“I just found out everything I thought was true about me is a lie.”

After Monday’s post, the notes fall in my inbox.

“My husband just told me he is tired of our marriage, tired of me. After 20 years, he just left.”

Stories of men and women who woke up this morning sure of life; but now they aren’t so sure of anything. 

And we are walking it out quiet, the question in our bones: “Who am I? Really?”

And if this weekend finds you needing to remind yourself of who you really are, here are some tried and true resources:

The book of Ephesians

Marinate in these descriptions of you. Redeemed. Chosen. Transferred. Adopted. Lavished. This book will tell you who you really are.

Altar Ego Study Guide with DVD: Becoming Who God Says You Are

Craig Groeschel offers engaging, practical help in working through to our true identities. The optional DVD makes this a great choice for a small group setting.

Jerry Bridges Who Am I?: Identity in Christ

I appreciate anything by Jerry Bridges. This book gives solid, biblical statements for living out our identity in Christ.

Undaunted

Christine’s story of finding out she was adopted. Un-named at birth and un-wanted by her birth parents, she knows that her identity is all about who she is in Christ. This riveting book puts flesh on the real issues surrounding identity.

Out of everyone this whole world over, you are chosen by God, to be His own cherished… treasured… possession. That’s who you are. I’m praying for you this weekend…

Your friend,

AJ

“I happened to be in the courtyard when it happened.” He said it quiet. Reverent.

“About sixty missionaries were driven in and herded together, awaiting execution. What impressed me most of all about these people was their amazing fearlessness. There was no panic, no crying for mercy. Roman Catholic and Protestant alike… they awaited death with perfect calm.”

He stops for a moment. Tears fill his eyes. “I’m convinced that there can be no salvation for us sinners except through the Redeemer, Jesus Christ. This terrible massacre has led me to look into the Scriptures.”

Then he tells the story of a thirteen year old girl.

Just before the carnage began, the golden-haired girl stepped out and went to stand before the governor. “Why are you planning to kill us,” she asked.  Her voice carried to the farthest corner of the courtyard.

“Haven’t our doctors come from far-off lands to give their lives for your people? Many with hopeless diseases have been healed; some who were blind have received their sight, and health and happiness have been brought into thousands of your homes because of what our doctors have done.

“Is it because of this good that has been done that you are going to kill us?” The governor’s head was down. He had nothing to say. There was really nothing he could say.

The golden haired girl continued. “Governor, you talk a lot about filial piety. It is your claim, is it not, that among the hundred virtues filial piety takes the highest place. But you have hundreds of young men in this province who are opium sots and gamblers. Can they exercise filial piety?

“Can they love their parents and obey their will? Our missionaries have come from foreign lands and have preached Jesus to them, and He has saved them and given them power to live rightly and to love and obey their parents. Is it then, perhaps, because of this good that has been done that we are to be killed?”

By this time the governor was writhing. Each word seemed to touch him to the quick. It was far more than a defense, that brave speech, it was a sentence. It was the girl who sat in judgment and the governor stood at the bar.

But the drama only lasted for one brief moment.

A soldier, standing near the girl, grasped her by her golden hair, and with one blow of his sword severed her head from her body. That was the signal for the massacre to begin.

“I saw fifty-nine men, women, and children killed that afternoon,” went on the gentleman. “Even in the moment of death every face seemed to hold a smile of peace.

“Is it any wonder, therefore, that such marvelous fortitude should have led me to search your Scriptures and to have compelled me to believe that the Bible is in very truth the word of God?”

~Testimony taken from a firsthand account written by missionary to China, Jonathan Goforth 

And how can we live Christ if we are living for the approval of man? And how can we eat Christ if we eat the world’s fare? And how can we walk the narrow road if we are too caught up on the broad path leading to destruction?

Before God, I repent.

Some things in life are worth dying for.

Some things are worthy to be set apart unto.

Many, many things are worthy of nothing but to be left behind, set aside, turned away from. Our very selves are considered as nothing… when we have The Pearl of Great Price, the Treasure worth giving everything up for.

