Today will you join me? Will you give yourself permission to…
embrace your perfect imperfections. No one, not one person on this earth is perfect. Only Jesus.
embrace His perfection.
embrace that when you love God, when you release yourself to Him as your King of Kings and Savior, you are perfect.
embrace the little flaws on your body. For these little flaws are oh so minute in the eyes of your Creator. When you are LIVING OUT! the Kingship of Christ you are made new. He sees only your goodness. That goodness enables you to go through the day forgiving yourself for your imperfections, your mistakes, your–dare I say it—sin.
He forgives you first so why don’t you forgive yourself?
He already gave you permission.
Be who your Creator created you to be!
I want to share a great question that our friend Meg asked me regarding a study question I posed on Monday. Such an insightful question. Here is her question and here is my response.
Stress Point Week 3 Study Question: Is it hard for you to imagine yourself as part of the “good” creation that God proclaimed when “He said It is Good?” Sometimes this is hard for me to declare over myself. To declare that I, too, am His beautiful creation. Thoughts?
Meg’s response and question
Yes This is hard for me to declare overmyself.. because i say me Good? But i am a sinner? But we are all sinners… yet God calls us Good? When i read the passage where is says he looked over all that he had made and it was very good i think of the animals and flowers and landscape, mammels etc.. How can they sin? they cant right?
So for me I have to say that How can Good call me Good when i am a sinner?
My response to her
I believe that when we are IN CHRIST, saved by the blood that Jesus shed on the cross and we make the declaration that HE is our KING, God really does see us as good. I also see it as Him looking at us as a doting Father, adoring His own creation. When we are washed clean by the blood of Jesus and we declare Him as our savior, He no longer sees our sin.
Will you give yourself permission today?
Here’s a great song by Natalie Grant, Perfect People.
Welcome to week three, the topic most dreaded by probably 99.999999999% of us and myself included. I’ve said numerous times how I DID NOT want to write this chapter. I did not want to sit down and do the video blog. I did not want to sit here and write this study post. Why? Because it is so very raw and personal for me.
But, I realize that I must put aside my fear of this topic because we have a GOD, our Elohim–Creator (we will talk about this in a second) who is bigger than our body image fears. Deep down in my heart I KNOW that I don’t want my body image to create a wall between my beat up heart and the love that He is ready to pour all over my insecurities. Do you know that, too? If not…it is ok. We are going to work on this!
Before we get started…
{If you are joining us for the first time and want to start the Stress Point study from the beginning, click on Stress Point tab above and it will take you to all of my archived posts. :) Remember, this is a NO STRESS study. Work it on your own time. We will be here ready to chat whenever you check in!}
The Real (Video Blog)
The Raw (Discussion Questions)
~After reading the girlfriend case studies in Stress Point, do you identify at all?
~As I mentioned at the beginning of the chapter, let’s put aside topics about how the media portrays women and how it effects our personal image of our own bodies. I’d like our focus to be with what we can change, which is how we see our bodies in light of Elohim, our Creator. It is so hard for me, like I already said, to talk about this subject in such a personal manner. Is it hard for you, too? If so, why?
~In Journal 2 on page 63 I asked something of you that might seriously freak you out. I asked you to list out THREE things you love about your body. If you are comfortable with this will you be so bold as to make a declaration here, on this site, on the world wide web, ONE of the things you love? This will serve as a form of worship to our King as we say, “God, our Elohim, I recognize that You are my Creator. You make all things beautiful. I honor you with these three things that I love…”
Here I will go first…I love my hazel eyes. They change colors depending on what I wear and I just think that is so creative of God to give me eyes He crafted so beautifully.
(whew…that wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be!)
Your turn…
{sidebar: For this study post I won’t be focusing too much on the Waiting At The Throne segment as we will cover some of this on Thursday. I’m super excited to run an interview from my personal health/fitness guru Michelle Myers who is sharing some great, practical tips!!!}
The Relevant (Bible Study Discussion Questions)
~Take a moment to re-read the Worship At The Throne section starting on page 60. I introduced the name of God, Elohim-Our Creator. In your Bible read Genesis chapter 1 where God masterfully creates our universe. Really take time to read it, don’t just skim it because it is a familiar passage to you. (I’m totally guilty of this kind of thing!)
~Is it hard for you to imagine yourself as part of the “good” creation that God proclaimed when “He said It is Good?” Sometimes this is hard for me to declare over myself. To declare that I, too, am His beautiful creation. Thoughts?
~On Page 61 I suggested that when we obsess over our bodies (when we put ourselves down and when we spend too much time just thinking about it in general) this is a form of idolatry. Idolatry: worshipping anything other than God. Whew! Kind of hard to chew, right? How can you focus TODAY more on your Creator, Elohim, and not obsess over how you feel about your body?
~Check out this verse below from THE VOICE translation
For all that exists originates in Him, comes through Him, and is moving toward Him; so give Him the glory forever. Amen.(Romans 11:36)
In Journal 2 I proposed that we write our names in the blanks. Did you do it? Really? Take a notecard piece of paper and write this verse out by hand the way I have it here. (Sidenote: I love writing verses out by hand because it helps me to learn them!) Put your name in the blanks when you re-write the verse. Here’s my example
For ____________ exists originates in Him,______________ comes through Him, and ____________is moving toward Him; so ___________ (will) give Him the glory forever. Amen.(Romans 11:36)
Take this sheet of paper and post on your bathroom mirror, on your car dashboard, write it in lipstick, whatever will help make this engrain in your mind and MOST importantly in your HEART.
Ok girls. Now go…find a quiet spot and have some meaningful conversation with your King, your Elohim. Then come back and tell us all about what you and Jesus discussed. Cool?
Leave a comment with your thoughts on the questions, video, Bible verses above. Or, if there’s anything else from the chapter you want to discuss, let me know.
Hey Friends! In light of our Stress Point: Self Image topic I wanted to share a song that Helen shared with us in the comments this week. Helen-so so so glad you reminded me of this song. I listened to it on Youtube and had a wash of gratefulness overtake me thinking of WHO I AM in the eyes of my King. I hope this gives you encouragement, too.
Also, several of you have asked me to help with the answers to the Who Am I Journal in Stress Point Chapter 2. Some of you had a hard time because you just don’t know how to let the Lord show you how MUCH He LOVES you and cherishes you. If you feel like this, know that you are not alone. Know that you are so very special in the eyes of the Lord. When He sent His son Jesus to this earth, to the cross, to rise from the dead, the God of the Universe had YOU in mind. Continue Reading »»