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You Are More Important Than You Realize

It’s notable to mention that it is highly likely that you are more important than you realize. I would venture to guess that your gifts and the roles that you play probably hold far more weight in the kingdom of God than you probably give them credit for. One day when we stand before God and give an answer for how we used our gifts and fulfilled our purpose, it will be exciting to see the magnitude of our influence here on this earth. I believe that God thinks that YOU are a pretty big deal! 😉

You are more important than you realize. God thinks that YOU are a pretty big deal!

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As we are coming to the close of a school year, it’s a good reminder for educators, staff, students, and parents alike. I’ve mentioned it before and the same is true now…you might be making a difference in the lives of others without even realizing it.

You and your gifts are necessary

God has given each and every person here on this earth a unique set of gifts and a purpose to fulfill. Each gift and purpose is vital to God’s plan. In fact, the Bible uses the analogy of a body and its different parts to demonstrate this point. Each part of the body is necessary in order for the body to function properly (as God intended), and each God-given gift, role, and purpose is necessary in order for God’s kingdom, or the “body of Christ”, to function properly.

We are the body of Christ, and just as a body has many parts, so does the body of Christ. The parts are placed exactly where God wants them (1 Corinthians 12:18). Our gifts are part of this body. There are a lot of them, and they all have different functions. They all work together as part of a whole. Every part is necessary. We need all of the parts, just like God needs all of our gifts.

“Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other. In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well…” Romans 12:4-6 (NLT)

It’s tempting, but unwise, to compare our gifts with those of others

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Overcome Your Failures: They Do NOT Define You!

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Overcome Your Failures: They Do NOT Define You!

Failures are a common cause of insecurity. Sometimes these insecurities stem from a fear of failure. Maybe it’s from previous failures, maybe even a series of them. Occasionally they may come from failures consisting of bad decisions, wrong living, intentional or even unintentional mistakes, etc. We occasionally have the misbelief that our failures define us. They don’t! Our failures can hinder us and hold us back if we let them, but they don’t have to. We can learn to overcome them and even use them as a springboard to launch us even further into success.

Failures can teach us.

King David’s sin and failures (adultery and murder) haunted him: “For I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night.” Psalm 51:3 (NLT) Our failures often haunt us. In fact, the devil loves to keep us in this exact position. Another word for it is self-condemnation. The devil wants us to believe that we ARE a failure because we have failed. He loves to keep us in torment over our mistakes. He wants us to believe that we will never be enough because of what we have done. The good news is that God says the complete opposite…

“… And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”” John 8:11 (ESV)

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:17 (NIV)

“So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:1 (NLT)

God won’t write us off

God won’t write us off. He didn’t write David off, even though he was an adulterer and murderer.

He didn’t write Paul off, even though he was a sworn enemy of Jesus and murderer of Christians.

God won’t write YOU off, regardless of your failures!

God is omniscient (all-knowing). He already knew Continue reading →

Overcome Insecurity From the Inside Out

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Overcome Insecurity From the Inside Out

Recently I’ve been sharing a lot on how to overcome insecurity in both class settings and youth group. I’ve written on this topic quite a bit in the past. Dealing with insecurity and learning to overcome insecurity has been something that I’ve struggled with for a significant portion of my life, and honestly something that I still struggle with from time to time. I, myself, have to revisit these same strategies and principles as refreshers and reminders.

My goal today is to give some refreshers and also provide some helpful resources (mostly videos and posts) that can be used, saved, and revisited again later (just as I have to do occasionally).

Overcome Insecurity From the Inside Out

I think the most important thing to remember when battling insecurity is that the change must be internal. We have to overcome insecurity from the inside out. The problem lies within our hearts and within our minds and thought life. We cannot fix insecurity that resides inside of us by merely doing things on the outside. True security flows from the inside out.

“It’s not what goes into your body that defiles you; you are defiled by what comes from your heart.” Mark 7:15 (NLT)

“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? But I, the LORD, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve.” Jeremiah 7:9-10 (NLT)

“Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out…” Psalm 139:13a (MSG)

“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” Romans 12:2 (NLT)

“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” Ephesians 4:22-24 (NIV)

Take Some Practical Steps to Overcome Insecurity From The Inside Out:

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Masterpiece throwback

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Masterpiece throwback

Hello friends!