May I die to all else, big and small, in living and in dying, each day, every breath. Jesus, may I live it true: All I have is CHRIST.

When the forensic artist drew a picture of you from your own descriptions, it really didn’t look much like you at’all. The way you described yourself translated as too fat, too stand-offish, too rigid.

But when others described you, the picture that took shape on the artist’s easel turned out much more accurate: You’re a beauty.

And we all know it’s true. We women are great at under-estimating our beauty, both inside and out. We are good at picking our weaknesses to death and drawing attention to everything that is deficient and we can spend a lifetime haggling over things no one else even notices. As one woman said, we can live “me trying to fix me” sort of lives.

So let’s whisper it clear to the woman sitting next to us: You are beautiful. You are uniquely and wonderfully made and you reflect the image of your Maker.

The way you’re tender with that little one when he’s raw and vulnerable… that’s beautiful.

And the way you throw a meal together when there isn’t much left in the cupboards… that’s beauty.

And when the electricity gets shuts off and you pretend you planned a candle-lit dinner instead of complaining about what you don’t have… that’s irresistible.

When you feel like giving up but you keep on anyway… and add a smile to boot…that’s stunning.

And when you choose to take one little baby step towards organizing your wardrobe, to model femininity, to get your energy back, to live full and lovely, to live more healthy… that is your beautiful can-do spirit coming back to life. It shines, girl, oh it shines!

Sister-Friend, you are beautiful.

And if it were me describing you to the forensic artist, I’d paint you with soft lines of compassion, with a jaw of determination, with a glint of refreshing humor, with the arch of classy nobility. And I’d make sure you knew just how much you reflect Christ to me.

You are beautiful. I just want to tell you how much you enrich my life.

Because I know you are beautiful and I believe we can take steps to living it, I am praying this week… This week, may you un-furl. Un-sheath. May you laugh and nod knowingly at our women stories and may you live loved. And this week, I pray you take the next practical step to living noble and royal. Because the King really is enthralled with your beauty and you really are  more beautiful than you think. (see Ps. 45:10)

 

 

I am beyond pleased to be part of this week’s Beauty Bundle! The Beauty Bundle includes 5 eBooks designed to help you live beautiful from the inside out! Discover the secrets to jump starting your energy, inspiration to get your weight under control, and beauty and fashion tips to help you prioritize yourself even as you juggle your busy life — all for 75% off, this week only!

Embracing Beauty by Trina Holden
In this candid and sometimes hilarious book, Trina shares her journey to embracing beauty in the season of motherhood. Every chapter is crammed with practical inspiration and tips for defining your style, choosing clothes and accessories that work for you, and combining it all into a look that will bring joy and confidence to your day.

The No Brainer Wardrobe by Hayley Morgan
The No Brainer Wardrobe is a book to help women learn to love the clothes they have, lose the clothes they hate, and shop for items to fill the gaps. Hayley offers images outlining outfit selections, tips for how to shop, and instructions for creating a lookbook plus encouragement to help you save time and money and feel great in what you wear.

Energy Explosion by Arabah Joy
Energy Explosion will give you the plan you need to regain your energy. In this 7-day guide, Arabah gives step-by-step instructions for jump starting your energy by addressing your body, mind and spirit, plus printable charts and checklists to track your progress!

Frumps to Pumps by Sarah Mae
Getting dressed in the morning often makes us more hospitable, more productive, more playful and more energized. In Frumps to Pumps, a one-month motivotional (motivation + devotional) from popular author Sarah Mae, you’ll find encouragement and practical tips to help you get into the habit of getting dressed so you can love people (and yourself) well.

100 Pound Loser by Jessica Heights
Jessica’s 100-pound weight loss story is inspiring, encouraging and motivating. In this short but candid ebook, she shares her story plus practical advice to help readers conquer their weight loss goals and appreciate their bodies, regardless of the numbers on the scale.

 

Get this bundle of  5 eBooks for only $7.40. This week only! Live loved and lovely

In the lonely, hungry places of the soul he shows up. He promises satisfaction, applause, fulfillment. And we need remember that it was the wilderness where he planned his attack and sharpened his weapons and gave it all he had. In that needy place he drew near the Holy One in His hunger and twice he asked it, subtly, cunningly: “IF  You are the Son of God…”

It was identity he was after then and it’s identity that he’s after now. Satan want us to doubt or be confused about our identity.

