A Voice That Wears Many Hats

I have decided that after years of a sabbatical, if you will, I am going to resume writing.  It is unbelievable to me that things that God gives me the words for and I feel honored and blessed.  I just wanted to share with you all what a true peace I have at this moment for accepting His will about it.

Have you ever thought about your voice? Your dialect? Your slang? Your accent? Your persona, as it were, with speech?  It's really amazing.  Some people are gifted with an ear for tracing the heritage of accents.  Just by listening to someone speak you are able to hear compassion, love, anger, frustration, and tenderness.  At the same time, those very emotions are what define our impact on others.  The emotion with the words is astonishingly unique.

Your voice has a fingerprint; there may be someone who has a voice similar to you, but the truth is - with all the words, slang, pronunciations, accents, etc. - your voice develops a persona of its own.  Is that not amazing?  Think about that for just a moment...

Have you ever been a room full of people and the only way you feel like you can hear yourself is the "close" your ear and hear yourself?  Is it comforting?  I wonder - if we spent as much time listening for God's voice as our own - what would we hear?

Our words are weapons and at the same time - is it not strange how it is exactly the same thing that has the power to destroy someone it also has the capacity to uplift them and make them feel things they've never felt before that are completely positive.  Sharing positive words without a compassionate, loving, tender, or inspiring voice nearly takes away the emotion.  This is exactly one of the reasons I feel our nation is so out of control.  We text, email, private message, etc. without ever having spoke to someone.

Do you really realize the power of your voice?  Is it not the voice of a mother that calms a baby?  The voice of a lover that melts your heart? The voice of father that demands respect?  Me simply typing I love you means nothing without emotion.  I have all kinds of text slang, jargon, and emoticons to help "make a point," but does it really?

There is nothing like your voice.  Nothing!  Do not let a day go by without sharing it with someone you love or a complete stranger.  That voice may be the only one they hear, the only one that is not yelling at them - beating them down completely, the only one that matters.

So, I ask you to take time to just listen to your voice just like a baby will sit and coo to hear itself.  Listen to your voice and be empowered knowing that there is no other person on this earth who can make the impact with your voice that you can, but  listen for God's voice and take comfort in it; know that He recognizes your voice through what we might imagine as a muffled noise amongst the many.

Most importantly, ask God to help you to be a voice that speaks His love, comforts His children, and touches the hearts of all you come in contact with.  You may feel as if you have a voice that wears too many hats, but your voice matters because it was designed to be yours and no one else.

Just for Women: A Romancing Thought

Romance is such a subjective topic. Its unfortunate that we as women are built up our entire lives to expect what is in the movies, books, commercials, TV, etc. The truth is, most of us probably never really experience the type of romance we set ourselves up for, but I believe we have to realize what romance is to us individually. As we mature our romancing needs do not change, but rather become more mature.

When I was a teenager the romance I needed and expected was different in many ways than it is now. I dare say that if my idea of romance had not changed, I wouldn’t be married. I was fortunate enough to have a father who romanced my mother – bought her cards, flowers, just called to say “I Love You” – and a boyfriend for over three years that took the time to romance me in my immature romancing days. It’s simple when it’s new and difficult when its mature. Then you could just write a one-page letter explaining your love or a “unprovoked” card and I was happy.

Now, my expectations are more mature. I think there is part of me that longs for the younger days and the lengthy romancing, but I am realistic in knowing that it isn’t always possible to be like a movie, a book, or a commercial. I would love to have more romance in my life, but I have accepted that at this very point in my life I need to accept that realistic expectations will make me happier than worrying about unrealistic romancing. I need more and less romancing all at the same time. It’s a simple thank you instead of a one-page letter. A kiss on the cheek versus a “one hour romance fest.”  I require no less romancing than I did, but more mature and sincere romancing. Being realistic about romance makes the times that are more out of the ordinary even more magical. Life is not a movie, a book, etc. – it is real with real problems, duties, responsibilities, and expectations.

