You are beautiful.
Sometimes the world will say otherwise. Sometimes labels will be slapped on you and weigh you down. Sometimes those lies will seem an awful lot like truths. Sometimes you’ll wonder what is the point in your existence.
Do you know why you exist?
Because God loves you.
Just as the world is screaming you’re worthless, He’s whispering gently in your ear, “You were worth it.”
Don’t ever apologize for your existence. I know people like that, that seem as if they’re ashamed of even breathing. That they’re just here to get in the way. And they’re the most beautiful, sweetest people I know. I wouldn’t be able to survive without them.
You make an impact on the world. You’re here for a reason.
God CREATED you. Created you TO BE LOVED.
No, we don’t supposed to be caught up in vanity and selfishness. But when we hate on ourselves, we’re hating on God’s beautiful creations. Through Him are we beautiful. Through Him we can rejoice in being put on this earth. Because HE chose to put us here. He has a purpose for every single one of us.
You may think you’re not worth anything. That you’re talentless, a waste of space, ugly, useless. But He gave you a purpose and all the means of fulfilling that purpose.
“I will praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made:
marvellous are Thy works; and that my soul
knoweth right well.”
You are not talentless. You are not ugly. You are not worthless.
You are equipped with everything you need to serve Him. You are wonderfully made. You are a Child of God.
Don’t let the lies of the world darken your light. Don’t let others define you. When we so focus on what the world sees in us, we smother the real us. We become artificial, fakes. The real us gets stuffed down and hidden away in shame.
But God made YOU. And He wants you to have the glorious freedom to be yourself through Him without the cares of the world. The only one that should ever be allowed to put a label on you is Him. And do you know what His label for you is?
“You are Mine.”
Shine brightly. Be you. Be the wonderful you He made you to be.
Because you are beautiful.
Thank you for this post Christine! I apologize for my existence a lot more than I should.
ReplyDeleteAwww, you're welcome, sweet girl. And don't you dare apologize for your existence. You are so beautiful and fun and a great friend. You're just the best! *huggles*
DeleteOh, Christine, that was just beautiful. You literally almost made me cry. You are SO right about this! I feel the need to apologize for almost everything I do sometimes. But God didn't make a mistake when He placed me on this earth. He has a beautiful, beautiful plan for my life, and He doesn't need me to go around apologizing for it.
ReplyDeleteThank you sooo much for this lovely post! I can't tell you how much it means to me <3 These posts that you write continually lead me closer to my Savior.
I did? Now you're going to make ME almost cry! I'm so, so glad it was a blessing to you. It's just something that's on my mind a lot and I wanted to put it in words.
DeleteHe does have a beautiful plan for your life and has MADE you beautiful! We should never apologize for that, even though it's hard to remember it sometimes.
You are so welcome! You have no idea how much that means to me. Because, ultimately, I always want to point my life back to God, but I feel like I never do enough devotions and things on my blog. There's too much about me. I want to do better.
Yes, well to be honest, I have very odd emotions that assume it's okay to cry over everything. (Including TV commercials. Sad but true. XD) BUT this post really did touch my heart, and I'm so very glad for it <3
DeleteSO I AM NOT ALONE. I am the EXACT same way! Literally TV commercials. I'll just start getting teary-eyed over everything. EVERYTHING. And sometimes there's other people around and I'm just like, "No, stop! I can't cry right now. This is ridiculous!" I don't even know. I'm glad I'm not the only one. We'll just cry together! XD
DeleteOH MY GOODNESS YOU TOO?! I swear we are the same person! O_O My emotions are thoughtless little things that take pleasure in embarrassing me in front of everyone :P I just start crying over everything. We can be crying buddies. XD
DeleteCrying buddies! Hahaha, I love it!! XDDD
DeleteThis is a wonderful reminder. Thank you, Christine!
ReplyDeleteYou are so welcome! It's something God reminds me of a lot and I knew I had to put it into words one day.
DeleteI am speechless. 100% at lose for words. Christine, this is beautiful! Such a wonderful reminder that we don't need to be ashamed of who we are, because who we are is HIS. I bookmarked it to read again on a day when I'm not feeling my best :). Thank you so much for this wonderful post!
ReplyDeleteAGH. GIRL. Your comment made my day! I cannot tell you how thrilled I am it was a blessing to you. I always fear my little devotion things are silly or already obvious or just unhelpful. But then I have to remember God put these thoughts in my heart so, again, I don't need to be ashamed of that. :) So glad you enjoyed it!
DeleteNo, they are certainly NOT silly. And even if it is obvious, you have such a way of writing words that sometimes I end up seeing things in a new, clearer way :). And yes, I enjoyed it very much. *nods*
DeleteOh my, this means so much to me, you have no idea. Thank you, sweet girl!!! <3
DeleteGAH.