We all have needy places of the heart with longings to be accepted, loved, worthy, to live for a noble purpose. These things shape our identity and they are God-given desires that are not wrong… but they can be met in many, many wrong ways. Satan unsuccessfully tempted Christ to get his needs met apart from His loving Father;  he is much more successful with us.

Jan Greenwood, in chapter two of her book Women at War, writes this:

Today’s media is one of the most challenging and pervasive methods of war
being used in the assault on women. Television programs, movies and music
shape our perceptions of what is normal, what is acceptable and what should be
sought after. What we see and hear influences us, whether or not we are aware
of its impact.

Propaganda is one of the most deceptive and prolific weapons of war.

And I would add to that, social media can be deadly. So many women of all ages are trying to find their identity online. In mass, we are turning on to get those inner needs met. And social media is happy to tell us what we ought to be, buy, and become. While I love blogging and connecting online, I have to be very, very careful as to what content I am taking in and what messages I am letting it convey. It is so easy to get caught up in the messages and swept away into an identity crisis and not even know it!

Where we gain our sense of identity is vital. It affects so many layers of our lives, including our service and ministry. One day I was reading the gospel of John where Jesus washes the disciples feet. This is what it says,

“Jesus, knowing that the Father had given everything into His hands, that He had come from God, and that He was going back to God, got up from supper, laid aside His robe, took a towel, and tied it around Himself. Next, He poured water into a basin and began to wash His disciples’ feet and to dry them with the towel tied around Him.” John 13:3-5

What prompted Jesus’s tender service in His final hours was a sense of identity and purpose. He knew who He was, what He had been given, and where He was going. As a missionary, that motivates me to ask if I am serving out of a sense of godly identity. If not, my service will always fall flat and short. Am I being intentional about renewing my mind? Vigilant in what I am taking in?

Is my identity like John the Baptist’s… grounded in the Word spoken of me?

Is my identity like Paul’s, independent of other’s approval?

I love chapter 2 in Jan’s book because she talks about identity and labels and contrasts it with how God names us. He takes the time to give each and every one of us a name and thus, an identity! Finding out who God says we are is a wonderful, freeing adventure.

Now it’s your turn to talk! Jan has invited us to discuss a couple of the questions she’s included at the back of the chapter. What we’d love to hear from you is:

• In what ways have you allowed our culture to shape your opinions of women? What about your opinions of yourself?
• What labels have you allowed the enemy to apply to you? What have you believed about yourself as a woman? Ask God to reveal those things.

You are warmly invited to discuss today’s post here on the Facebook page. Also, be a part of the book study Women at War by Jan Greenwood? You can sign up at The Beautiful Deep. 

Have you seen this week’s brand new eBook bundle? I’m super-excited to have my book included!

 

The grocery list grows long and the pantry gets scant and Jackson and I sit down to crunch numbers.

“We’re going to be okay,” he tells me with a smile. “Just don’t go to the grocery. And don’t get gas. Oh, and don’t pay any bills either.”

I laugh.

Some days you need to borrow the faith of another and today I lean heavy on Jackson’s.

But I still don’t know how creative I can get with canned beets and tuna.

Crunched numbers tell a grim story. It tells us where we stand and how we fare and somehow the story always comes up short.

And who doesn’t do it… Crunch numbers?

We crunch to get information, to clarify purpose, to gain wisdom.

We input the numbers and run the calculations and out comes the result.

But numbers aren’t the only thing you can crunch. You can crunch circumstances, too.

We can calculate trials and hardships and bare pantries and lost relationships and bad doctor’s reports.

Crunching circumstances is part of life.

It’s okay to crunch circumstances. In fact, Scripture commands us to crunch circumstances, just like we crunch numbers…we just have to crunch correctly. When we crunch God’s way, the result is always the same:

J    O    Y

Who would have thought God’s gift to us is a calculator that takes all of life’s ups and downs, all the testings and the trials and the difficulties and crunches them to produce a single, shining outcome: Joy?

