This first section didn't touch me too deeply and was a very important piece at the same time. This section talked about how at times, we take untrue information and allow our self-worth to be determined by this information. It talked about how we take false, wordly ideology, sometimes false things spoken over us by others and allow that to dictate who we think we are in life. Instead we need to assign genuine value to who we are, based on God given worth, talents, gifts and abilities. We are to "Dig deep and lean in to the truth - the truth of who you are and what He's created you to offer to the world."
Read 1 Peter 2:9-10 and record the statements of value declared concerning you. Make a point of really studying and meditating on this Scripture, digging into the truths revealed.
1 Peter 2:9-10 states: "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."
I think this is very important, but for some reason mentally I am just not in a place to really reflect on it. I guess I will come back to it, because I know this is something that I struggle with.
Part Two: Supernatural Selection
This section hit home much more deeply. This section was based on Jeremiah 1:5: "I chose you before I formed you in the womb; I set you apart before you were born. I appointed you a prophet to the nations." These are profound declarations for our lives, God is saying "I chose you!" "I set you apart!" "I appointed you!" For reasons that we may not understand or even agree with, God has selected us as His own. This wasn't a half hearted decision, it was intentional with consideration and wise choice. Even if we cannot see why God would choose us, He is well aware. This is hard for me at times. As at times, I feel unloved, unappreciated and undervalued. In MY opinion AT TIMES I estimate my value as there being little that is redeemable or attractive enough to make me valuable or worth another's attention. However, little of this matters, because it is not me who chooses my value. as God states in John 15:16: "You did not choose Me, but I chose you." Well, I guess I've been told. It's not my opinion that matters one bit...it's His...He is the one that asserts my value and who the heck am I to argue? I guess I just need to work on believing and trusting that. I don't even know if that's accurate because I KNOW that to be true, it's just my insides don't always match what my head knows to be true.
The other part of this is that he set us apart. He did not make us to be like any of the others He has made. If we spend all our time looking at the other's that He has made, wishing we had their skills and talents, who we were made to be goes unattended. There are skills that we have that were made to bless others and those others may only hear the message God has for them from US, from our words, our perspective and in our voice. We were each made to be only ourselves and if we fail to be who we were made to be, we're robbing others of the blessing He designed for us to fulfill. Someone, somewhere needs YOU, not your version of someone else, so giddy up and get to being YOU. We need to get to enjoying who we are, not being upset that we're not more like whomever else we think we'd rather be more like. The author says it best: "Even if you may not be inherently pleased with the person He's made you to be, even if you may not be abundantly happy with the circumstances you're currently living, you can be sure that God has planted you here with design and intention. He has selected the 'soil' where you're presently growing." You are in the season and place that you are in your life for a reason that He has chosen, to grow how He believes you need to grow. Who are we to say He's wrong? We (myself included) need to quit asking "Why" or saying that He's wrong and there's no purpose for where we are, and get busy taking whatever He has for us right where we are, in. There's no point in trying to produce someone else's life in your own. Trust Him, He knows and has plans specifically for us.
Consider the things you may have failed to do because you felt ill equipped or unworthy to participate in. Choose one of them to begin doing this week.
I have thought for some time that I am scared of success. There are a lot of things that I do until the VERY LAST STEP of completion. I think that many times I think that I will be ill equipped to live that goal into the future. I can fight for it, work for it, strive for it, but living it in maintenance is something I doubt in myself. I think that this has played out in my life in many areas. I need to trust that He has placed these goals/desires into my heart and they were plans for my future not just to work for.
Part Three: Happy to Be You
I like this one...why? Cause there are a lot of ways I know that I fall short (because I am human, and we all do, not a self-deprecating statement at all), but I think that I am heading in the right direction with this topic. The author states "Many of us spend so much of our lives wishing or pretending we were somebody different from who we are, we never get to experience the sheer freedom of just being ourselves." God made made you, YOU. Just the way you were meant to be. Your gifts, your talents, your passions, your eccentricities, your dislikes, your weaknesses, your interests, and your uniqueness. We need to take time to look at those things, who are we what are those things that make us, us? We can often times overlook those things, those remarkable aspects that make us special because we're used to them. They are unremarkable to us, just another piece of our routine. often times we need to ask those around us, what they see? Ask them, "What makes me unique?" I think that at times, we do this with the most important people around us as well...because they're just there in our life and we always get to benefit from their gifts, we forget that what they bring to the relationship is damn important and crazy special! Being able to live out all those things that make us truly special, leaves us unburdened by the exhaustion of making impressions and trying to act like people that we are not.
Record uniqueness other people see in you.
Woo hoo!! I'm off the hook for answering this one. This one is up to you... my reader...! :)
Part Four: The Affirmation Crusade
LOVE this section, however I don't have a lot of time to delve into it. Here is the skinny...when we become comfortable with who we are, we can stop the time consuming frustrating process of expecting others to fit into who we think that should be and appreciate them for who they are. And, although our self-worth should never depend on compliments and approval from others, there is certain depth and blessing when we are affirmed by other women. Sure, appreciation from men is flattering, but there's so much more purity, simplicity and sincerity from a compliment from another woman. Resolve to affirm the women in your life. it is a unique gift that only we can give to each other.
I will accept and celebrate my uniqueness, and will esteem and encourage the distinctions I admire in others.
PS - Forgive spelling/grammer... I will fix that later... I have to run!! :)
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