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!

Love your neighbor

I was always taught the second greatest commandment was to love your neighbor as yourself.. True enough right?? But that means first you have to love yourself...so many people today are do down on themselves today even in Christian circles! We do not even begin to see ourselves as God sees us..we see the mistakes, the faults, and think we are not good...but yet God thought we were good enough to send His Son to die so He could have a relationship with us! That means we are worth something. Next argument...God made us and He doesn't make junk, or make mistakes...so we are perfectly, uniquely designed to fullfill a purpose that is a unique as we are.

My next observation about this command, hit me when I was reading in Leviticus 19. Verse 18 says says "Do not take revenge or bear a grudge against members of your community, but love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord." Now, I would have to admit that when I get offended I can hold a grudge...but wait a minute...not holding a grudge is tied to the second greatest commandment given by the Lord! I can't love my neighbor as myself if I am holding a grudge against him.

So to honor this commandment I must learn to love myself for the unique person God created me to be and I must learn not to carry a grudge or seek revenge!

Hold To Sound Teaching

Romans 1:13 says "hold to the pattern of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in faith and love that are in Christ." In other places the Apostle Paul admonishes his listeners to not be swayed, or led astray by strange teachings, to hold to the Word of God.

Evidently the spreading of a false gospel that sounds good is not a new issue, but it is an issue for believers today. So many people are taking one or two verses out of context and creating doctrine that just isn't sound when compared to the whole of the Word of God. Some people don't even pretend to back it up with Scripture! They just make up something that is a spin off of an exsisting doctrine and people follow it!

It is time that we, as believers, start stduying God's WOrd and know what it says! There are many people that talk a good talk, but have no roots to hold to when they are led astray...As believers we need to be memorizing the Word, reading it for ourselves and checking out anything someone tells us is there...we should not trust that everyone who says "thus saith the Lord," or "the Bible says," actually knows what they are talking about! We are responsible for what we choose to believe and follow! Don't be fooled, know your Word, be prepared to give an answer, Stand on what God Reveals as truth to you!

Power Within

All too often, I think I can't do this! Working out or life in general, somedays I just want to quit! I don't think I can do it anymore...then of course I look for assurance that I am not alone and for me that means going to God's Word. In Ephesians, Paul is praying for the church at Ephesus...for God's people...in 3:16 he says "I pray that He will use His glorious riches to make you strong. May His Holy SPirit give you power deep down inside of you."

Paul prayed for the people of God that God would make them strong, for the power of the Holy Spirit inside of them to be the source of their strength. So on those days I want to quit, I remind myself, in my own strength I can't do it, none of it...I can't run, I can't diet, I can't deal with the issues life throws at me, I can handle my children or my distant husband....I can't do any of it...it is through the strength of the Holy Spirit deep inside of me that I can not only face, but overcome any thing that seems to overpower me....truly greater is He that is in me than He that is in the world...

Lord, teach me to rely on Your strength for all things, not mine!

Transformed or conformed?

Romans 12:2 says "Do not be conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may know and do the perfect will of God!" Who would thought, what is in our mind can keep us from walking in God's will. What we fill ourselves with really does effect us and what we do for God!

So the question today is...are we being conformed to this world? Are you being transformed? What are renewing your mind with? What are you focused on? Okay, that was more than one question, but they all tie together...when someone sees you, do you stand out as different from them or are you just another face?

If you say you are not conforming to this world, how are you not conforming...what is different about you and can anyone besides you see this difference??

Lord, let there be something about me that is different, that makes people want to know more and allows me to point them to you!

A High Price

Recently, I shared a post on here about my frustration of Christians picking and choosing what they would believe was for today from God's Word...this goes alone with that post in a way. I shared in that post that a friend had made the comment that she hoped God didn't expect her to dress in dresses or cover her head...she already does enough..


First, I want to preface all of this again with my belief is that we are saved by faith alone in the finished work of the cross...there are no strings attached to our salvation. Everything we do for Christ should come from a heart of gratitude and a desire to be obedient!

All of that said, my DH and I were having a conversation yesterday. God is really revealing new things to us...things that have been in His Word, but we have never paid attention to. I was sharing the above comment with him.


If we were strangers and I threw my son between you and a bullet meant for you, m y son died, but you were saved, how would you feel, what would you do? --My DH ask. I said, I would do anything I could to show my gratitude for your sacrifice. I would want to make sure you knew how much I appreciated your sacrifice...it would never be enough, but I would spend the rest of my life trying to show you what it meant to me.--this was my response.

God sent His one and only Son to die for us! He made the ultimate sacrifice, not out of a sense of have to, but out of His desire to know us and be known by us! There is nothing we could ever do to repay Him, but we can honor Him and we can obey Him...not just as the One who made the ultimate sacrifice for us, but as our Father who loved us so much that He would make that sacrifice!

Who are we to say that anything that God ask us to do is too much? How can we ever say that we are already obeying enough? I think we are too worried about what this world thinks and not worried enough about what God thinks!

I pray we get our priorities in order...Paul told us we could not be men-pleasers and please God at the same time and Jesus Himself said we cannot serve two masters...we will love the one and hate the other...we are also chose to choose this day whom we will serve....we must be willing to make a commitment and come to a place of obedience no matter what the cost.

Lord, Make me willing to humbly obeyYour Word as You bring understanding to me. Bring to my remembrance the price Your Son paid for my salvation and give me a heart of gratitude and a desire to be obedient to You! May all I do bring honor to Your Name! In Jesus Name! A-men