I apologize for the delay in my post this week. This week I’m actually going to push an easy button, and give you a link to a post I wrote a few years ago. I have several new subscribers, so I thought I’d do a masterpiece throwback to one of my original posts that most of my newer subscribers probably have not seen yet.

This post is called You Are a Masterpiece. Even if you have already read this, we could all use a refresher about how God sees us, right!?

You Are a Masterpiece!

You Are a Masterpiece! Are you insulting your creator?

Additionally, here’s a video of me speaking on this same topic at a women’s conference in 2015. I spoke there to share about seeing yourself the way God sees you. My goal during this session was to help you learn about insecurities and how to start to overcome them, how to find your identity in Christ, and to give some practical steps to start to improve your self-esteem and self-talk.

P.S. If you liked this post, you might enjoy receiving new posts delivered right to your inbox each week! Sign up here.

If you know anyone that could benefit from this, please pay it forward! Share this post via the sharing links below. “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (NIV)

Proverbs 31…It’s Not Just For Women

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Men should possess the Proverbs 31 characteristics too. These same character traits this passage praises the Proverbs 31 woman for having are also desirable for men. They are not gender-specific. ALL people, men and women alike, should strive to have this type of character.

Proverbs 31…It’s Not Just For Women

Proverbs 31 is one of those chapters that I think a lot of women sometimes read and then feel deficient. It’s almost like we can never measure up to her. I mean, really, who can do and be proficient at ALL of the things that she does? Talk about a Renaissance Woman!

However, recently I had some different insights while reading Proverbs 31 in The Message translation. As I read through the verses about the Proverbs 31 woman, I jotted down her characteristics in my journal. It dawned on me that it’s not necessarily the activities that she does that matter, but the character and traits she possesses are what are truly important. That should be our primary takeaway from the reading. Thank goodness because I don’t think I’ll EVER be proficient at sewing!

In Proverbs 31, verses 10-31 form an alphabetic acrostic, used here as a type of Hebrew poem about a woman who exemplifies godly character and wisdom from A to Z. J.A. Motyer says, “In the common form of acrostic found in Old Testament Poetry, each line or stanza begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet in order. This literary form may have been intended as an aid to memory, but more likely it was a poetic way of saying that a total coverage of the subject was being offered — as we would say, ‘from A to Z.‘”^[1] So in this case, the Proverbs 31 woman exemplifies godly traits and wisdom throughout and completely. She’s the full package.

Proverbs 31 is not just for women

In part of my recent study of the Proverbs 31 passages, I came across a really good article by Rachel Held Evans. In her post, she mentions that the “target audience” of Proverbs 31 is actually men. I did not know this! Rachel mentioned that she learned from a Jewish friend of hers that in the Jewish culture, it’s the men who memorize the passage, not the women.

In fact, the men actually sing or recite it to the women as a way of praising and blessing them! This special “Eshet Chayil” song is typically done each Friday night before the Sabbath or Shabbat meal.

Here is a video of a traditional Eschet Chayil song with the Hebrew lyrics and English translation shown:

I LOVE this English rendition by Ari Lesser as he sings to his wife:

I also realized these are NOT just characteristics that a woman should possess. Men should possess the Proverbs 31 characteristics too. These same character traits this passage praises the Proverbs 31 woman for having are also desirable for men. They are not gender-specific. ALL people, men and women alike, should strive to have this type of character.

Men should possess the Proverbs 31 characteristics too. They are not gender-specific.

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Proverbs 31:10-31 in The Message Translation

Below is a look at my takeaways about character from the passages. I use the feminine pronouns “she” and “her” when describing her characteristics, but read through them keeping in mind that we should all endeavor to display this type of character in our lives. Continue reading →

Stay Healthy—Love Yourself!

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Stay Healthy—Love Yourself! Try this exercise to show yourself some love...

Stay Healthy—Love Yourself!

Previously, when I attended a Weight Watchers meeting we talked about ways to love yourself (and NOT the Justin Bieber kind of “Love Yourself”!). We did a fun name acronym activity. We were supposed to come up with a positive attribute or descriptive word for each letter of our first name. It was funny how so many people had such a hard time with that. They had a hard time either coming up with words that were positive to describe themselves, or they didn’t want to say them out loud because they felt like they were being arrogant or bragging. Our leader was trying to encourage them that this is the right time to brag and that it was actually helpful to love yourself.

