Our Creator is not a fair-weather friend. He will not abandon us in our anguish. It doesn't matter if you're one of those ugly criers whose face gets all red and blotchy. It doesn't matter if your nose and mascara run. It doesn't matter if you become a big, whiny "woe is me" baby.
God still won't walk away. He won't roll his eyes at your drama or throw his hands up in exasperation. He holds us the entire time our shoulders are heaving. And much like a new mom keeps track of every peep her infant makes, so our heavenly Father counts each and every tear that rolls down his children's cheeks: "You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle"
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Read this and had to repost....
This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind. —Ephesians 4:17
Sometimes I feel like the world is made up of two kinds of people: people pleasers (those who go to great lengths to be loved and yet never feel they deserve it) and people who are never pleased with anything (who can't seem to see beyond their own wants and needs).
Pleasers learn from a very early age—in part through parenting or lack thereof—to bury their own feelings, to accept responsibility for anything that goes wrong, or to think they should be able to fix any troublesome situation that arises for their loved ones.
On the other hand, people who are never pleased with anything tend to be just the opposite: their feelings are the most important in any situation, they are never to blame for anything that goes wrong, and they would never bother trying to fix what is not their fault.
Those who live in what the apostle Paul called "the futility of their mind" spend more time trying to know what others want from them than they do in pursuing knowledge of God. When we spend all our energy trying to earn another person's affections, trying to do all we can do and being all we can be for another human, our lives are sucked up in an endless vacuum.
We were created for more than a desperate search for approval and acceptance, for more than a life of fear. God told his children in Isaiah 43:1, "Now this is what the Lord says. He created you, people of Jacob; he formed you, people of Israel. He says, 'Don't be afraid, because I have saved you. I have called you by name, and you are mine'" (ncv).
This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind. —Ephesians 4:17
Sometimes I feel like the world is made up of two kinds of people: people pleasers (those who go to great lengths to be loved and yet never feel they deserve it) and people who are never pleased with anything (who can't seem to see beyond their own wants and needs).
Pleasers learn from a very early age—in part through parenting or lack thereof—to bury their own feelings, to accept responsibility for anything that goes wrong, or to think they should be able to fix any troublesome situation that arises for their loved ones.
On the other hand, people who are never pleased with anything tend to be just the opposite: their feelings are the most important in any situation, they are never to blame for anything that goes wrong, and they would never bother trying to fix what is not their fault.
Those who live in what the apostle Paul called "the futility of their mind" spend more time trying to know what others want from them than they do in pursuing knowledge of God. When we spend all our energy trying to earn another person's affections, trying to do all we can do and being all we can be for another human, our lives are sucked up in an endless vacuum.
We were created for more than a desperate search for approval and acceptance, for more than a life of fear. God told his children in Isaiah 43:1, "Now this is what the Lord says. He created you, people of Jacob; he formed you, people of Israel. He says, 'Don't be afraid, because I have saved you. I have called you by name, and you are mine'" (ncv).
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