{Perfect Love}

I haven't slept a full 8 hours until 2 days ago. It's been about 2 weeks. I'm the kind of person that needs sleep. If I don't sleep, I get grouchy. And WAYYYYY more emotional. So that is why I have been crying daily for a week straight.

Maybe it's not just that. But that is what I will blame for [now.]

It's almost 2014.
It's a time for reflection.
It's a time to be reminded of love.


Love that is
 
overwhelming, 

powerful, 

unconditional.

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

1 John 4:18

We forget that this is the love that we have. God perfectly loves us. 

Our society is so focused on love from another person that people think that will be their fulfillment. No, dear friends, love from another human will be imperfect. Imperfect love was not intended to be your fulfillment. God is. And God is love. {Perfect love.}

{Perfect love} gives us confidence. 

{Perfect love} shows us acceptance. 

{Perfect love} cares, always. 

{Perfect love} is real. 

{Perfect love} can be seen. 

{Perfect love} desires relationship. 

{Perfect love} changes us. 

{Perfect love} wants more for you than you want for yourself.

{Perfect love} waits for you to come back. 

{Perfect love} is perfect.

{Perfect love} is eternal. 

{Perfect love} moves us to tears.

Are you living in that {perfect love?}

Beauty in Brokenness

I think I can do anything. Not because I'm good at everything. Oh no, trust me, I know when I'm NOT good at lots of things. My parents always taught me that I could do anything, because I have Jesus on my side. With Him, nothing is impossible.


Reinvent. No, that's not the right word.
Recreate. That's not it either.
Understand? Getting closer.
Figure it out...I guess.


One of my dear friends asked me if I could describe myself. "Of course!" I replied quickly. She looked at me, with love in her eyes. "Describe yourself as if you're on a first date with someone." My response? My mouth was hanging open.

Pause that thought for a second, I'll come back to it, I promise...but first, read this. 

{The Lay Counseling Program that I have going to since September has been reshaping me (there's a better word!), breaking me, showing me new things and challenging me to see truth. It is not easy. In fact, it is probably one of the most difficult things that I've done in my few years on this earth. It has taken every belief, thought and truth about myself, and questioned it. Good, right? More like, earth shattering. Everything that I knew about myself is being reevaluated.}

Back to my previous story. 

I sat down with my journal. And I wrote short, sweet sentences to describe myself. 
It went something like this... 

• I like to write
• I love to travel
• I don't want to just have one identity (one thing I'm known for)
• I love volleyball
• I'm afraid of the dark
• I don't like being alone for too long
• I worry 
• I have to understand things
• I like learning about different cultures

then it got deeper...

• I want to belong
• I need to be needed
• I don't understand why someone would want me
• I need to know things to think I'm worthy of attention
• I don't want to see my beauty in my brokenness

Looking at this list made me want to change something. I started praying. My wonderful mentor made sense to me about being wanted and needed. I am both. [But these were lies that I have believed for so long that they became truth to me.]

My challenge to you is to write those things down. 

The things that you know and think about yourself. 

Not the things that everyone tells you that you are. 

Read your list.

Which ones are truth? Which ones are lies? 

-Take them to Jesus.-

Ask Him to reshape, refine, renew.