Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Be What God Sees - Self Worth

Psalm 139:13-16 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. (NIV)

There has been much talk about women and self-esteem/self-worth or lack thereof. We are so hard on ourselves! God has seen us at our best and at our worst and loves us the same through it all. My mind is flashing to people bowing down repeatedly saying, "We're not worthy, we're not worthy" BUT God says we are. We are valuable BECAUSE God made us in His image. In the verse above, it is stated "I know that full well". Time to tell our minds what our heart already knows.

Per www.webster.com
esteem: worth, value, opinion, judgment, the regard in which one is held
self-esteem: a confidence and satisfaction with oneself
self-worth: refers back to self esteem

I always used to think self-esteem seemed kind of self centered. It is not self centered to be confident and satisfied in who God made us to be and the talents He gives us to share with the world.

How much more valuable could we feel if we start to see ourselves as God sees us? Think of it as God glasses. We might see (and feel) like the compost heap. God sees through ALL that mess and sees the beautiful flower that is growing with the help of the compost pile. God sees the butterfly waiting to fly and soar, we see the caterpillar.

Time to change our way of thinking ladies (and gentlemen, but you usually don't hear guys talk about it as much). I'm thinking tee-shirts: Be What God Sees ;)

Be What God Sees
Karen L.
5-22-07

She looks in the mirror
And she doesn’t like what she sees
Eyes too wide, nose too flat,
Thinking she’s too fat.

Learning to look past the mirror
Is harder than it seems
She wants to be
All that she dreams

Time flies by
She keeps getting older
Finally, somebody told her

She can be what God sees

God looks past the mirror
And into the most important part
God looks into her heart

He sees all that He has put there
The beauty, the laughter, the song
She’s free to sing
When she sees what God sees
In her

Monday, November 26, 2007

SPLURGE!

Ok, I'm sure this will end up sounding silly, but this has been on my mind lately. Many times I'll go above and beyond to give a gift to someone else. I like to find something that will mean a lot to them...or has meant a lot to me...and if it's on sale, even better! :)

However, when it comes time to buying something for myself, I will usually buy the plain and/or inexpensive. Examples off the top of my head would be perfume (even though it will last for quite awhile) and undergarments (also will usually last quite awhile!) wink! ;)

There was a woman at a mom conference one time that mentioned red underwear. She mentioned you'll feel more confident knowing your little secret. So, the last time I bought undies, I splurged. No, I didn't get red. BUT I had the plain whities in my hand when I spotted the silkier, lacier, more colorful, only 50cents to a dollar more for the same amount of pairs package. I knew it was meant to be when they even had my size.

Now, I would like to say that given the proper undie secret all my problems have moved on. Ha! No such luck. But the undies did start a small difference in me that I've been trying to keep going. My realization is that I should do no less for me than I am willing to do for someone else. Does that sound selfish? It's not meant to and it's even biblical.

Matthew 22: 36 - 39"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' (NIV)

When we have other people depending on us, "me" can get lost in the shuffle. Remember in order to love others, we have to love God 1st and "me" also. Find a way to splurge on yourself today and then be willing and more able to give to others!

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Acronym / Abbreviations

Sometimes, it's easier to remember some of the little sayings and then put it into practice (OR on a bracelet!) :)

One I thought up: FAITH - Father, Alone It's Too Hard

Some abbreviations I know/have heard of:
WWJD - What Would Jesus Do
FROG - Fully Rely on God
BIBLE - Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth (Burlap to Cashmere song)
DOG - Depend on God
FEAR - False Evidence Appearing Real (heard on Dave Ramsey)
PRAYER - Positive Reassuring Action Yielding Eternal Results
PRAY - Praise Repent Ask and Yield

Neat website:
http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/

Feel free to put any others you know of (or have thought up) in the comments!

Monday, November 19, 2007

The Armor of God - Spiritual Armor to keep fighting the good fight!

The Armor of God (I added) NIV New International Version
Ephesians 6:10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
================================
Oh, lately I've been feeling those flaming arrows of the devil's schemes! It is SO hard to keep the peaceful feeling when under attack. My feet want to run, not stay and fight! But this verse says stand, so fight I must. I need to daily remind myself to put on this armor that God so readily provides. Some of my thoughts on the pieces:

Belt of Truth around the waist: Our waist is pretty much the center of our body. We need to make the Truth only found in God, our center.

Breastplate of Righteousness: I looked up the word righteous and found: acting in accord with divine or moral law : free from guilt or sin. A breastplate would protect our heart. We need to keep our hearts free from guilt and sin.

Feet fitted with the gospel of Peace: I believe another version refers to the shoes of peace and good news. We can use our feet to go and tell others about the source of our peace.

Shield of Faith: A breastplate stays on the body. A shield can be moved around to protect us from attack in any direction. Bigger attacks need a bigger shield of faith!

Helmet of Salvation: A helmet protects our head and salvation protects our minds. When that helmet is in place, we can focus on the truly important and weed out those negative thought tapes that try to play in our minds. We are saved and protected by God. His voice, even when it's that still small voice, speaks truth and love.

Sword of the Spirit - word of God: Like the shield...bigger attacks require bigger equipment to fight. Spending more time with the Bible gives us the reminders of verses to use when things look worse than they might be.

Pray - in the spirit....we do not fight alone!

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Why the big fuss?

While I was writing/reviewing the other post about persecuted Christians, I had a thought. It was this: If God is NOT who He says He is, why do so many people care enough to fight about it?

Persecuted Christians and Church

I had planned to write about spiritual armor...and I will. However, it has been laying heavy on my heart how people across the world suffer for Christ...and we, in the USA, tend to take for granted the freedoms we possess. (Even JUST the ability to write and post about God!)

