Have you ever looked at your story, be it your past or present circumstances, and thought to yourself how embarrassing your life must look? Maybe you are ashamed of the mistakes you have made, or continue to make. Perhaps you are unhappy about the progress you’ve made in your career or relationships. Whatever it may be, I think we often find ourselves in situations where we feel like we are anything but succeeding in life. And you know what, that’s okay!
Our early 20s are a time where we are constantly evaluating and re-evaluating our lives. It is part of the growing process, and it gives us a chance to continue down a successful path of becoming the woman God created us to be! However, my fear is that as we evaluate, we do two harmful things to ourselves:
- We devalue our story. We look around and compare how others are growing and succeeding in life, or rather what we perceive to be the truth about their stories, and completely miss the beauty in our own becoming story.
- We become ashamed of our story. Not only can we fall into the trap of comparison, but we can also tend to be far too critical of who we are. We become embarrassed about our true nature, and view some of the character gifts God has bestowed on us as weaknesses.
Ladies, beloved daughters of the King, these are lies! If there is one thing I know, it is this: Satan wants us to view our stories as insignificant and embarrassing. He will do whatever it takes to throw us off course from who we are becoming in Christ. It’s time to get our boxing gloves on; it’s time to fight back these 2 lies with these 2 truths:
- Our story has value. Our lives may be labeled by our names, however when we put our trust in Christ we begin living a new life. No longer do we live the story of “Amy” or “Sarah” or “(insert your name here)”, we are now living the story of “God’s glory as shown through _______”. And God will never, ever let one of His stories be left unfinished, un-purposed, or undervalued.
- Our story is beautiful. Yes we have messed up, made mistakes, sinned; but God no longer sees our sins. Our God is not a God who dwells on the past, marking up a long list of our wrong-doings. He is a God who hands out mercy and pours grace upon grace. He is far more interested in our future than our past!
One day when we get to heaven, we will come face to face with our Creator, our Master, our Heavenly Father, the Lover of our soul. And ladies, I would hate for Him say to you “Why weren’t you more like YOU. I wanted you to be YOU, not your sister, friend or mother!”
You are loved. You are purposed. You are important. Not because I say so, but because HE says so.
