I have just started to read "Uninvited" by Lysa TerKeurst and it's amazing. It's funny, profound, uplifting and inspiring. It's just a great book, and I'm telling you this from just 32 pages in. Y'all I got a good feeling about this, you need to read it with me. My favourite piece in the book so far is this (apart from the awkward hugging situation):
"I'm not who that guy says I am. I'm not who that girl says I am. I'm not who social media likes and comments say I am. I am not who the grades, to-do lists, messes, and mess up's say I am. I'm not who the scale says I am or the sum total of what my flaws say I am. I'm going to stop flirting with the unstable things of this world so I can fall completely in love with You. I am loved. I am held. I am Yours. I am forever Yours. The more intimacy like this that I have with God, the more secure my true identity is". - Page 18 of "Uninvited"
Y'all this got me GOOD. I love this. Sometimes life is SO HARD. Like, so hard. Whether it be you failed a test or you're just having 'one of those days', life can suck. Today, I have felt so uninspired, so unconfident, and so impatient with myself and the people around me. Why? I don't know. I'm just having 'one of those days'.
Me and my beautiful momma were driving in the car today and I was just telling her how I was feeling emotional for no reason, but how I was feeling un-confident, and how these boys in college who I don't even know called me a "fat *insert rude word here*", and I asked her, "Why do people dislike me when I smile at everybody I walk past, and try to be as nice as I can to everybody?".
She told me she doesn't understand why people are and can be mean and treat people badly, but as long as I continue to be a nice person that's all that matters. She told me that the feelings I'm feeling today and the things I'm picking myself on over are not my thoughts but that it's Satan's horrible, hateful, mean words influencing my thoughts over Christ's loving, kind and caring words. She told me that it's easy to think that we're thinking those things, but it's Satans influence that gets tied up in there. She told me I was beautiful, that I was kind, that those words weren't true and to remember who's words I should really be listening to... AKA JESUS'!
Now I'm going to be honest, as I'm writing this blog post to you all I'm still kinda feeling a little bit low, a little bit lost, and still un-confident, BUT, I feel better than I did earlier on when I thought I was going to start to cry in the supermarket because we forgot to pick up eggs.
So, why I am telling you all of this? I'm telling you all of this because even though I am feeling like this today, I know that the creator of all things, myself included, is so much more powerful than Satan if we push the jerk away. The Lord and his son Jesus are so kind, so loving, so powerful, so amazing, so loving, so overwhelmed with love for us. Guy's THEY LOVE US TIMES ETERNITY! Satan works so hard to get us to not listen to the loving words of our Heavenly Father and his son Jesus, but we've got to say to the dude "Hell no! I'm not listening to you today, NO SIR!".
The Lord works in mysterious ways y'all. As I was feeling all of these emotions and horrible thoughts the Lord prompted me to read Page 18 of "Uninvited" again. Guys, we are not what social media tells us, or what girls + boys tell us, or what the scale tells us, or what our grades, to-do lists or messes tell's us. We are not our flaws.
We were made by the one true King who in his perfect hands made our imperfect selves. We are not perfect, we will never be perfect, we will stumble and fall, but if we remember who made us with His perfect hands, and care, and love, and remember who DIED for us, Satan can't touch us. He can't tell us who we are or who we're not. I like to remind myself that "When In Doubt, Pray It Out!".
I found a quote on good old Pinterest that stated that when we doubt ourselves, and when we hate how we look and wish we weren't 'ugly' or wanted to change so many pieces of ourselves, Heavenly Father gets sad because He worked so hard on us. I don't know about you, but when I think of the Lord getting sad, it makes me sad. The Lord worked so hard on us, and he has so much love for us, we shouldn't hate ourselves. Of course, it's ok to feel down sometimes and feel like when we've had too much to eat we feel like we look 9 months pregnant, but we should love ourselves. I need to love myself more, and so to you. Because do you know what? You are beautiful. You are. Look in the mirror, and tell yourself that, because I think you're a great human being.
I urge you to combat Satan’s unkind being and remember how much The Lord + Jesus loves us.... SO incredibly loves us. That's so cool. When you wake up in the morning, make Satan think GOTTA BLAST, because Satan is nothing compared to the love we receive from those two cool dudes up in Heaven.
The Lord loves you.
Jesus loves you.
I love you.
My cat loves you.
Hey, even my cereal in the morning loves you.
No matter who you are, who you love, what you do, what you believe in (as long as you haven't killed somebody) I love ya.