ReplyDeleteLOL! Hopefully that's a positive response. XD
DeleteHello Christine. So good to know you through your profile on the blogger and the blog post. I am glad to stop by your blog post which so encouraging to the young people who under estimate themselves because of their look. It is so important to know who we are in the Lord Jesus Christ and how valuable and highly esteemed we are in God's sight. I am blessed and feel privileged and honored to get connected with you because of who you are in the Lord JESUS CHRIST. I am a Pastor from Mumbai, India and love to get connected with the people of God around the world to be encouraged, strengthen and praying for one another. I have been in the Pastoral ministry for last 36 yrs in this great city of Mumbai a city with a great contrast where richest of rich and the poorest of poor live. We reach out to the poorest of poor with the love of Christ to bring healing to the broken hearted. We also encourage young and the adults from the west to come to Mumbai to work with us during their vacation time. We would love to have you come to Mumbai to work with us during your vacation time. I am sure you will have a life changing experience. My email id is: dhwankhede(at)gmail(dot)com and my name is Diwakar Wankhede. Looking forward to hear form you very soon. God's richest blessings on you, your family and friends. Wishing you a blessed and a Christ centered new year.
ReplyDeleteOh, thank you for the offer! It's always encouraging hearing about mission work such as that. I hope God will do much work in your mission to bring people to Him!
DeleteThis is so beautiful, Lauri!! :) I so needed to hear this right now, and you ALWAYS have the best way with words to say such true things. <3 And I hope you know how YOU impact the world with your sunshiney self! ^___^
ReplyDeleteOh you!!! <333 You're the one that always encourages me and says what I need to hear and helps keep me pushing forward. Love you so much! *huggles*
DeleteThis is one of the most beautiful blog posts I've ever read. As much as I hate to acknowledge it, I do sometimes feel that I'm a worthless pushover who just gets in the way. I've been working on that, and also with how I apologize way too much. This post definitely helped. Thanks, Lauri. You're awesome. :)
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness, THANK YOU! That...that means so much to me.
DeleteAwww, you should never feel that way! You're always so much fun and nice. And, goodness, you started the Purple Elephants! Which was the spark of some of my very dearest friends that still impact me and my writing in a huge, huge way to this day. YOU have made a huge impact on this world and I know will continue to. Keep being awesome, Maffles!
You're welcome, I'm glad! And thank you for the reminder, I needed that. :) You keep being awesome, too!
DeleteTHANK YOU, Christine, for a beautiful, beautiful reminder. <333 It's so simple, yet I take it so for granted. And sometimes I wonder how much my heart really believes it, when I find ugly and self-deriding thoughts surfacing. (I also apologize more than is healthy.)
ReplyDeleteYou put it so beautifully--that the only one allowed to put labels on us is Jesus. And He says, "You're Mine." :') How incredible! I want this to be the year I rise up in confidence like never before, and the only way to get there is if I really, truly realize how deeply my Father loves me.
*hugs*
Oh goodness, you are so welcome! It's something I have to work on a lot. I think I put myself down far more than I should. Or, go the other way, and focus too much on ME instead of being grateful for the One Who made me, which would, in turn, make for a much healthier, confident life. You know? It's always a struggle.
DeleteSometimes when I deeply think about it, it blows my mind. He's mine. I'm His. Just...wow.
Oh, I hope you have the most wonderful year and grow more and more in God! You are so special and beautiful and a blessing to me every single day! He's got amazing plans for you. *hugs back*
OH MY GOODNESS. This is creepy cool. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this beautiful post in my inbox; I seriously just posted a post a couple of weeks ago with the *exact same title* and message. O_O XD
ReplyDeleteBut Christine, this is so beautiful! :') Just what I needed to hear today! Thank you so much for your encouragement! <3 You're so amazing - and beautiful!
Love,
Koko
Wait...wut? O___O OH MY WORD.
ReplyDeleteBRAIN. TWINS.
This is hilarious!!! I love it! XD Maybe God was trying to really get this message across. ACK. This is just too great. XDD
D'awww! Thank you!! You're so sweet. Now I must go read your version of this post! Total brain twins right now, it's great!
<333
Oh my gosh, I KNOW. O_O Brain twins for sure! Great minds think alike. XD ;) <3 Oh my goodness, I know; that is so, so cool. *highfive* Gosh, and thank you so much for reading my post! :O <3 You're so lovely, Christine!
DeleteKoko
Thank you for this measure of kind encouragement. I needed it this morning. ^^
ReplyDelete