So - enjoy being romanced, but understand that your expectations in it are changing as you change.  Think about this scenario:  For years I was upset when my husband would not even seem to care or ask how my day had been.  I took it offensively that  he didn't care about me because he didn't ask.  Then I was challenged to think of how I pray to God.  In other words, instead of giving God the morning, afternoon, and evening news of my life - I should trust Him enough to recognize that He already knows these things.  I don't need to tell Him who is sick, who is need of prayer, or even the burdens of my heart.  He knows them all already!  That spoke to me.  I realized that if I should trust God not to want to give Him the rundown -  I should trust my husband the same way.  Then I thought, when I ask my husband how his day was - I care about how he feels not the rundown of the days events because I trust him to get up, get dressed, eat, go the work, eat lunch, go to work again, etc. etc. etc.  You see the point?

Romance is about trusting someone enough to be innocently vulnerable, fiercely passionate, intimately in love, and having complete trust for them.  When you truly submit yourself to someone this is how you feel and the romance exist without flowers, cards, touch, or anything; the romance is within us and comes out in everything.  When the romance dwells within us the expectations of romance, love, and intimacy are able to fall away and we are accepting the person just the way they are and we want to romance them anyway. What a romancing thought, huh?

A Challenge & A Prayer

I have been reading several books lately - going to book study, an online book/bible study, and Bible study on Wednesday nights, (book study) in Sunday school, and reading on my own.  What I can tell you is that have become convicted about SO many things.  Prayer, love, being a woman, but more importantly the challenge that God gives to us all to go and make disciples.  I then begin to ask myself...who am I?  I am not worthy of being a disciple.  What can I offer? I am just one person in a huge plan - God's plan.  Why me? I am no one, but an absolutely relentless sinner.  I am inferior to all "those" who are what I see as righteous.  Then it dawned on me - I am inferior.  I am a relentless sinner.  I am just one person in a huge plan.  I am not worthy of being a disciple.  The only thing I am afforded in this life is hell.  Have you thought about that? Nothing in this life is certain, but hell is.  For years we work to pursue a life worthy of deeming us worthy of heaven.  Everyday we work towards "being good and heaven worthy" and yet we are still sinful, profane, unworthy, shameful, and completely naked to God...

I, for one, am appalled to think that all the attempts I make on a daily basis to be good enough are never going to make me good enough.  You see, we will never be heaven worthy instead we are given a choice to accept a gift of heaven.  Does that change what you think?  It did for me.  It changed EVERYTHING.  I am a blip.  I will always be unworthy and God knew this even before He formed me in my mothers’ womb.  He knew I would never be worthy, but He loved me enough to offer me a choice - live for Jesus or don't. It's simple - believe Jesus died for me to save me from hell.  That is the hardest gift I have ever accepted.  Why? Because I know I will never be worthy of receiving, but I have to accept it otherwise His gift through death is nothing.

Where is my journey then?  Where do I fit into His plan?  I mean - really!  Think about it.  My 100 years max on this Earth are NOTHING in the grand scheme of this His eternal plan. So again - where do I fit into His plan?  Well, it started before I was even conceived.  He knew the disciple I could become. He knew every burden He would have to pull me through before I would willingly submit my heart to Him.  He knew all of that.  I ask you this - if you knew every heartache, joy, burden, disappointment, and tear you would shed would share when you met a "friend" would you give your heart to them?  Would you befriend them anyway?  No! Of course not! If you knew the disappointments, the tears, and burdens you would endure because of them you would avoid them at all costs.  We as humans would never willingly submit ourselves to someone who would crush our pride, destroy our faith, crush our heart, and cause disappointments, tears, burdens for us, but you know what - God did! He knew every little thing that we would do and yet He still offers eternal life to us through His son Jesus Christ.

My journey will be short to Him, but long for His plans and me will always trump mine.  Why would I think that I am worthy of anything? The truth is, I don't and that is exactly what keeps me from becoming the disciple He sees in me.  I have to accept the gift and know that God - the one who knows everything about me - still took the time to eloquently form me, wrap me in my mother's womb, and present me to His world.  He knew my potential.  He knew the imperfections.  He knew my failures even before He wrapped me up with more care than any of us can ever imagine.  He considers me a beautiful gift and on top of all those wonderful things - He still presents me with a gift that was paid for with tears, blood, and death, but the moment He showed the world that He could overcome death – I became free.

