MOVE!

This week at UNL there is a Christian conference going on called ‘MOVE’ with around 1500 high-school students from all over the U.S.  It is so neat to see Christians all around campus! There are people hanging out outside reading their Bibles! HOW COOL IS THAT?!  I never see that! In fact, it has not only encouraged me to keep reading my Bible, but to do it where other people can see me sometimes!

On that note…Speaking of neat things.

Something else God has been speaking to my heart about the last week or so is about giving Him the glory for everything I do and everything that I am. Yes, He has given me gifts and talents and all that jazz, but He is showing me how to give HIM the glory through those things. One of the ways I have been able to see this in action is through some of my friends who do just that – without fail, I see someone give them a compliment and they immediately point out that it is because of GOD that they did/are whatever the compliment was for. Who knew people, YOUNG PEOPLE, did that?

So I started thinking and praying about this because I have a pretty big problem – I love, love, love to be recognized for things. It isn’t usually the reason behind my actions but I really enjoy recognition and building up my ego a little bit after. Who doesn’t? The Bible has some pretty strong statements about flattery, and believe you me when I say I’m busy Googling those verses and learning what they say! I need drowning in the Truth, so I’m going diving into it.

Also, what a cool witnessing tool! Twice this has happened in the last two days and before I might not have noticed and just felt flattered and good about myself, but this time, it kind of bothered me. So I gave God the glory (something that is new). At camp, I did a devotional with my campers about ‘Next Step’s.’ Well, for me, that was  big next step – and I told those two people that the compliments they were giving me are all just a credit to God. If I didn’t have God in my life, no one would see any good in me. By myself, I make terrible, selfish decisions that don’t do me or anyone else a half-ounce of good.

What a cool witnessing tool! I know it is really easy for Christians to fall into the mindset of thinking the only way to witness is go out, awkwardly approach strangers and then present the gospel in an altogether uncomfortable conversation for both parties involved. That isn’t what witnessing has to be! YOUR LIFE is a witness – you are a living testimony of and to Christ! By responding to compliments that Christ is the reason I am how I am? I am very openly giving testament to my creator – I am, quite literally, witnessing.

 I love being challenged and challenging others and making them feel uncomfortable. So, if you are reading this and feel uncomfortable or challenged? Good! Run with that! Examine yourself and figure out why the heck you feel that way and then figure out your ‘Next Step’ and then DO IT. Faith without actions is dead (James 2:17) so don’t let your faith die! Like the name of this conference going on – it is time for you to MOVE!

**Giving credit to God instead of yourselves is called being humble, something I absolutely suck at. Need verses (like I do!) about all that humility stuff?  Check it out HERE. **

"Don't Consider Her Appearance or Her Height."

Can I start off by saying that I love Diane Sawyer’s speaking style? She and Katie Couric were my presentation style inspiration through my years as a speech kid and I think that they are both awesome women.

On that note, I am in the middle of working a midnight to six a.m. shift and was looking at some different YouTube videos and stumbled upon one about a 50 year old mother transforming herself to look like her 29 year old daughter using weight loss, multiple surgeries, hair color and extensions, as well as purchasing the same clothes and make-up as her younger daughter.

I am all for looking nice, I do not think there is anything wrong with putting some effort into appearance. But watching this video I can’t imagine this woman really being very content with who she is, instead of how she is.

Whatever decisions about their bodies others might have and the thoughts they have about themselves is up to them.  As for me, God is starting to help me see myself in a different way. If you follow along with The Beauty Project (which will hopefully have actual posts at…some point), it doesn’t take long to realize that, like most women, I struggle with placing more importance on my outward appearance than my inward.

God has mercy and grace for me and forgives the things in my past that make me feel like the only way I am valuable is if the world sees my body as beautiful. Here’s the thing – everyone gets old. I can’t slow time down and I will never view myself as “perfect” nor will I ever be “perfect” enough for the world’s standards.

This last week I was out counseling at Manna, and I don’t know that I showered more than….let’s go with five times and that might be generous. Please understand – this is an outdoor, go hard all day camp and you sweat a lot and are very, very active. Meaning, I wouldn’t classify what we all looked (and smelled) like as being “beautiful.” I don’t know that I wore make up. I had on glasses because the whole time I was so tired I needed them to see. But you know what? It was the best camp I ever had.

I think one of the fears I have always had is that if I didn’t wear make-up and people saw what I really looked like that they wouldn’t like me and would reject me based completely on how I looked. No one rejected me; in fact, I couldn’t even tell that people thought any different of me. In psychology, when someone has a fear/phobia one way to treat that is by using ‘flooding.’ Flooding means you basically put someone in an environment they can’t escape and are forced to confront their fear head on. Usually what causes us to have fears is because we never confront them and never see what happens because usually what happens isn’t what we assume would be the outcome and so we live terrified of our fears. Camp was kind of like flooding.

God is changing my heart so that I care a lot more about how my heart looks and my actions reflecting that than about how my skin or my body looks. He is also changing my perspective on seeing others to look at who they are not what they look like.

“I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pears or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.” – 1 Timothy 2:9-10

In the video, a doctor talks about the mother-daughter look-a-like situation and says:

“I’ve seen a lot of mothers, who, as they’ve watched the transition of their daughters into womanhood, in a big way, it is difficult for mothers to sit in a place without feeling the perception of losing it themselves - Desperation, self-esteem.”

So here is my prayer while I’m sitting behind a desk freezing at three in the morning – that I can age gracefully and with dignity. I want to watch my daughters (God willing I have some) grow up and not be obsessed with looking younger or as young as they do. That I will look back someday and remember that I spent 15 minutes helping someone else instead of 15 minutes doing my make-up.

“But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” -  1 Samuel 16:7