On October 31, I sent the following e-mail to family and friends:

Recently, our son and I have been using the Taming a Liger - Unexpected Lessons from Napolean Dynomite as a devotional (see link if interested. We have had some really good discussions and it is very thought provoking...even though it links back to the movie, which seems kind of pointless, in my humble adult opinion!). ;)

http://www.amazon.com/Taming-Liger-Unexpected-Spiritual-Napoleon/dp/1576839109

Tonight it was about how we received the Holy Spirit and it talked about persecuted Christians. He asked me if persecution really happens. Wow! I didn't know he wasn't aware of how blessed we are to live where we do. Then I realized I don't know a whole lot about it either.... so I typed in persecuted church in Google and came up with this.

http://www.persecutedchurch.org/

International Day of Prayer for the persecuted church is November 11. It looks like there is some good info for bulletin inserts and discussion guides here:

http://members.opendoorsusa.org/site/PageServer?pagename=IDOP2007_Kit_contents

I did not totally review yet, but I thought I would pass on the word to others who might want to help raise awareness.
Thanks!
=====================================================
I just watched something on another person's blog (Thanks Gary @ JQ) regarding a rock group from Russia. They were amazed that we had Bibles in hotel rooms...for free! At the time, they could be in serious trouble for having Christian literature, let alone the Bible in their possession. One man talked about the only Bible they had was a handwritten copy. One person in their meetings had paid $700 for a little Bible.

I decided (AND figured out how!) to put the video here as it is very moving. Now, granted it looks a little dated - check the hair....but a powerful testimony. If you have a few minutes, definitely worth watching:

Sunday, November 04, 2007

Special Needs Kids - Italy or Holland Enjoy the sights!

The other day I had been feeling kind of down. I felt like I was losing at the game of Life. I was feeling overwhelmed (I HATE that feeling). Over the last few weeks, I've had a few dreams die....BUT that leaves room for new dreams.

Since then, I have reminded myself that my spiritual armor is always there just WAITING for me to use it. (Ephesians 6:10-18, next post) So as I put on my shoes of peace and grab my shield of faith, I believe I was led to an explanation that helped me make it through that day...and those that follow.

I wrote the part between the ===== to the resource room teacher when I found the following as I felt it would help some other parents as well.

I found out later that Emily Perl Kingsley (the author) had a Downs Syndrome son and wrote for Sesame Street among other things. Further info I found out is listed at the bottom. I believe these words can cover many disabilities - visible or not.
===============================================
I was clicking to check something else, but this was at the top. I think I
was supposed to read this today. I believe this explains things pretty
well. Guess part of the hard part is realizing I'm in Holland....and the
special needs aren't always visible which makes it hard for others to
understand sometimes.
Found on
http://imom.com/brewing/
10/31/07
================================================
Encouragement Story
Parenting a Special Needs Child

By Emily Perl Kingsley
I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a
disability to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience
to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this:

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation
trip to Italy. You buy a bunch of guidebooks and make your wonderful plans:
the Coliseum, Michelangelo's David, the gondolas in Venice. You may learn
some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your
bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess
comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and
there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible,
disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just
a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guidebooks. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than
Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath,
you look around and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills – and
Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy ... and they're
all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of
your life, you will say, "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's
what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away, because the loss
of that dream is a very, very significant loss.

But if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy,
you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things
about Holland.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Emily Pearl Kingsley’s article has been widely circulated in support groups and medical circles.Please credit as follows: As published in “That All May Worship and Serve,” July, 2002, as published on the United Church of Christ Disabilities Ministries web site at http://www.uccdm.org/2000/07/21/acceptance-of-your-child-welcome-to-holland/ Most recent contact information for Emily Pearl Kingsley: 12 Justine Ct Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510-2534 (914) 923-2995

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Perl_Kingsley

Saturday, November 03, 2007

God or Me ... who moved?

http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=ee73e63418003b47d7d5

It is a very visual reminder of how we let things/people get in the way of our relationship with God. For a long time, the focus was on religion. I wish someone would have told me sooner how much God loves us/me individually (still blows my mind), now church is an added bonus of worshipping with others and refilling the emotional/spiritual tank.

God fights to keep us close to Him...we're the ones who move. Think about moving back! :) If God seems far away right now, what's holding you back? Let Him help carry the load.

Turn your speakers up, the music is good too. You might even need to watch it twice...once to focus on the right side of the screen and the 2nd time for the left side.

I've read others now figured I'd try Blogging...

I have enjoyed reading blogs of other people and I like to write so I figure I will try blogging and see how it goes. I'm hoping it doesn't become like ONE more thing I feel I HAVE to do. I don't really need anything else like that in life right now! Already I notice that typing goes much faster than hand-writing in my journal book. However, I'm sure I will not be quite as forth-coming with info here as who knows who reads it?

Which is part of the reason I have not blogged to date. A little too much watching of the evening news, me thinks!

So a little about me (and my header line):
Recovering perfectionist....used to think it was possible to seek perfection, admirable even. Gave me a good reason/excuse? to procrastinate..still does on occasion, hence the recovering part. Now, I've realized the closest I will ever get to perfection is moving closer to God...who knows ALL about me and loves me unconditionally anyway.

ADHD...dealing with school for kids, our family life, etc. I have learned a lot and continue to seek patience in looking at a different, often very creative, view of the world.

Strong-willed (not me)....hubby, kids, sometimes it feels like it's me against them. However, I admire their strength...no one walks on them or rains on their parade!

Teenager...yup, got one at home (makes him sound like a pet!). So far, not so bad. Trying to deal with the whole being more of a coach than parent at this stage.

Only by the grace of God...no way I could do this on my own!

So, enough about me for now....how about leave a comment with your blog and some info on you?