Do I Hide What Makes Me Special?

 Well, they said we were in for another storm. They said we'd have about 6" of snow. They said it would be strong wind and COLD. They were right about the wind, they were right about cold, but here our snow fall was less than they said. I do know places that do not normaly get snow did. So, I've been praying for those that have been without power or struggling to keep warm through this; so the Lord to help them through this.

However, during this time of being inside a bit more than normal due to the weather, I ended up seeing something that made me think, and it kind of got me a bit excited. I am going to do my best to describe a video I saw that started me down this trail. 

Picture a video that starts in the hallway of a fairly average looking home, and travels through it. The screen reads something to the effect of "The Christmas Gift that Kept Giving This Year." Then it shows a mother and her children moving around and then mom is taking sheet rock off, what looks like a knee wall and we see that it is actually the railing and spindles for a beautiful bannister for the stairs and the landing at the top of the steps. You see her removing a sheet of luan that has been covering antique solid wood doors that just need to be cleaned up and maybe a coat of paint, and you see her removing sheet rock from walls and exposing bead board underneath that is in beautiful condition other than being cleaned up. I watched it again, and shared it with my husband. He asked me "Who would cover up all that character?" I agree? Who would cover up all the parts that make it different and unique? Those add beauty and value to the home, as well as come character. But then this thought hit me. So very many people do just that. In living life we notice a piece of us that is very different. Something that we do that makes us stand out from others can sometimes make us feel weird, so we cover it up and/or bury it, so it isn't seen. It embarrasses us, or makes us uncomfortable, right?

How often have I tried harder to "fit in" than I was meant to? 

How often have I allowed what someone else thought of me, or how I act, cause me to shut that down?

How often have I thought less of me, because of what someone else said, or what I thought they thought about me?

How often have I allowed the wrong voice to shut down part of me that is meant to shine?

How do I see myself??

Sometimes those voices came from people that I honored as an authority in my life. Sometimes they were from "friends". Sometimes the thoughts are whispered into my ear as what someone else is "thinking" and it is simply a ploy of the enemy to shut down something in me that the Father created in me.

Psalm 139 speaks about how I was and your were created in every detail by the Great Creator, our Father that dreamed up every little detail about me. He knows every details about me, He sees me as beautiful! Psalm 139: 13-16- "You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous - how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed." (NLT)

He made ALL the delicate parts. As a person that has worked with crafts, and decorated some cookies and cakes and even candies. Sometimes in the making and putting things together - the details can seems tiny, sometimes so small they are hard to see. I may even need to pull out a magnifying glass to see it well. But when God put me, and you, all together. All the cells, all the arteries and veins, the organs, the bones & cartiledge, not to mention how all the systems work together and how the neurons and everything fires. He knew the way you would think, He created your sense of humor, and how You would give and receive love. 

I know that keeping our perspective of things God focused is important, but it is also important to have a God focused view of myself makes a huge difference, too! If I listen to and believe the negative talk from the enemy in my ear, OR that he speaks through others that has all the potential to distract me and pull me away from the destiny and purpose God has for me. 

I ask myself occasionally if I am looking at myself and my life through the Father's eyes. Do I only measure myself by what I do, what I've learned, how I feel? 

I don't always see the depth and breadth of all that I am experiencing or feeling or seeing. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13 that we see through a glass darkly, or dimly (depending on the translation). Then Isaiah 55: 8-9 says, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways," says the Lord. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so are my ways above your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."(NKJV)

So, I ask for the mind of Christ, and for Him to share His thoughts about situations, and for His wisdom and leading to get through the circumstances that I can't see the way through. I ask Him what He sees when He looks at me. I ask Him to help me see through His eyes. 

In listening to the wrong voice, or hiding the parts of me that I see as something too different and I try to hide it. not only am I burying a "talent" but I could potentially be hiding a part of me that could make them more comfortable, or see that as a connection between us, giving an open door for a relationship or a way to encourage them. 

The servant that buried his talent, said that he knew the master, and told his version of how he saw the Master. So the master acted like the servant expected and took what He had given him, and sent him away. I don't want to take the talents that the Lord has planted inside of me, and bury them. I don't want to hide what He's given me. I saw a picture a few years ago during the holidays, and as I am talking about not hiding what He has put in me.  I took a quick snap shot of it, and my feeling has been since I saw this that we don't have just a season to sparkle, but that we should sparkle each day. (Yes, even the men!) We should sparkle with all He has put in us.

Lord, thank you for all the thought you put into creating me. Thank you for all you packed into me as you created me.  Help me not to hide it. Help me not to listen to the voices whispered in my ear, or what others may think, or even say to shut me down, or sow worry or fear. Remind me that what you put in me is there for a reason and  it can open doors to reach others, and be a wonderful chapter in my story of how You have worked in my life. Help me to sparkle for You, help me to use all the talents You have given me and use them to Your glory! =) Thank you, Lord!