Beauty ~ To Each His Own

Pss. 36:2 “For he flattereth himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found to be hateful.”

As some of you may know, I attended a Catholic school from first to eighth grades. Daily I wore the uniform of the plaid jumpers with a white collared shirt for five years, to the plaid skirt and white shirt for another three. 

I never had to worry about competing with looking good to the other girls. Each passing year the time came for me to receive my hand-me-down jumpers from my shorter sister. Yeah, I was taller than my sister by second grade and even with the awkward unleashing of the hem the length was still too short, for me. 

All the other girls had new pristine jumpers every year obviously from a wealthier family but me and my little jumpers, we made it through five years, and the skirts lasted for three. Only on weekends and after school did I wear different, more comfortable clothes and I always decided that this was when I was defiantly going to show my body in a way the nuns would scoff.

I suffered from low self-esteem as a child always trying to be different and I would dress to where I would be noticed, whether it was in butt bearing shorts, halter tops or painted on jeans. I was being noticed; icy blue/gray eyes, long flowing blonde hair, a perfect size zero. It didn’t take me long to figure out that men (yes grown men) were not looking at me (a child) because I was cute, they were looking at me like I was a raw steak being fired up on the grill and they couldn’t wait to stick a fork in me! Certainly not the attention I was seeking.

As I grew, I matured and realized I didn’t need that sort of attention; my tastes in clothing grew, as did my self-esteem. Sure I was now a perfect size six, still long flowing blonde hair and icy blue/gray eyes but something had changed within me; I found God. No longer was I dressing for beastly men, I was now dressing for God! I wanted Him to notice the beauty within me and I longed to please Him in every way.

The problem with that was I was still being noticed in my modestly covered up body but no longer seen as a steak on a grill, I was being admired as a beautiful woman. People saw something in me and I’m most certain it was God shining through me; I had finally become the modest young lady my father could be proud of and the person my heavenly Father didn’t have to turn His head away from.

It saddens me today to look around and see the young girls dressing like they want to work the strip in their hot-pants and boob bearing shirts but I also see that men have not changed over my lifetime. Since the beginning of time man has lusted after the female gender, sadly young or old. Women have always wanted to be looked at and some of us will go to great measure to see our esteem lifted. I would never go to the lengths women do today with all of the plastic surgery from their noses all the way down to their butts. They NEED to be seen and men NEED to look. 

How can I help these young girls? Do I judge them? Do I laugh at their foolishness or do I show compassion and understanding knowing I was much like them once?

Besides pray, I’ll write. The only way to look beautiful and I mean REALLY beautiful is when you have self-confidence. You don’t need tattoos and to be pierced in every orifice to feel confident; you don’t need to dress in slutty attire to attract a man. A real man is attracted to inner beauty that exudes from you whether you’re dowdy or absolutely gorgeous. The beauty you carry inside is what finds the real men to marry, not the false bravado you traipse around and taunt men with. You need to know you’re worth something to YOU not just an object for men to be their eye candy!

I’ve seen many young girls walk into church looking like they were going out to a nightclub and yes, I would think what on EARTH possessed them to wear THAT? Then I remember…I was once like that too; in time they’ll realize it is only for God they should look good for, not for the MAN beast or the WOMAN competitor. Build confidence in YOURSELF, dress for YOU, see your beauty as God sees your beauty! He doesn’t see you with dyed hair, tons of make-up – He sees you naked and bare and what He sees is BEAUTY!

For the non-believers please know, if you’re dressed as a lady of the evening and you’re attracting men and boys, know that they’re not worth the air you breathe if sleaze is what they’re interested in. Maybe it IS what you’re interested in; a life with no breath. 

Quotation Saturday

Hebrews 12:14 Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord:

FRIENDSHIP

If I take offence easily; if I am content to continue in cold unfriendliness, though friendship be possible, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

~ Amy Carmichael

The good man has his enemies. He would not be like his Lord if he had not. If we were without enemies we might fear that we were not the friends of God, for the friendship of the world is enmity to God.