I wanted to yell out, “Don’t you know that God thinks that of you and sees you that way?!” Then I realized that I wasn’t reading mine out loud either. Oops. It can be hard to love yourself sometimes and then especially to show that you love yourself out loud! We’ve been trained not to speak highly of ourselves because we may come across as cocky and arrogant. However, I think there are two ditches. On the one side is the ditch where we ARE arrogant and speak and think too highly of ourselves. This is obviously wrong.

“For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.” Romans 12:3 (NIV)

I like how the NLT translation of the verse reads though because it says “…Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us”. It doesn’t say we can’t say or think good things about ourselves. It just says we just need to give an honest evaluation by God’s measurement. We need to see, think, and speak about ourselves based on how God sees us. And guess what? He does think we’re pretty great. Therefore, we need to see ourselves as pretty great too!

We need to see, think, and speak about ourselves based on how God sees us. #loveyourself

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The other ditch is Continue reading →

Overcome Insecurity Caused by a Tragic Circumstance or Incident

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Overcome Insecurity Caused by a Tragic Circumstance or Incident

Sadly many of us have had the misfortune of dealing with a tragic circumstance or incident in our lives which can lead to insecurities and affect our self-esteem and self-worth. Painful and traumatic experiences can affect our identity and how we view ourselves. Tamar in the bible had to deal with a tragic circumstance of being raped by her half-brother, Amnon, and she felt shame and lived in desolation thereafter.

“But Amnon wouldn’t listen to her, and since he was stronger than she was, he raped her … But now Tamar tore her robe and put ashes on her head. And then, with her face in her hands, she went away crying … so Tamar lived as a desolate woman in her brother Absalom’s house.” 2 Samuel 13:14, 19, 20b (NLT)

There are a variety of traumatic experiences that could affect our perceived worth and value. Death is a tragic circumstance that can sometimes cause low self-esteem. When we lose someone close to us, we not only lose that person but we lose the role that we played with that person which can sometimes affect our self-worth. We could potentially have feelings of insignificance, uncertainty, vulnerability, fear of the future, feeling of no longer being needed, etc. These same types of feelings can accompany a divorce (a death of sorts) and even a traumatic health problem or injury (cancer, debilitating injury, etc.) in addition to insecurities about appearances if they have been altered in any way. God HATES death and sickness and the pain and negative side effects that accompany them. God wants to set us free from these and heal us (physically and emotionally).

“And the last enemy to be destroyed is death.” 1 Corinthians 15:26 (NLT)

“Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.” Isaiah 53:4-5 (NIV)

Abuse (emotional, physical or sexual) is a tragic circumstance that can make us feel like we have little value. It can lead to feelings that we are “damaged goods” or guilt that maybe we deserved the abuse somehow. Many people that have suffered abuse start to believe the lie that they are worthless and aren’t deserving of love and affection. God HATES abuse. He wants to protect and avenge us from this.

“The LORD examines both the righteous and the wicked. He hates those who love violence.” Psalm 11:5 (NLT)

Infidelity (emotional, physical, or pornographic) is definitely a tragic circumstance that affects one’s self-esteem and one’s worth and value. Often those on the receiving end of infidelity feel that if they were “enough” then the infidelity wouldn’t have happened. This can lead to feelings of being unloved or unwanted as well as leading to comparisons with the other person(s) involved (i.e. affair partners or pornographic images). The unfaithful person also struggles with negative feelings—especially guilt and a low sense of self-worth because of the pain that they have caused their loved one. God HATES infidelity and the pain of the aftermath that it causes. He wants to restore and heal people in these situations.

“Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.” Hebrews 13:4 (NIV)

“But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Matthew 5:28 (NLT)

I’m sure there are many, many other examples of traumatic incidents that lead to insecurity other than the few examples I’ve given here. Ultimately God hates them all. He wants to free us from the pain that they cause. He wants us to see ourselves the way HE sees us and get an accurate view of our self-worth and value.

God wants us to see ourselves the way HE sees us & get an accurate view of our self-worth.

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If you are a victim of a tragic circumstance, God wants you to know: Continue reading →