Daily Dose

Good morning!

Well, this is not from the phone, but I will keep trying to get that figured out so that I keep up to date daily with the daily dose.

Today's Devo: All of God's Girls Have Issues
Scripture: Romans 8:1

The devotion starts by talking about how Lysa has had great success when she stopped just trying to lose weight and realized that her physical issue was tied to a spiritual one. It's a great journey either way, but this revelation is something key to loving yourself.

When I read her words about how we all beat ourselves up for one this or another, it's easy to say, 'well, I don't do that all that often do I?"

Unfortunately, I do. I look in the mirror sometimes and can't stand what I see. Do I compare myself to other people? Not so much anymore...but I know the pain of it. I know the ache of just wanting to be in a different body for a while. It's a dangerous thought process that I think all women cycle through. Even the women that are 'happy' with the way they look. Pastor Dave did a talk on emotions, especially happiness a couple months ago and I find myself going back to this.

In it he talked about how happiness should not be what we base our opinion of what our life is. Happiness is an emotion, it can leave in and instant and it is really conditional. He said, and I agree, that we should base our lives on joy and seek to be joyful. Jesus said that he would complete our joy. To me, that makes joy very unconditional because no matter the circumstances, I know that Jesus has already made my joy complete, there's nothing more that I need to do for that...except be content. ;)

So with that swimming through my head I'm brought to the other part of the devotion. Lysa talks about how we beat ourselves up mentally. It's amazing to realize that I'm not the only one that does this. :) I beat myself up time and time again for not doing something the right way, not having it all together all the time...it's a problem. Obviously, Lysa is talking a lot about the struggle with weight...but I see it stretching further than just that issue. It's everything.

Here, I think about the lesson that I taught yesterday. The words God gave me to speak to the lives of the kids at church and how, sometimes, I'm the worst and telling myself nice things. The lesson was on encouraging words. How saying nice things and building each other up brings us closer together. That as a church family, God wants that for us. He says that if one of us hurts, all of us do! So, we played a game where we wrote down encouraging words and then had to give them away. The kids has a blast, but in the end the point was that saying encouraging words brings us together, it makes us ONE. Can I say mean things to myself and be one with God? Can I truly be saying mean things to myself and be one with my husband? Or my church family? Or myself? The far reaches of what we say to ourselves hit me full force while reading the devotion today. It was like, 'You're nice to others, you build others up, but you can't do the same for yourself? I don't think that's what God wants for you M...'

Then the powerful words that Lysa has put into black (speaking of Jesus), 'He simply says, “Hey, I love you. I love you just how you are. But, I love you too much to leave you stuck in this. So, let’s work on it together. You can do this.” '

These words ripped through me. They came to the very heart of what I'm doing to myself. I beat myself down and am so hard on myself, demanding perfection and then being depressed when I fail...I'm not working with Jesus, I'm working against his loving spirit.

There's a song that starts, 'He is jealous for me..." Jesus loves me, He's jealous FOR me. The rest of the song goes into how we can't keep thinking about the afflictions of our lives when we're so surrounded by His grace and mercy. Am I truly letting them go and giving them to Jesus when I mentally beat myself up? Am I leaning fully on the strength of that mercy? No.

Application steps: Identify your shortcomings and instead of beating yourself up for them, spend some quiet time giving them to God.

Reflection: What went through my mind when I read, 'He simply says, “Hey, I love you. I love you just how you are. But, I love you too much to leave you stuck in this. So, let’s work on it together. You can do this.” ' Well, you guys have already read that ;)

What are your shortcomings? Are you working with Jesus and leaning on His grace? Or are you taking it away from Him to use against yourself?

M