Truly Prized

When I came to Uplands Reach this summer, I had no idea what all God had in store for me.  I was asked to come and do some public relations type of stuff.  And I was going to be an RA for six girls.  But help teach a class was not on the agenda.  


Those who knew me about four years ago would freak to know I stood in front of about 90 teenage girls and taught a class on self-esteem a week-ago.  I was the shy girl who would become red as a beet if she was called on in class.  I was insecure.  My insecurities led to my struggle with self-esteem.  A struggle that I would allow myself to fall into a pit that seemed impossible to get out of.  


However, God has allowed me to see that He knows me.  He made me to be exactly how I am.  Now, I am all over being healthy.  God says to keep your temple holy because it is home to the one who loves you eternally (1 Corinthians 6:19).  Therefore, you need to be healthy, but not extreme.  My struggle to be healthy became a struggle to fight for my beauty.  The beauty that was given by my eternal Father.


Psalm 139 says,

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb.  Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!  Your workmanship is marvelous - how well I know it.

See, the problem is that most of us don't know it.  We are unwilling to prize ourselves like Jesus prizes us.  We see what the world sees.  A pitiful, unfulfilled individual who needs to prove herself to be worthy of the praise of others.  And as harsh as that sounds, it's true.  I've been there.  I know what it is like to stand in the mirror and wish for changes - foolish changes.


Some of us wish to see a skinnier person in the mirror.  Some of us yearn for a prettier face.  Some of us want a new wardrobe because the piles and piles we have just don't suit.  Some of us want a personality change: nicer, bolder, funnier, wittier, more outgoing, etc.  But the point is, each of us deal with some sort of low self-esteem.  We simply don't categorize our grievances as "low self-esteem" because it doesn't have to do with our weight.  But any desire of change in ourselves is a sin.


"For I am fearfully and wonderfully made. (vs14)"  This word "for" literally means "because".  So we should praise Him because we are wonderful!  We were made wonderfully!  So if we want to change what God has created us to be but still praise Him, we are committing a sin.  Revelation 3:16 talks about Christians being lukewarm.  By praising Him but not understanding and truly believing why we are doing it, we are lukewarm. 

But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth!

John 3:16 is probably the most quoted verse in the Bible.  

For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

Here is that word "for"again.  So this verse actually says BECAUSE God loved the world.  We should be so ashamed.  Because Jesus loved the world so much, He died on that old rugged cross.  He was beaten, stoned, spat upon, and left to die so that we could live eternally with Him.


Why then are we so discontent with ourselves?  My good friend and mentor, Maryanne Grimmet, who works here at Uplands talked about self-respect.  And how that even if maybe we struggle with self-esteem, we can still have self-respect.  We can still prize ourselves like Jesus prizes us.  Girls, "we are His workmanship (Ephesians 2:10)."  Thrive on that truth.  If you live for Him and see yourself through His eyes, I promise you life will be remarkably easier.  Take it from a girl who knows.






Lifting you up,


Elizabeth