The Mirror

"When I became a woman, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: Faith, Hope and Love. But the greatest of these is LOVE." - 1 Corinthians 13:11b-13

"The speech, the thoughts and feelings of a child give way. The mirrors of ancient times were of polished metal and were far inferior to ours. The images were indistinct in comparison. They were seen darkly, indistinctly, imperfectly. Thus in this state of our knowledge of divine things imperfect and incomplete. But face to face, we will not look in a glass in the coming state but will see face to face without a veil or obscurity." (People's New Testament Commentary)

I really loved what they had to say about this scripture in this commentary. I feel it captures the passionate message I wanna bring to young girls, bringing to light who they really and truly are in God's sight. As women, young and old when we look in the mirror we see the flaws, the things we don't like, much like the darkened, imperfect mirror of ancient times. 

But as soon as we come into the knowledge of the worth God sees in us and imperfections become made perfect in His eyes we see ourselves the way we should. The veil of lies, insecurity and doubt is taken away, and we see our loveliness, confidence and complete wholeness. It took me a long time to come to that realization and truly believe it.

I'm not saying that you will never have the moments and look at yourself and critique and want to change parts about yourself. Be we can know that God sees us the way we should see ourselves, beautiful, worthy, strong, one of a kind. It'll be up to you to grab hold of it and truly believe it. No matter what others, or society, or the media tells you, when you look in the mirror you are beautiful because God made ALL things good in His sight. Even you. 

 

Time, Timing, Waiting

Time is a funny thing. There are so many sayings that talk about time. 'Time is of the essence.' 'Time heals all wounds.' 'Only time will tell' and so on. As believers time has a different meaning all together. In our lives we don't go off of our own time frame. We have the ability to be lead and go off God's plan for our lives. Easy enough right? Wrong. 

In my own opinion it's the hardest thing to do. Anyone can make decisions for themselves and lead your own life. More times than one it leads to heartache and stress. There are some who have a good head on their shoulders and make good decisions for themselves which is always great to see. As believers, we tend to struggle with waiting and God's timing. 

I don't know about you, but I hate waiting. Waiting seems like absolute torture. It's hard. Even though you know that God has a plan and you're better off waiting instead of trying to make something happen yourself, you're left...waiting. I've been waiting for things for a while. Waiting and wondering when it's going to happen. It's hard not to get discouraged when the very thing you are waiting for is happening for so many others around you. 

I feel waiting and time go hand in hand together. But one thing is for certain, God always comes through at the right time. Always. In Ecclesiastes Chapter 3 there is a scripture that starts off the chapter. All it talks about is time.

"There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens:

²     a time to be born and a time to die,
    a time to plant and a time to uproot,
³     a time to kill and a time to heal,
    a time to tear down and a time to build,
⁴     a time to weep and a time to laugh,
    a time to mourn and a time to dance,
⁵     a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
⁶     a time to search and a time to give up,
    a time to keep and a time to throw away,
⁷     a time to tear and a time to mend,
    a time to be silent and a time to speak,
⁸     a time to love and a time to hate,
    a time for war and a time for peace." Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

For everything there is a time and a place. We don't know when God will answer us, but it's in the time we are waiting that God could be preparing us for the very thing we are waiting for. Which is probably why waiting is so hard. In those times God is shaping and chiseling us to be ready for whatever it is we are eagerly waiting for. 

A couple verses later in this same chapter it says, "He has made everything beautiful in it's time." (V.11)

Psalm 62:8 says, "Trust in the Him at all times, pour out your hearts to Him for he is our refuge."  

In those times of waiting allow the Lord to refine and make you ready for the gift you are waiting to receive. Have faith,  pray, and trust in GOD'S timing. His timing is always perfect and right when you need it. Don't lose hope and remember to decide the kind of person you're gonna be in the midst of your waiting. Are you going to get angry and wallow in your frustration? Or will you rise up above it and allow God to have control of it. The choice is up to you. But remember, you're not alone.