1 Peter 3:3-4
Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight.
We live now in a country where there is never enough....when food is handed out, when supplies are distributed...if you do not fight to the front of the line....you will not get...you will not receive....and, yet, God's tells us here to have a gentle and quiet spirit. As women, we are to have a gentle and quiet spirit...this goes against everything that this world will teach us.
In order to be loved, you must be skinnier. In order to be respected, you must stand your ground. In order to be happy, you must have the latest fashions. In order to provide the best for your children, the must have the latest fads. In order to be worthy, we must be beautiful. In order to be, we must have...and so we continue trying to have it all...trying to get to the next step only to realize that this is not what we really aspired to have but the next one...so we sacrifice ourselves again, we sacrifice our families, we sacrifice all the while telling ourselves that once we get to the next step...we can just be. We justify a life of whirlwind craziness....and the world encourages it.
And we can continue on...all the while watching as we and those around us spiral out of control. Or...we can live set apart. We can say "no" to the world and follow Him and Him alone. I remember those "people", don't you? I remember seeing kids when I was in school that were "different" that lived set apart...and unfortunately, I looked as the world looked and saw what satan wanted me to see. They didn't fit into the world. They chose at all costs to honor the Sabbath. They lived as God has asked us to live...and they were ridiculed, ostracized, called crazy....and, yet, they were walking as God has called us to walk. I have had to go back and apologize to my fair share of Christians, whom in my past, I thought their lives were crazy....and the interesting thing was, they didn't care what I had thought...because they were living only for their worth in God's sight!
How shocking was that to me that they did not care what we had all thought...they didn't care that the world didn't embrace them....They knew Who they were serving and it wasn't me and it wasn't the world....and they did it in the most humble, God-fearing manner. They were not the Christians that were on display but rather those who quietly served as He called.
My desires of this world have changed so dramatically....and, I pray that God continues, as He promises, the work that He has started in me. I don't want it all....I only want to live worthy of Him....and that means a radical change from who the world would encourage me to be. It means my having an inner circle of real believers that I can rely on finding Truth...even when sometimes there are no words. It means being different...and being okay with that..., yet, remaining humble and recognizing that what is being done through me is done by Him. It means not holding tightly to anything....but my Father in Heaven...and being okay with that.
Be different today. Let's look inside of who we are and find where we follow the world...where we are not gentle and quiet. I have found that there are some places in my world that I literally can not be gentle and quiet...not yet, anyways...and God has given me the freedom to step aside and wait while He continues to mature me... So grateful, that He is a God of patience...of amazing grace.
Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight.
We live now in a country where there is never enough....when food is handed out, when supplies are distributed...if you do not fight to the front of the line....you will not get...you will not receive....and, yet, God's tells us here to have a gentle and quiet spirit. As women, we are to have a gentle and quiet spirit...this goes against everything that this world will teach us.
In order to be loved, you must be skinnier. In order to be respected, you must stand your ground. In order to be happy, you must have the latest fashions. In order to provide the best for your children, the must have the latest fads. In order to be worthy, we must be beautiful. In order to be, we must have...and so we continue trying to have it all...trying to get to the next step only to realize that this is not what we really aspired to have but the next one...so we sacrifice ourselves again, we sacrifice our families, we sacrifice all the while telling ourselves that once we get to the next step...we can just be. We justify a life of whirlwind craziness....and the world encourages it.
And we can continue on...all the while watching as we and those around us spiral out of control. Or...we can live set apart. We can say "no" to the world and follow Him and Him alone. I remember those "people", don't you? I remember seeing kids when I was in school that were "different" that lived set apart...and unfortunately, I looked as the world looked and saw what satan wanted me to see. They didn't fit into the world. They chose at all costs to honor the Sabbath. They lived as God has asked us to live...and they were ridiculed, ostracized, called crazy....and, yet, they were walking as God has called us to walk. I have had to go back and apologize to my fair share of Christians, whom in my past, I thought their lives were crazy....and the interesting thing was, they didn't care what I had thought...because they were living only for their worth in God's sight!
How shocking was that to me that they did not care what we had all thought...they didn't care that the world didn't embrace them....They knew Who they were serving and it wasn't me and it wasn't the world....and they did it in the most humble, God-fearing manner. They were not the Christians that were on display but rather those who quietly served as He called.
My desires of this world have changed so dramatically....and, I pray that God continues, as He promises, the work that He has started in me. I don't want it all....I only want to live worthy of Him....and that means a radical change from who the world would encourage me to be. It means my having an inner circle of real believers that I can rely on finding Truth...even when sometimes there are no words. It means being different...and being okay with that..., yet, remaining humble and recognizing that what is being done through me is done by Him. It means not holding tightly to anything....but my Father in Heaven...and being okay with that.
Be different today. Let's look inside of who we are and find where we follow the world...where we are not gentle and quiet. I have found that there are some places in my world that I literally can not be gentle and quiet...not yet, anyways...and God has given me the freedom to step aside and wait while He continues to mature me... So grateful, that He is a God of patience...of amazing grace.
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