It's Supposed To Be Messy

Life....it's supposed to be messy.  Wait. What? You mean it's not supposed to look like it does in the magazines, movies, and even what we assume it looks like for everyone else?

Yep, that's what I mean.

We are messy. Our hearts are messy.  Our lives are messy.  Then you go throw people together and it's a perfect mess storm!  I'm not sure where the lie that life is supposed to be easy came from.  Oh wait, that was satan.  

First off, expectations will kill you.  They will literally rob you of the beauty that lies right in front of you.  Every. Single. Time.

So, let's straighten this out now.  Expect me to be human. Expect me to mess up. Expect me to eventually hurt your feelings over something.  Then when I don't, you'll be happily surprised with me! Ha! I am only half way kidding though. I'm human. I reside in sinful flesh and I hate it but it's true.  I know the ugliness of my own heart and it's not a pretty place to visit sometimes.

But you know what?  If all I did was put a mask on and pretend that life was always grand, would that help you? Would that help anyone?  Would that bring God the most glory?

I think you know that answer to that.
If I have in any way misled you, let's set it straight. ;)

Life is m-e-s-s-y! I am M-E-S-S-Y! My heart is even messier! I am in great need of my Savior.  It hurts my heart to hear women say things like this:  "I could never do what you're doing." I understand the heart behind it is not against the other person.  I am guilty here too.
I don't take that personally but listen, I don't take it as a compliment either.  Here's why.  The cry of my heart is to be real with people.  It's to be honest about life and love them right in the middle of it because I want my God to get ALL of the glory.  I want to point people to Him, not to me.  It breaks me heart to hear such things because I think one of two things: I have obviously failed at being real and two, "yes, you can do it because I only do anything by God's grace!"

I know so many beautiful amazing women in my life right now and so many from past years too. I mean, truly incredible women who have touched my life and continue to touch others lives too.  Do you know what makes them beautiful? Do you know what I think of when I am thinking of their beauty?  

It. has.NOTHING. to do with their appearances or their accomplishments. NOTHING.  I think of their big, loving, giving, caring hearts.  I think of the intricate ways in which God created each one of them so beautifully yet so different.  I think of the way He has purposefully planned out each day, each minute of their lives and bound it together into this sweet story that He is using and will use to glorify himself and speak immense love and grace to so many.  

Ladies, friends, can we take off the masks?  Can we stop looking and comparing and self condemning?  Can we be real about our lives, our hearts, our struggles?  Can we spend less time thinking of ourselves and how we look and how we'll look to others and more time soaking up our Father's love for us?  Can we see past these things and see to the hurting hearts?  Can we see the value and worth that we each hold simply because we were made in His beautiful image?  

That changes everything.

Today, our pastor encouraged us to come to service with messy hair. To embrace the mess as we go through this sermon series learning together. It was meant to be fun and also hold meaning.  

I loved the idea personally because I long for women to find their beauty in Him and the story He has written for them.  It took me YEARS to see this for myself.  I don't have it nailed down.  I still have moments or days where I struggle and my thoughts fall more in the "vain" and "shallow" category.  But, He has spoken freedom to me in this. Freedom from the bondage of trying to look and be something and feeling as though that is where all of my value existed.

He allowed me to see His beauty and that because of His beauty, I am beautiful.

It's supposed to be a mess.  But guess what?  He works and moves and does GREAT things in the middle of our mess!

I hope and pray that this speaks encouragement and freedom to your hearts.

"Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised."

-Proverbs 31:30