unique and precious in His eyes

(from my fb notes, Mar 1st 2010)

I was talking to my dear friend today.. "I wonder how someone could write very encouraging devotionals, so cool yeah."
It stopped there (so I thought!)
I simply just said it to my friend.
But my dear Lord actually did something about it, things that I had "forgotten"..yet they were there.

He remembered, for sure.. that there were times when I said to Him :
"I wish I could play piano like she does."
"I wonder if I could sing as well as her."
"Lord, why I have to be a sanguine, an extreme one? That people notice instantly when I do wrong things. Why Lord?" -seriously, u can be so entertained by a sanguine, but when a sanguine gets tired..ooh poor her-
"Can I be more like her, so feminine and girly?"

You might laugh now..
But, really, there were actually times when I struggled about not accepting myself as I was.
Even worse, I didn't understand why I had to be the ugliest in my group,always? (I could laugh rite now too, but when I was there.. I cried and cried and cried."

I don't know how about you all..
You might have dealt with this stuff (of course, your own versions).. or you might still dealing with this.

I was reminded today, this's how our enemy works:
it encourages us to compare ourselves with someone whom we admire.
When we start feel inadequate, we will no longer attempt anything for His kingdom because of our fear of failure.
Our warped self-images will lead to unhealthy relationships and hinder our abilities to love others.
The more we tell ourselves that we are bad people, not competent, the more easily we will be threatened by others.
And finally, our relationship with God will be affected, we are not satisfied with how God created us.
We are difficult to trust God, pray to Him and read His words.
We begin to believe that we are not important to Him.
This will push us to compulsive striving to please Him through our own accomplishments.
Our works will no longer be motivated by faith, but by a dislike for ourselves.

When I finished reading it, I thanked Him for helping me out from the lies I've been told that I was nothing.
He helped me to see my strengths and my weaknesses.
By His grace and patience, He always tells me how I am precious in His eyes on and on.
And, now..yes.. I can say that I am someone He loves, someone unique.
Though.. I might fail too sometimes.

But, again..I was reminded again today..(from other devotional I read)..
He doesn't want me to stop there...
He wants me to reach out to someone who may feel like he/she doesn't fit in with the others, to take time to encourage him/her uniqueness in Christ.

So, dearestz..
Stop comparing ourselves to others, don't believe the lies, let's embrace who He made us to be, and rejoice in them!
Tell ourselves that we are precious in His eyes, and tell others too :D
Coz," before He formed us in the womb He knew us, before we were born He set us apart."

" God is glorified through His people, and trying to shake off the personality with which He created us is dishonoring to Him. " -Christa Parrish-

(The Screwtape Letters, by C.S.Lewis, and Proverbs 31 ministries' devotional by Christa Parrish)