Does that humble you? It does me.  In the 100 years max I will be on this Earth I will never make myself worthy of heaven.  I cannot make myself anything because I can make nothing.  It is only through Our Master and Creator that anything can be made.  Remember, He eloquently formed each part of me just the way He wanted me.  He formed me and equipped me with everything I will need to be His disciple.  Wow! Imagine that.  He already equipped me and formed me to be the disciple He wanted.  So, why wouldn't I want to share the gifts He gave me.  I was worthy enough for Him to create me, mold me, and make me the disciple He knows His world needs.  And you know what?  I am not alone.  You were formed exactly the same way - through His mercy, His plan, His skill, and His love.  What are you going to do about it?  Accept it and become the disciple He sees in you or decline the most precious gift God uniquely formed - YOU.

If your uniqueness is not humbling enough for you - think about this.  God knew what the world needed.  He knew we would have to be afforded the opportunity to be saved.  He then created a man - so perfectly created and formed just like you and me- and commanded Him to His death for whom? You!  Do you know what Jesus did with this unimaginable anguish and burden?  He prayed face down and sweat blood.  Can you imagine? I cannot.  No matter the horrid things I have been through in my lifetime, nothing by comparison has ever made me feel that much grief and anguish.  So - if you think - Jesus doesn't understand. Think again!  We can't even begin to understand by comparison.  God loved His Son, but He loved us too.  He knew that without the death of His one and only Son we could never have eternal salvation.  The moment Jesus died on the cross - sin was defeated.  If there were no death - there would be no sin.

God HAD to send us a Savior because He loved us that much.  I don't know about you, but I don't believe I could create someone out of love and then watch them die just because someone else needed saving.  In our world that would be like making a decision to be a heart donor to save someone just because you don't need your heart.  Right?!?! You don't need your heart! WOW! We have NO CLUE what God felt, the sacrifice He made, the strength it took to witness it, and the love He showed to us by allowing it.  We're all clueless in our endeavor to conquer all of life's obstacles on our own.  You see - even Jesus - the Son of Man, King of Kings, Lord of Lords needed God.  He needed His father or He could not have died on the cross for you and me. So, what would make us think that we will ever become what God created us to be without Him?

The obstacles that are placed in front of us are there because God allowed them The sorrows and tears we cry are because He allowed them The joys, the triumphs, and happiness - the terror & fear - the mistakes, the mess ups make ...us human because God made us this way. He sent His one and only Son to die for us not because He had to prove something, but because He has crazy love for us. We are afforded hell not heaven. It is because of Jesus that we are given eternal life, but in that - we cannot pretend to be perfect because we will never be that and to pretend that the very things God allowed us to go through were not intended and share them is obscene. If God allowed it to be written into your book of life then we should share it. This is what “we” - sinful, profane, disgusting, unworthy, shameful, and completely naked - are called to do.  So - my challenge to you is to accept the gift that has already been paid for.  Accept and begin your journey to becoming the disciple He sees in you and created you to be.

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"Living, He loved me.  Dying, He saved me.  Buried, He carried my sins far away.  Rising, He justified freely forever.  One day He’s coming.  Oh glorious day!" Casting Crowns: Oh Glorious Day

"What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son, but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?" Romans 8:31-32

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♥ Dear Heavenly Father, I know you know the burdens on my heart. You know the worries, anxieties, joys, and anguish I bear. I come to You humbly, honest, and sincere asking you to unleash the full-force of Your creative power and genius in my life. I give you thanks for all the blessings You have so freely given and most importantly for sending your son Jesus Christ to die for my sins. Feel me with the power to defeat temptations and help me to remember to praise You even in the storms. Thank You for each obstacle You have placed in front of me. Thank You for the security in the cross, the comfort of the Holy Spirit, and forgiving me of my many sins and failures as Your child. Help me to be obedient to Your commands, patient to Your will, and mindful of Your love always. Help me to recognize the full-force of Your creative power and genius in my life so that I may grow spiritually and become the disciple You see in me. Amen. ♥