Who would have thought?

But this is indeed the gift we have, this JOY calculator, if we will but sit down and do the crunching:

“ Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds…” James 1:2

Pastor says “consider” means to count, to calculate, to press your mind down upon. It’s an accounting term.

“You can’t come to a joyful conclusion about a trial without calculating it,” he says.

Yes.

This is why we worry about the math calculations and the check book balance and the doctor’s report and the phone call we never received and the break we never got…we’ve forgotten to run things through the Joy Calculator.

It’s time to sit down and crunch.

The Joy Calculator, it tells the truth. We can always use it and say, “I’ve crunched the circumstances and things look good, real good!”

“And we boast in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance.

You have need of perseverance so that after you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised.” Romans 5:3, Hebrews 10:36

 

Pastor explains that perseverance is “hoopomone” in Greek and it means “to bear up under.”  Trials give us the ability to bear up under pressure.

And this single characteristic of “hoopomone” is the means to all other virtues and characteristics.

Hoopomone is the “funnel” through which we receive everything!

“And let hoopomone have its perfect work, so that the man of God may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”  James 1:4

 

So the calculating goes something like this:

Trial (fill in blank) + faith = Hoopomone (perseverance) 

Hoopomone = mature, complete, perfect!

This…this is why we can calculate everything as joy. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. (II Cor 4:17)

So I sit down with the Joy Calculator and I do some crunching. I plug in the circumstances and I apply faith and I see what God is doing and sure enough, out comes the expected result.

Joy.

I keep plugging things in, hard things. Sad things. The worst things I’ve ever experienced.

It is quite unbelievable. No matter what I plug in, the result keeps coming out the same.

I think I’m addicted.

I’ve done some calculating and things look good. In fact, they are glorious and I can’t help but share the wonderful news.

{Want to borrow my calculator this weekend?}

Are you encouraged here? I invite you to subscribe to Arabah here for updates.

*Repost from archives. I’m doing more calculating this week~ smile!
 

“There’s story of an old slave round these parts,” I begin.

Big round eyes shine with anticipation and I know that everyone loves a good story. “Now this was back when the Confederacy thought they could up and remove themselves from the Union. But anyhow, this one old slave was freed. And when his former master died, he left that slave everything he had. It amounted to a little over $50,000.”

And since I’m an accountant, I like numbers and I’ve looked up what that means in today’s dollars. “That’s like someone giving you over one. million. dollars.”

{What would you do if someone up and left you a million bucks!?}

“So the man was notified of his inheritance and the money was placed in the bank for him.

“Except months went by and he hadn’t withdrawn any money. So the banker went to give him a visit. He explained that he had $50,000 dollars available for his withdrawal and the old slave, who had no understanding of what that meant, asked, “Well Sir, do you think I can have 50 cents to buy a sack of corn meal?”

Children with the understanding of that slave stare back at me and I have to explain in the simplest of terms the difference between 50 cents and 50,000 dollars.

And I feel it in my bones, how Christians know a lot about the value of money …  but we don’t necessarily know so much about the incomparable worth of grace.

I’m mean, sure, we’ve been notified of our inheritance and we know that the righteousness of Christ was “credited” to our account. We know that grace means “unmerited favor.” We can give little acronyms and we talk a whole lot about justification and we can even pitch a celebration service for the $50,000 worth of grace in our spiritual bank… but that deposit was meant to be drawn upon.

That righteousness credited to our account wasn’t meant to sit there, it was meant to be drawn down upon, time and time again.

Like when a friend does you straight up wrong, it’s meant to draw down righteousness in the form of forgiveness. There are sufficient funds to give a blessing for a curse.

And when the sometimes selfish husband makes unreasonable demands, there are sufficient funds to grace him with kindness and nourish him with love.

And when the children wear and demand and it feels like you just have absolutely nothing left to give, there are sufficient funds credited to your account. Funds to give sacrificially and generously and joyously.

And when the trials blow hard against the soul, there are sufficient funds to stand strong and persevere and get back up.

