My, aren't YOU insecure?
Home group discussion last night shifted later on to discussions about exclusion of others, either intentionally or not. I'm certain we are all guilty of doing this. Perhaps we were the one who was excluded...maybe so.
Sometimes it's difficult to love the unlovable...the ones who are nervous, hiding behind things, even using tough exteriors as a front. Yet underneath, most times I believe, you will find a crumbling spirit, a wounded being.
Insecurity is an epidemic in our society today. There has never been more images and messages flashed at us that scream, "You might be good, but you're nowhere near THIS good." You can replace the word "good" in that sentence with any other word you so choose (wealthy, beautiful, intelletual, powerful, successful)....they all fit well. We spotlight the ones in society who have it all together....we shove aside those who seem not to.
I have first-hand experience with insecurity. I think everyone combats with it while in the dreaded three years of middle school. It may not be when we feel the MOST insecure in life, but for most of us, it is where we receive our very first TASTE of insecurity. I remember being so insecure at 13 years of age that, if I heard a burst of laughter among peers as I walked through the lunchroom at school, I just automatically assumed they were giggling about me. I did the head-to-toe check sometimes to see if there was anything spilled on me, hanging off of me, clinging to me, written on me. Chances are they were laughing about something totally different, but to me, this experience landed on top of the pile of others which contributed to the insecurity that I still struggle with today.
I wonder if I'm personable enough, seeing as I have to fight to break through my shyness in order to make friends. I wonder if I'm sweet enough. I wonder if I'm stern enough. I wonder if I'm pretty enough. I wonder if I'm smart enough. I wonder if I'm talented enough. I wonder if I'm creative enough.
Wait. Stop. Wouldn't all of this be avoided, the heartache and the constant worry, if I'd just remember who I was supposed to be looking to for my security alone? I will never be able to please people on earth. I am tired of trying to do so. I need to remember that in Him I find myself, in Him lies my self-worth. Though magazine photoshoots, business magazine interviews, and haughty people I come across all scream at me that I'm never good enough, God sees me as perfect. He died so that I could be. And by spending more time concerning myself with what others think of me and see in me than I do learning what HE thinks of me, I am in essence saying that His sacrifice didn't mean as much to me as I said it did. How painful that must be to Him.
I will not use this so that I can make excuses for things in my life that need changing. God has pointed out things in my personality and personal life that I need to tone up or clean out. He doesn't want me static....He wants to see me change. But I must look to Him for a guideline as to what my finished product will resemble...not the world.
Oh, insecure people....you can spot them a mile away. I truly believe it's what a majority of Americans are plagued with every day, crippling their self-worth, and worst of all, blinding them to ministries all around them, the plank of insecurity jammed tightly into their eye and clouding their vision.
I tend to be one of these plankeyes. Yet I am still a work in progress. God isn't done yet. And His approval is all I really need....now I just need to make it all that I look for.
But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. (II Corinthians 12:9)
Sometimes it's difficult to love the unlovable...the ones who are nervous, hiding behind things, even using tough exteriors as a front. Yet underneath, most times I believe, you will find a crumbling spirit, a wounded being.
Insecurity is an epidemic in our society today. There has never been more images and messages flashed at us that scream, "You might be good, but you're nowhere near THIS good." You can replace the word "good" in that sentence with any other word you so choose (wealthy, beautiful, intelletual, powerful, successful)....they all fit well. We spotlight the ones in society who have it all together....we shove aside those who seem not to.
I have first-hand experience with insecurity. I think everyone combats with it while in the dreaded three years of middle school. It may not be when we feel the MOST insecure in life, but for most of us, it is where we receive our very first TASTE of insecurity. I remember being so insecure at 13 years of age that, if I heard a burst of laughter among peers as I walked through the lunchroom at school, I just automatically assumed they were giggling about me. I did the head-to-toe check sometimes to see if there was anything spilled on me, hanging off of me, clinging to me, written on me. Chances are they were laughing about something totally different, but to me, this experience landed on top of the pile of others which contributed to the insecurity that I still struggle with today.
I wonder if I'm personable enough, seeing as I have to fight to break through my shyness in order to make friends. I wonder if I'm sweet enough. I wonder if I'm stern enough. I wonder if I'm pretty enough. I wonder if I'm smart enough. I wonder if I'm talented enough. I wonder if I'm creative enough.
Wait. Stop. Wouldn't all of this be avoided, the heartache and the constant worry, if I'd just remember who I was supposed to be looking to for my security alone? I will never be able to please people on earth. I am tired of trying to do so. I need to remember that in Him I find myself, in Him lies my self-worth. Though magazine photoshoots, business magazine interviews, and haughty people I come across all scream at me that I'm never good enough, God sees me as perfect. He died so that I could be. And by spending more time concerning myself with what others think of me and see in me than I do learning what HE thinks of me, I am in essence saying that His sacrifice didn't mean as much to me as I said it did. How painful that must be to Him.
I will not use this so that I can make excuses for things in my life that need changing. God has pointed out things in my personality and personal life that I need to tone up or clean out. He doesn't want me static....He wants to see me change. But I must look to Him for a guideline as to what my finished product will resemble...not the world.
Oh, insecure people....you can spot them a mile away. I truly believe it's what a majority of Americans are plagued with every day, crippling their self-worth, and worst of all, blinding them to ministries all around them, the plank of insecurity jammed tightly into their eye and clouding their vision.
I tend to be one of these plankeyes. Yet I am still a work in progress. God isn't done yet. And His approval is all I really need....now I just need to make it all that I look for.
But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. (II Corinthians 12:9)
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