Mirror Talk

Do you ever talk to yourself in the mirror? I know some people do. I rarely vocalize what I am thinking when I look in the mirror but my mind is talking.

This morning as I was getting dressed I had some thoughts about what we think we look like and how we think others think we look.  Did that make sense? I was also thinking about how people love.

For some people it is really easy to love and be loved. Others may find it easy to love but do not handle people loving them. Then we have those that find it hard to love and be loved. I do not pretend to be an expert on any of this. But here are some of my thoughts.

I have to love myself before I can love others or be loved by others. How can I love myself? I am reminded of 1 John 4:10-11 "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." I can love myself because He loved me first.

Some people are hiding from love. They want to be a part of a group or a church but they put themselves in places where they're not really seen so it's hard to get to them to love them. In some cases it is not intentional but for others it is. They do not want to be touchable or reachable.

They may feel that they are not worthy of love. They may feel they are not beautiful. For some strange reason we always associate beauty with being loved.  Why? Is that what we are saying to ourselves when we look in the mirror? I'm not pretty or handsome enough to be loved .

As I was listening to K-Love this morning they were talking about being beautiful. People were calling in to share how they had been made to feel beautiful even when they felt they were not physically beautiful. One caller's story really stayed with me. Without going into a lot of detail, she said that God told her this: "You are beautiful! You take my breath away!"

Isn't that precious? Now the next time you are having your mirror talk remember that and hear God telling you: YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL! YOU TAKE MY BREATH AWAY!

I love that: YOU TAKE MY BREATH AWAY!

Loving Well

I am so excited! I just had the most wonderful fellowship with a group of women last night as we came together to do a study on Loving Well. It is one of Beth Moore's that she used on a retreat weekend. We are going to do a four week study with it. I thought it would be a great beginning for a new year.

We laughed as we were introduced to four types of people that we have in our life and we are called to love them. The joke may be on us because whether we realize it or not for some people we may fall into one of those categories of people who are hard to love. It is going to be interesting as these personalities develop and we learn how to "love well".

It has spoken to me already. So I am off to do my journaling for the day - it is quiet here as Charlie has Grand Jury Duty today and it is very wet and cold outside. Lots of folks got snow in north Georgia ~ we were only blessed with rain and cold here in south Georgia. So I am going to curl up on the couch with a cup of coffee and spend some time with my Father as He helps me to discover where I am with my loving.

Until ~ I will leave you with part of the scripture we are concentrating on: 

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. I John 4:10

My Challenge for the New Year

I guess I could call this my resolution for the New Year but as I have indicated I have not had a whole lot of confidence in my resolutions. With that I am challenging myself to memorize one verse per month so that at the end of the year I will have 12 verses that I will be able to readily draw from.

For some of you that may not seem like a lot of verses to memorize but at this stage of my life remembering where I put my reading glasses is a challenge! I am a strong believer in having the word in your heart and better yet your mind so that you can call it forth not only for myself but for someone else who might need it. I was reading Beth Moore's blog on her December 26 post where she is challenging women to memorize two scriptures a month. I hear so many women tell me their desire to memorize scripture but find it diffcult to do so.

I accepted this challenge with my own version - I will memorize 1 verse per month. I have a set of note cards that I am using. I am trying my very best to recite it or write it as often as possible each and every day. So if you see it on my blog or Facebook often - know that I have not become senile - but it is my way of memorizing His word. I know He will honor that and use it to His Glory.

Happy New Year

So it is the first day of a new year and the beginning of a new decade! Oh my goodness. That is hard to believe. Do you remember how scared we were when the year 2000 rolled around? We were so concerned about whether or not our computers would continue to function or if the entire world of technology would crash. But here we are ten years later and more engrossed in technology than ever.

I love new beginnings. I love the start of a new day. I use to love the first day of school of a new year because I had new notebooks for school that were fresh and clean - no mistakes in them. I had new pencils, new book bag, new shoes and new clothes to start the school year. It was so exciting!

I still try to look at each new year that way - a new beginning. But even more precious is each day that I am given - a new beginning -a chance to do some positive things, to make a difference in someone's life.

May the New Year be kind to you and yours and may you grow in wisdom and strength. As I am thinking of this past year and all that has occurred, I am ever so thankful for the blessings I received in the good and the bad times. I am thankful for the things I have learned and treasuring memories.

I don't want to make the mistake of trying to make so many resolutions that I can't keep up with them or in my case can't remember them :-) and then feel like a failure because I was not able to accomplish them. I want to be able to do a few things well.

I have shared with some that this past week on K-Love listeners were encouraged to find one word that they would concentrate on instead of making resolutions. His word was "presence". He was going to focus on the presence of God each day in his life. I have chosen to focus on the word "hope". I want to remember each and every day that there is hope for me, there is hope for us all because without hope we would be lost.

Here are some scriptures that encourage me:
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Romans 15:13

Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Romans 12:12

You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you. Isaiah 26:3