A Work of Art

I look at my daughters and I see beauty! They are amazing people to me and I see them as God created them to be. I grew up seeing myself as a child and teen as pretty okay, but then as a young adult I bought into the images the world put in front of me as beauty...what I should be...I set my goal to be that world defined, media define picture of beauty. I starved my body and exercise for hours on end...I punished my body for any slip up in my expectations...after several years of this, I got tired and let it go for a while. I would then eat what I wanted and not exercise at all, gain back the weight and hate myself. I would start the cycle over and begin to starve again. This went on for many years until I truly got tired of it!

At some point I began to truly turn to God for what He had to say about me...In Psalm 139:14 His Word says we are fearfully and wonderfully made, that His works are wonderful....Over time I began to question what would I look like if I hadn't messed around with God's design??? Ephesians 2:10 tells us that we are God's workmanship, one translations says we are God's masterpiece!! A masterpeice is a work of art! One of a kind!!! To think God created me and you to be a work of art!! He designed us perfectly right down to the birth mark we try to hide!! (Mine runs across my forehead and down the side of my face...hard to hide!) So if I had kept my hands off of His design I would have been a work of art???

Of course this means, not just not starving, but eating and living according to His plan! I have come to a point that I believe if I feed my body the way God intended it to be fed and keep it active, I will be physically what God created me to be. He will restore me to the work of art He created me to be.

So what does it mean to eat according to God's plan...I go to the Bible for that and yes I know there are several diets out there that claim to be from the Bible....when I look at this, what I see is there was no processed foods, fast food chains, refined sugars....it was about eating whole, natural foods...chemicals were not added, animals where not genetically altered...so as close as possible I try to eat whole foods, raw frutis and veggies and limit processed foods....

Even more importantly than the diet..is seeing myself as God see me....in His eyes I am a work of art, designed with a purpose and it is my desire to walk in that purpose and let others see the handiwork of God in me!

I pray today that I may see myself as God sees me and let others see Him in and through me...I want to be a living work of art that refelcts the Master Artist and His plan in my life!

Hide and Seek

We just cleared some brush in the land behind our house and my husband cut paths into that field to allow me to get to the berries that will be coming on this summer. Yesterday we took our four year old out there to look around and we began a game of hide and seek with her.There are lots of small trees in the closed in area. It started with me and her running from tree to tree hiding from daddy.Then she was it and we were hiding from her....she thought this was the greatest game and loved hunting for us...mind you she was never out of our sight and really we were not hid where she couldn't find us...it was just a game...we knew where she was at all times.

Last night as I was praying and sharing my day with God,He spoke to my heart about the games of hide and seek we play with Him...We are going down the road alone in the car and have that knee jerk reaction to a car cutting us off, we get short tempered with our loved ones behind closed doors, we gossip with our best friend, we tell that lie to protect ourselves, we keep our mouth shut when God is telling us to speak...we do all of this thinking , no one knows...it is something we think we are hiding...we are behind out little tree and no one can see us...but God reminded me that while we think no one can see us, just like I could see my daughter the whole time, He sees us the whole time!! There is no hiding from God! He knows everything we do, think, say and don't do! He says "Surely I am with you always, even until the end of the age!" (Matt. 28:20) There is no secret s from God!

Intellectually, we know that God sees everything we do, but practically we don't act like! Today, what would you do, say, think or not do differently remembering God is always with you and not only did He seek you out...He has found you!!

Lord, may my life today be in private what it is portrayed to be in public! Thank you for Your conviction with a simple game of Hide and seek. Soften my heart to your promptings and increase my desire for More and more of you!