This message isn't leaving me, so I'm going to post it here and at The Surrendered Scribe.
There is so much blessing in my life I am frustrated that I'm tripping up on such a superficial thing. My calling and it is certainly in active mode these days, is to encourage people to believe God to be big and realize how amazing they are to Him. My online ministry is to exhort readers to surrender and give up the things that hold us back from everything God called us to be.
So when I yet again winced at my picture, I struggled. I still am.
But here is the picture God is giving me. The doorbell rings and it is a delivery person. If I'd sign on the line, I receive a package worth so much that a price tag can't even be defined. And I say thanks, but no thanks.
The package is worth more than Donald Trump, a thousand tropical vacations, the best mocha every day of my life, all your favorite things in the entire world.
You walk away and refject the gift. A gift worth more than you could even describe. A present so delicately hand crafted there is not another like it in the universe.
Who in there right mind would reject such a package?
Well I do nearly every day when I look in the mirror and hate what I see.
How about you?
My story is that I've always struggled with how I look on the outside. I was overweight growing up and kids were cruel. When I look at pictures of me in college I regret that I never liked what I saw, because I'd love to look that way again. Can you covet yourself from 20 years ago, because I do!As a young adult I rejected the package and honestly, the giver, because the severe case of polycystic ovaries made me feel less than a woman. As the years progressed add infertility, multiple surgeries (with scars), injections that are bruised. In the last year or so my hormones turned like an hour glass and I watched everything go south, literally! Moods, weight, body parts...yikes.
Accept the package? I stamped it "Return to Sender."
I'd love to tell you I am so over that but I'm not. Yet. I hate that with all the writing favor that has come about lately, I spend hours, days, weeks...wishing I still fit in my jeans from two years ago. Heck, six months ago would be nice too. I don't celebrate the victories along the way even in that area---great workouts, improvement in moods and side effects, and more energy. Nope, I want that package to look amazing.
The problem? Every package is. When we reject the package and basically return to sender with sighs of disgust as we look in the mirror, envy when we look at others, and every other thing I have a habit of doing---I might as well be turning my back on God. He is not ashamed of any package He creates, or delivers. He delights in every single one of us from the new wrinkles, sagging chest, and extra weight. It is a cause to forego wellness? No, we're still called to be good stewards. But we're also meant to accept the package.
You.
Just as you are.
If you struggle with this, I hope this visual of the package encourages you. I'm working on it, too!
Have you visited Christian Women Take Root? The Narrow Gate Invites girls are not only involved in the social networking site with fantastic groups to join but the main site called Take Root and Write. Open House and regular columns are going on this week, check it all out. We'll see you there...and hey---if you have a blog, Take Root has a blog roll. Give your blog some exposure and be associated with a quality Christian site!
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Julie Arduini is a surrendered writer with her own blog, http://thesurrenderedscribe.blogspot.com/. A graduate of the Christian Writers Guild, she blogs for the Christian Writers Forum Sundays as the mommy blogger. She is active with FaithWriters and has several writings ready to publish in different books and anthologies in 2008-09.
To get to know her better, read her interview by Lynda Schab at:http://www.faithreaders.com/featured-author-details.php?id=33%20
To contact Julie, please use the e mail provided in our profile.
There is so much blessing in my life I am frustrated that I'm tripping up on such a superficial thing. My calling and it is certainly in active mode these days, is to encourage people to believe God to be big and realize how amazing they are to Him. My online ministry is to exhort readers to surrender and give up the things that hold us back from everything God called us to be.
So when I yet again winced at my picture, I struggled. I still am.
But here is the picture God is giving me. The doorbell rings and it is a delivery person. If I'd sign on the line, I receive a package worth so much that a price tag can't even be defined. And I say thanks, but no thanks.
The package is worth more than Donald Trump, a thousand tropical vacations, the best mocha every day of my life, all your favorite things in the entire world.
You walk away and refject the gift. A gift worth more than you could even describe. A present so delicately hand crafted there is not another like it in the universe.
Who in there right mind would reject such a package?
Well I do nearly every day when I look in the mirror and hate what I see.
How about you?
My story is that I've always struggled with how I look on the outside. I was overweight growing up and kids were cruel. When I look at pictures of me in college I regret that I never liked what I saw, because I'd love to look that way again. Can you covet yourself from 20 years ago, because I do!As a young adult I rejected the package and honestly, the giver, because the severe case of polycystic ovaries made me feel less than a woman. As the years progressed add infertility, multiple surgeries (with scars), injections that are bruised. In the last year or so my hormones turned like an hour glass and I watched everything go south, literally! Moods, weight, body parts...yikes.
Accept the package? I stamped it "Return to Sender."
I'd love to tell you I am so over that but I'm not. Yet. I hate that with all the writing favor that has come about lately, I spend hours, days, weeks...wishing I still fit in my jeans from two years ago. Heck, six months ago would be nice too. I don't celebrate the victories along the way even in that area---great workouts, improvement in moods and side effects, and more energy. Nope, I want that package to look amazing.
The problem? Every package is. When we reject the package and basically return to sender with sighs of disgust as we look in the mirror, envy when we look at others, and every other thing I have a habit of doing---I might as well be turning my back on God. He is not ashamed of any package He creates, or delivers. He delights in every single one of us from the new wrinkles, sagging chest, and extra weight. It is a cause to forego wellness? No, we're still called to be good stewards. But we're also meant to accept the package.
You.
Just as you are.
If you struggle with this, I hope this visual of the package encourages you. I'm working on it, too!
Have you visited Christian Women Take Root? The Narrow Gate Invites girls are not only involved in the social networking site with fantastic groups to join but the main site called Take Root and Write. Open House and regular columns are going on this week, check it all out. We'll see you there...and hey---if you have a blog, Take Root has a blog roll. Give your blog some exposure and be associated with a quality Christian site!
.jpg)
Julie Arduini is a surrendered writer with her own blog, http://thesurrenderedscribe.blogspot.com/. A graduate of the Christian Writers Guild, she blogs for the Christian Writers Forum Sundays as the mommy blogger. She is active with FaithWriters and has several writings ready to publish in different books and anthologies in 2008-09. To get to know her better, read her interview by Lynda Schab at:http://www.faithreaders.com/featured-author-details.php?id=33%20
To contact Julie, please use the e mail provided in our profile.
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