Yes. This is the grace-oriented life.

Grace was never meant to simply be defined. It wasn’t meant to be acknowledged. It was meant to be drawn upon.

And what if we really lived like this?

It could be the greatest break-through of our lives.

There’s story of another slave even more insightful. This slave owed his master. In fact, his debt had accumulated to a sum of millions. There was absolutely no possible way the slave could ever pay the debt, not in several lifetimes.

So this slave was called to account. His master told him it was time to pay up. Since he couldn’t pay, he and his wife and children would be sold to pay for the debt. The slave begged for mercy. “Just give me a little more time and I will pay everything.”

The slave asked for a certain type of forgiveness. He asked for “makrothumason: an extension of time, a delay.”

Makrothumason requires continual striving, working, performing, achieving. This is what the slave assumed he *might* have a chance at receiving.

But the Master was moved with compassion and He granted full and complete removal of the debt. He marked the debt paid in full.

It was a glorious day, to be granted full pardon! Yet the slave, not realizing he was completely forgiven, thought he still had to go around collecting from others who owed him. He was still thinking in terms of makrothumason.

He saw someone who owed him a small sum, grabbed him and started choking him to exact payment.

And maybe we fail in our efforts to live the grace-oriented life because we make the same wrong assumption. Instead of drawing down on the inexhaustible supply of sufficient grace, we feel we can’t absorb a wrong-doing. We can’t afford to be generous. We can’t give a blessing for a curse. We just don’t have what it takes.

We don’t understand grace in terms of full provision. So we exact debts from husbands, friends, children, ourselves, because we don’t understand the grace credited to our account, the righteousness and provision of Christ. There are sufficient funds.

Yes, we have a good theology of grace. But do we live it? Is it in the gut, in the heart, in the reflexes? Is it reflected in our homes, our relationships, our “aroma?” Oh God, help us!

As this series comes to a close, it needs to be woven into the fiber of my being: Grace is full provision. At every moment, I can assume the bank account is credited beyond my ability to understand, there is no lack.

So this is grace -> always giving, believing, forgiving, nourishing, drawing on the inexhaustible resource that Christ has credited to our account.

Let’s live it, shall we? Let’s meet every challenge, each demand, every day of our lives with the assumption and from the standpoint of full provision. Let’s be disciples of grace.

May it be, friends. May it be.

So we keep on praying for you, asking our God to enable you to live a life worthy of his call. May he give you the power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do. Then the name of our Lord Jesus will be honored because of the way you live, and you will be honored along with him. This is all made possible because of the grace of our God and Lord, Jesus Christ.

II Thessalonians 1:11-12

 

Other Posts in the “Grace” Series:

The One Must Have for Spiritual Growth

For Those Not Good Enough

Eating Grace

The Grace Feast

How Long Will You Put it Off?

**Linking with GraceLaced today

After all, He came that we might have abundant life. So this weekend, it’s time to pull out the tennis shoes and go for a walk.

Because 42 Days from now? We really could be fit.

It is time to be still and consider. The flowers know it deep and we can too, that if He clothes the wild blooms so lovely, He surely graces us with beauty and compassion.

Yes, I’m feeling that it is time to take another step forward, to live from grace bestowed.

It’s time to organize a closet.

Plan a simple, delicious meal.

Or begin that 42 Days to Fit.

It’s time to simplify and beautify.

Because we really can do this, you know. We can live graced and baby steps are okay!

So. How will your life be different in 42 Days?

I’m standing at the kitchen sink. Helping hands splash soapy water and truly, half the bubbles are on the tile floor beneath our feet. We are soaked clear through.

Washing up the day’s grime, I wonder if cleansing the sin- sick heart could be so easy.

What if the impatience and the selfishness and the lethargy could just be rinsed down the drain of a soul, gone forever? How do we take the grace of God and apply it to the real issues of a life, a heart? Because I slip on emotions spilled over and I make big  messes and every day it’s this slippery, soapy work, the cleansing and the mess.

Even so, messy spills can be evidences of good at work. We mustn’t give up on well doing just because we don’t get it perfect.

