Where To From Here
I have been pondering something lately. It is about beauty. There is such a flux of Christian women's material about us believing we are beautiful and lovely. I think it is wonderful. I know that this is an area the enemy attacks and we are left feeling repulsive and unusable. I think, however, it can be like any good thing. It can become an idol. It can lead us to pride. Yes, learn what God says about you. Then, move on. Once you know who you are in Christ you must move to the next step or that knowledge is fruitless. Many days you must love, give, serve and not be concerned with how you feel about yourself at all. You have to lay that perception of yourself down and continue on the journey. Don't you think that some of the most beautiful people are the ones least concerned with being perceived as beautiful..the humble serving saint? Press on to the next step. There is a specific place God has you to go to next. Go with Him. There is something else He desires to teach you. Learn from Him. He wants you to be focused on His beauty. Turn away from the mirror and behold His face.
"One of life's great paradoxes is that it's in the crucible of pain and suffering that we become tender. To these elements must be added mourning, understanding, patience, love, and the willingness to remain vulnerable. Together they will lead to wisdom and tenderness."
Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, till He comes and rains righteousness on you.
The fallow field is smug, contented, protected from the shock of the plow and the agitation of the harrow.... But it is paying a terrible price for its tranquility: Never does it see the miracle of growth; never does it feel the motions of mounting life nor see the wonders of bursting seed nor the beauty of ripening grain. Fruit it can never know because it is afraid of the plow and the harrow.
In direct opposite to this, the cultivated field has yielded itself to the adventure of living. The protecting fence has opened to admit the plow, and the plow has come as plows always come, practical, cruel, business-like and in a hurry. Peace has been shattered by the shouting farmer and the rattle of machinery. The field has felt the travail of change; it has been upset, turned over, bruised and broken, but its rewards come hard upon its labors. The seed shoots up into the daylight its miracle of life, curious, exploring the new world above it. All over the field the hand of God is at work in the age-old and ever renewed service of creation. New things are born, to grow, mature, and consummate the grand prophecy latent in the seed when it entered the ground. Nature's wonders follow the plow.
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