Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Sphere of Influence

Good evening! How was your day? Mine was full of commuting and work, until just about 30 minutes ago. Zane and I arrived back home, I whipped up a yummy avocado chip dip (courtesy of my mother's recipe), went outside to water the tomato plant and clip off the yellow leaves while inspecting for worms crawling about, cleaned the kitchen, and now will relax for a moment before making some dinner. Strangely, although the day has been busy, I feel relaxed at the moment. Extremely relaxed. It is such a breath of fresh air to be able to sit back and write down my thoughts!
Last night was Tuesday...which means women's biblestudy as we learn to say, "So Long, Insecurity!" If you are just stumbling upon my blog, the women's biblestudy I partake in has been studying Beth Moore's most recent book, So Long, Insecurity. We are learning to be secure women in the Lord--taking back our God-given strength, and our God-given dignity!
The chapters we read for this past week were more of an editorial, with one important message: the way we live our lives now will impact our friends, our family, our daughters, their daughters, their daughters, etc. And each woman has a hard life to live. We all make mistakes and have our various bumps in the road, but Christ has called His children by name, with a distinct purpose, and He has cleansed His children from unrighteousness. While we all may have been ugly once on the inside--despicable even--once we ask Jesus to come into our hearts, He cures us.
Despite the immediate cleansing of ourselves once we ask Jesus to come into our lives and change us, we, like Paul, often have the desire to do what is good, but the lack of will to carry it out. You know what we have to do to change that? Abide in Christ. Submit to His steadfast love and will, and know that He will always provide a way for us to choose the right path. I don't know about you, but it is a daily prayer for God to keep my eyes open that I may not drift away again, like I have so many times before. And as I attempt to find my security in Christ, God is changing me daily. That isn't to make me prideful or think I'm better than you. I have simply become more aware of my need for Christ, my inability to be secure without Him--haha. My inability to be anything without Him. "I am not the woman I used to be, but the fact is, I started this journey because I wasn't yet the woman that I wanted to be"-Beth Moore.
Knowing that I am not where I want to be or should be pushes me on towards Christ more. One day, God-willing, I am going to have a little girl. She is going to have some pretty rough times from finding her first best friend, and then her best friend decides to be best friends with someone else, to her first pimple, to being over developed...or like her mother--'flat as a piece of paper,' to having a first crush who ends up asking her friend to the dance...or worse! Her friend asks her crush to the dance! Not getting the A that she studied all night to achieve, not fitting into the swimsuit that she wants, not getting into the college she desires, not getting first chair at a band competition. I could go on and on. It is a wonder any girl makes it out of 8th grade alive! And then there is highschool. HELLO! Followed by college which opens up a whole new door of endless insecurities to clothe in. Friends. We have got to wake up and see the girls around us who desperately need secure women to look up to. I'm not talking about girls who mask themselves in security by flaunting their ever-loving low cut halter top. I'm talking about secure women firmly rooted in Jesus Christ! If He is for us, who can be against us! (Romans 8:31b) If our young women can understand and believe that, then insecurity...watch out! "You and I have got to make a definitive decision to be strong for our daughters...Every acne-faced middle school girl you pass in the mall, texting on her cell phone or checking out that older guy in the food court, is your daughter. What are you going to do about her? What would you be willing to do for her?..It's time we girls helped each other out."--Beth Moore

--Inspired by Beth Moore's book, So Long, Insecurity.

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