. God desires for us to embrace all the uniqueness that He
has given us. He wants us to not base our lives on the little things, but on
the big thing that He has adopted us as his daughter and with that comes all
the rights and responsibilities of being His Child.
In addition to embracing
who we are, we must also encourage and affirm the unique qualities of our
sisters in Christ. I recently listened to a sermon online by Joe McGee. He was
speaking on family. He spoke on how God has created men and women differently.
He said that he created them each to serve different roles, so in a marriage
the man and the woman compliment each other. The same is true with the body of
Christ but on a much larger role. God has created us to be unique. Each of us
have different qualities to bring to the body of Christ. We are all needed to
minister to others and fulfill the mission of the Church. Women tend to pick on
each other. We tend to point out those little details in our fellow sisters,
you know those little blemishes. And as women when people do that we tend to
make those blemishes into who we are. At the end of the section she challenged
women to take the time to encourage their friends by telling them the qualities
you admire. So I challenge you. Think of those women in your life who mean the
most to you and give a call or a text to tell them what it is you admire in
them. Can you imagine the difference that would be made? How would our
relationships with other women in our churches and circles grow? How many could
we bring to Christ if we were united in our uniqueness
Resolution:
"I will accept and celebrate my uniqueness and will esteem and
encourage the distinctions I admire in others"
In closing I would like to
end with Psalm 139 from the Message
God, investigate my life;
get all the
facts firsthand.
I’m an open book to you;
even from a
distance, you know what I’m thinking.
You know when I leave and when I get back;
I’m never
out of your sight.
You know everything I’m going to say
before I
start the first sentence.
I look behind me and you’re there,
then up ahead and you’re there,
too—
your
reassuring presence, coming and going.
This is too much, too wonderful—
I can’t take
it all in!
Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit
to be out of
your sight?
If I climb to the sky, you’re there!
If I go
underground, you’re there!
If I flew on morning’s wings
to the far
western horizon,
You’d find me in a minute—
you’re
already there waiting!
Then I said to myself, “Oh, he even sees me in the dark!
At night I’m
immersed in the light!”
It’s a fact: darkness isn’t dark to you;
night and
day, darkness and light, they’re all the same to you.
Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
you formed
me in my mother’s womb.
I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking!
Body and
soul, I am marvelously made!
I worship in
adoration—what a creation!
You know me inside and out,
you know
every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
how I was
sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to
birth;
all the
stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared
before I’d
even lived one day.
Your thoughts—how rare, how beautiful!
God, I’ll
never comprehend them!
I couldn’t even begin to count them—
any more
than I could count the sand of the sea.
Oh, let me rise in the morning and live always with you!
And please,
God, do away with wickedness for good!
And you murderers—out of here!—
all the men
and women who belittle you, God,
infatuated
with cheap god-imitations.
See how I hate those who hate you, God,
see how I
loathe all this godless arrogance;
I hate it with pure, unadulterated hatred.
Your enemies
are my enemies!
Investigate my life, O God,
find out
everything about me;
Cross-examine and test me,
get a clear
picture of what I’m about;
See for
yourself whether I’ve done anything
LOVE
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