 ~ Charles Spurgeon

Ah, I have kept Him waiting when I ought not, but He has waited even then. Always waiting – so patient with my foolishness, my weakness, my fear. Our fellowship is with God, and fellowship is friendship, and friendship means that partnership which, on His part, is the accommodating of His strength to my weakness.

~ G. Campbell Morgan

It is one of the severest tests of friendship to tell your friend his faults. So to love a man that you cannot bear to see a stain upon him, and to speak painful truth through loving words, that is friendship.

~  Henry Ward Beecher

The true, the genuine worship is when man, through his spirit, attains to friendship and intimacy with God. True and genuine worship is not to come to a certain place; it is not to go through a certain ritual or liturgy; it is not even to bring certain gifts. True worship is when the spirit, the immortal and invisible part of man, speaks to and meets with God, who is immortal and invisible.

~ William Barclay

God has played an important part of change in me and just when I think I’m changed enough for me, He says, ‘Not me, you need more.’ And then He goes about changing me further. Praise God!

CHANGE

He who shall introduce into public affairs the principles of basic Christianity will change the face of the world.

~ Benjamin Franklin

What you need to do, is to put your will over completely into the hands of your Lord, surrendering to Him the entire control of it. Say, “Yes, Lord, YES!” to everything, and trust Him to work in you to will, as to bring your whole wishes and affections into conformity with His own sweet, and lovable, and most lovely will. It is wonderful what miracles God works in wills that are utterly surrendered to Him. He turns hard things into easy, and bitter things into sweet. It is not that He puts easy things in the place of the hard, but He actually changes the hard thing into an easy one. 

~ Hannah Whitall Smith

Nothing paralyzes our lives like the attitude that things can never change. We need to remind ourselves that God can change things. Outlook determines outcome. If we see only the problems, we will be defeated; but if we see the possibilities in the problems, we can have victory. 

~ Warren Wiersbe

Many times we are content with sitting on the sidelines, always hearing about other’s lives being changed in huge ways and God being so important in their life. We go to church and hear people talk about what God has been doing in their life. We go to events and conferences that we hope will microwave our Christian maturity to well done. We read books on how other’s lives were changed. And that is good enough for us, but deep down inside, we wish we could have that happen in our own life. So we make promises to try harder. We recommit our lives to Jesus. We might begin having devotions more often. But, after a while, the desire dies off and the excitement has turned into duty and we give up. Obedience makes the difference in a life that is sold out for God. It is seeing what God does with our attitude of following what He has in the Bible that brings about change in our hearts and a Christian walk that is on fire. 

~ Zach Conrad

“In the midst of change, God calls me to change more.”

~ Joni

God never said the road to Him was a simple and easy road, just read and believe. He did make it clear that the road was a long and hard one but He’d always be there to guide you.

GODLY

“Faith, as Paul saw it, was a living, flaming thing leading to surrender and obedience to the commandments of Christ.” 

~ A.W. Tozer

“When a man is getting better he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him. When a man is getting worse he understands his own badness less and less.” 

~C.S. Lewis

“I have found that there are three stages in every great work of God; first, it is impossible, then it is difficult, then it is done.” 

~ Hudson Taylor

Christians are like the several flowers in a garden that have each of them the dew of Heaven, which, being shaken with the wind, they let fall at each other’s roots, whereby they are jointly nourished, and become nourishers of each other. 

~ John Bunyan

Peace in the Lord washes over me like a fine misty waterfall. I’m surrounded, I’m  bathed, I’m cleansed.

PEACE

God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing. 

~ C.S. Lewis

The foundation of the Christian’s peace is everlasting; it is what no time, no change can destroy. It will remain when the body dies; it will remain when the mountains depart and the hills shall be removed, and when the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll. The fountain of His comfort shall never be diminished, and the stream shall never be dried. His comfort and joy is a living spring in the soul, a well of water springing up to everlasting life. 