And Joshua 18 tells us over half of God’s people drug their feet in taking possession of promises. They just kept putting it off, making excuses, never partaking in the labor and the fruit God had promised them.

I know it sure as anyone else: Years of promises can be written in journals and can sit on shelves and can lay dormant in the heart.  We can delay living in the good He has promised because of fear, laziness, unbelief, apathy.

Words from Joshua stir the spirit, a trumpet to the soul to press in and march on. “How long will you put off going in to take possession of the land, which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you?”

How long will we keep letting imperfection hold us back? Remember, the righteous woman falls seven times but gets back up. It never was about being perfect in the first place. We can slip and fall and finally give up and we can put off going in and taking possession of God’s promises to us.

The question is always, How long are you going to do that?

Joshua, the master leader, knew how to motivate. He told them, “Appoint three men from each tribe. I will send them out to make a survey of the land and to write a description of it, according to the inheritance of each.”

Sometimes we need someone to tell us what living the abundant life looks like.

We need to know in the soul that it’s worth the effort. We need some God- inspired motivation. We need a good description of freedom. We need modern day spies to tell us that we really can be free of besetting sin, we really can live for a purpose greater than ourselves, we really can reflect the beauty and grace of God. The promises of God really do apply to us.

That’s godly motivation. But sometimes we can sit around waiting for a spy when what we need to do is remind ourselves.

We need to tell ourselves what God has already told us and stop waiting for someone else to do it.

We don’t have to figure it all out. We just have to believe that God has given us what He said He gave us. He has not only given us the promise regarding our children… our ministry… our own hearts and character…  He has also given us every grace needed for the journey, for every breath, every moment, step by step. There really are no excuses.

At the sink, I am tired. I’m tired of the mess, of a long day. I’m tired of the splashing, the incessant chatter. I want to cave to the exhaustion. But this I know: Possessing promises is worth pushing through my weakness.

So I push on. I breath grace.

I don’t know how I will do it five minutes from now, I really don’t; I just believe it for now, this moment.

And there in the soapy mess, a little boy chatters and grins up at me. “Momma, you’re the best momma in the whole wide world!”

Yes, possessing promises is worth pushing through the weakness.

So I will.

 How are you doing at Living Complete? Have you taken the 21 day journey with us? Press deeper and believe wider, friend. Let us go up and take more ground!

Amy has created a gorgeous bracelet for this month of May, the “Grace” bracelet.  To wear and remember that we can do this?

 

This is definitely my favorite, a reminder that every grace is mine. You can view the Grace bracelet, as well as the other Scripture bracelets,  here: Amy’s Etsy Shop

 

 

 

 

 

It dawned on me a couple years back that honoring my mother in front of my daughters teaches them how to honor me. Since I don’t live near my mom, I don’t have many opportunities to be with her or even talk on the phone with her with the time difference. But one thing I make sure to do is make Mother’s Day meaningful.

I’m sharing 5 special gifts for Mothers (or any woman) over at Raising Homemakers today. If you’d like some fresh ideas, check it out…

Dear Daughter,

When they told me what we had to do, the world stopped and I just needed to pull you close and sit down. They said for you to grow, I must give you injections every night before bed; but that isn’t the worst part. “They’ll need to be given in the stomach,” the doctors said. “These will continue until she has reached adult height, in about ten years.”

And I don’t know what the next ten years will bring us, but I know hard things and painful nights will certainly be part of our lives.

I wish there were some other way, a way to avoid pain and discomfort. In this life, there is no such way.

That’s why it is important for me to give you something greater than a pain-free life, my daughter. I want to impart to you perspective.

I want to train you how to stop and see the unseen.

So daughter, I’m shopping for a teacup. Yes, you and I are going to sit down to tea.

Before the injections start in a few days and our evenings shift and change, you and I are going to have tea. And I’m going to tell you a story…

 

 

The Teacup Story

Once upon a time there was a quiet little shop tucked away amongst the busy streets of London. This shop was magic because from time to time, items in the shop ~ like wooden horses and over-stuffed elephants ~ would briefly come to life. One day a little girl and her mother were visiting London and got lost. They stumbled into the quiet little shop and began looking at the varied items found there.