~ Jonathan Edwards

Resign every forbidden joy; restrain every wish that is not referred to God’s will; banish all eager desires, all anxiety; desire only the will of God; seek him alone and supremely, and you will find peace. 

~ Francois Fenelon

In the midst of the awesomeness, a touch comes, and you know it is the right hand of Jesus Christ. You know it is not the hand of restraint, correction, nor chastisement, but the right hand of the Everlasting Father. Whenever His hand is laid upon you, it gives inexpressible peace and comfort, and the sense that “underneath are the everlasting arms,” (Deuteronomy 33:27) full of support, provision, comfort and strength. 

~ Oswald Chambers

Lent: Day Thirty-six ~ God Uses Christians

“We are the Bibles the world is reading; We are the creeds the world is needing; We are the sermons the world is heeding.” Billy Graham

God Uses Christians 

I know a few people who have asked, where is God today? We’re living in a dying world with nature rearing it’s ugly head in ways not seen in centuries past. With wildfires, drought, starvation, evil corrupting what’s left of society, where IS God?

While I’m not blind to the world around me, I see the fires, death and destruction all peaking at an all time high. Sometimes people feel God has forgotten us and just left us to fend for ourselves; He hasn’t left us, He is USING us.

When our cousin Mary died on the 20^th of March, we were hit with the shock then the sadness of her being so young. Didn’t Mary have more to do? Couldn’t she help from earth instead of heaven?

Since the age of sixteen Mary has been called to go on mission trips to Ghana to help the needy. This is what her entire short life was dedicated to. While I have never felt the call to go on a mission trip (they’re not trips as humans tend to understand) Mary devoted her life to helping others. She was a part of the Rotary Society and their mission was assistance to the needy.

Mary’s work for God was done. He used her in so many ways and even in death the donation of her corneas was going to make some family exceedingly rewarded. I know that from first hand experience. Her Light shone for all the world to see. Even when she herself was in excruciating pain and very near the end, her light, love and laughter drew a crowd who all wanted to pay their last respects to this Godly young woman.

God uses us for His work. While we might think our lives are insignificant, if you’re a Christian, He is using you in some way that maybe not even you know. People need to see God alive in you, not treated as a passing fancy one week, throwing out scripture the next. They need to see Him in you daily, which is how He stays alive in this world.

I have a friend with Parkinson’s disease and is fighting other illnesses as well. While she doesn’t understand why this is happening to her, I’m assuming God is using her. I think He’s using her to show others how to carry an illness with strength. Other people fighting illnesses will look to her and say, “How is she staying so strong?” And she’ll answer, “The power of God in me.” Having lived her life dedicated to the Church and to Christ they will see God living in her and God using her. She becomes a living testimony.

This is what God is using Christian’s for. To be alive in Christ! Be His voice, be His Word and be His rock. This is no small task either.

I often wondered where I fit in to the grander scheme of things. Am I being used? Well of course I am! I call to mind a sermon from Pastor Mike a few months ago. He was speaking on being used by God. He said that someone wrote to him and said that they felt insignificant and that all they could do was pray. He got all excited at this point and said, “ALL you can do is pray? That is one of God’s biggest jobs is to use people to pray!”

This is why I take prayer so serious. It cannot be undermined, it cannot be simplified, it has to be done with the power and strength of the Lord and with everything in you, not just a passing verb.

God is out in full force using Christian’s and we know it. Maybe He’s using you to care for an elderly person, maybe He’s using you as a Samaritan, maybe He is calling you to do mission work, maybe He’s calling you to be a Light to others so that they see Him in you, maybe He’s using an illness to show people strength or maybe He’s using you to fervently pray. Whatever the case may be, God is using Christian’s globally to bring forth the Glory of God.

So no matter how insignificant you may feel in this world, if you’re a Christian, know that God is busy using you in ways you cannot imagine. In life and death we are all part of the kingdom of God. Our testimony will live when our bodies are laid to rest. Our light will shine forth the eternal power of God.

Job 36:24 Remember that thou magnify his work, which men behold.