The mom noticed high on a shelf sat a beautiful teacup. It was lovely! The mother reached for the cup to show her daughter. As they touched the delicate flowers and ran fingers across the cup’s rim, something surprising happened. The cup began to speak!

“I have not always been a teacup. You see, there was a time when I was just a lump of red clay. My master took me and rolled me, patted and pounded me over and over and I yelled out, ‘Don’t do that. I don’t like it! Let me alone.’ But he only smiled, and gently said, ‘Not yet!’”

“Then WHAM! I was placed on a spinning wheel and suddenly I was spun around and around and around. ‘Stop it! I’m getting so dizzy! I’m going to be sick,’ I screamed. But the master only nodded and said, quietly, ‘Not yet.’”

“He spun me and poked and prodded and bent me out of shape to suit himself and then… then he put me in the oven. I never felt such heat. I yelled and knocked and pounded at the door. ‘Help! Get me out of here!’ I could see him through the opening and I could read his lips as he shook his head from side to side, ‘Not yet.’”

“When I thought I couldn’t bear it another minute, the door opened. He carefully took me out and put me on the shelf, and I began to cool. Oh, that felt so good! Ah, this is much better, I thought. But, after I cooled he picked me up and he brushed and painted me all over. The fumes were horrible. I thought I would gag. ‘Oh, please, Stop it, Stop it!’ I cried. He only shook his head and said. ‘Not yet!’”

“Then suddenly he put me back into the oven. Only it was not like the first one. This was twice as hot and I just knew I would suffocate. I begged. I pleaded. I screamed. I cried. I was convinced I would never make it. I was ready to give up. Just then the door opened and he took me out and again placed me on the shelf, where I cooled and waited ——- and waited, wondering “What’s he going to do to me next?”

An hour later he handed me a mirror and said ‘Look at yourself.’ “And I did. I said, ‘That’s not me, that couldn’t be me. It’s beautiful. I’m beautiful!’”

Quietly he spoke: ‘I want you to remember. I know it hurt to be rolled and pounded and patted, but had I just left you alone, you’d have dried up.

I know it made you dizzy to spin around on the wheel, but if I had stopped, you would have crumbled.

I know it hurt and it was hot and disagreeable in the oven, but if I hadn’t put you there, you would have cracked.

I know the fumes were bad when I brushed and painted you all over, but if I hadn’t done that, you never would have hardened. You would not have had any color in your life. If I hadn’t put you back in that second oven, you wouldn’t have survived for long because the hardness would not have held. Now you are a finished product. Now you are what I had in mind when I first began with you.”

 

Daughter, you are like that teacup. God is the Potter of your life. His plan and delight is to make something stunningly beautiful of you. But beauty doesn’t just happen. Beauty is shaped with intentionality. Beauty and purpose sometimes come only with force, fire, and discomfort.

If our teacups could talk to us right now, they would tell us it was all worth it. The shaping and the fumes, the fire and the heat. One day, you will be able to say the same thing.

For now, we must get to know our Potter. He is good, always… and always faithful. He knows what He’s doing.

In wisdom, He knows just what to bring into our lives to shape the beauty, color, and flavor He aims for us to have. He never takes His eyes off of you or forgets what you are going through. He never gets tired of His project or decides to quit. He promises to finish what He started in you. He even wrote you a letter so you can know for sure and never forget:

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.”   Jeremiah 29:11

Oh daughter! I can see the beauty taking shape in you! I can see determination starting to shine through. I can see gentleness being formed. I even catch glimpses of compassion and service. Daughter, you are a masterpiece.

Whenever you are tempted to despair, whenever you are tossed about with doubt, this will be our tradition … we’ll pull out the teacups and reflect on our Potter.

Much love,

Mama

P.S. To the reader, the Kindle version of Be Hopeful (1 Peter): How to Make the Best of Times Out of Your Worst of Times (The BE Series Commentary) by Warren Weirsbe is currently FREE. 

**Author of the original Teacup Story unknown. Thanks to Life Lessons for posting it.