Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

Today we are celebrating my middle daughter's 19th birthday. She is so full of life and a joy to our family. She can lighten any situation with her sense of humor. She has a quick wit that usually nails the truth but somehow always manages to cut through a tense moment. It is one of her gifts. She gives the impression that she knows exactly who she is but underneath she tends to lean more towards insecurity. She is strong and resilient. She is a fighter and continues to push forward through any trial. I admire her for that. Even when things are unraveling in her life, she seems to rise above it and never gets stagnant in the trial. She is as comfortable in a crown and sash as she is wearing camo and holding a gun. But at the end of the day, she struggles with what most of us struggle with. She struggles to believe that she is fearfully and wonderfully made.


I think all my girls struggle from time to time to be who they were created to be. Just to be themselves without pretense or expectation to be like someone else. Honestly, I don't know a young girl or woman who at some point in their life has not tried to be like someone else or felt insecure around certain people or felt like they fell short. The world heaps such expectations on our young girls. It is almost overwhelming at times. 


But Jesus came to overcome the world. To set the captive free. To give us an example of living our lives to simply glorify the Father. We each were made in His image. We were created to be simply us. No one else. There is something so peaceful in that realization. We don't have to work to be us. We were knit together by the Creator of the Universe with a plan and a purpose. Jesus believes it. But most of us don't.


Why do we struggle so hard to except that Truth? To live each day knowing that we are loved with an everlasting, eternal love. Knowing that everything that touches us has been filtered through the fingers of an all-knowing God. Why is that so hard to believe?


I read a short devotion this morning that challenged me. This is what it said: "I think we should learn who we are. Discover the desires and the personality God gave you alone, and let those shine out as He intended when He gave them to you. In Psalm 4, David suggests 'when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent.' Isn't that a lovely picture? Before you hitch your wagon to another 'example', go somewhere quiet and meet yourself."


Over the last few years, I have learned to listen better. I have learned to hear the Voice of Truth instead the voice that screams the lies. I have always struggled with insecurity. With worrying about what others thought of me or how I looked to other people. I grew up in an environment that taught me that you needed to fit in. To look like everyone else. To talk like them. To think like them. To be what they wanted you to be.


But I only need to be who I was created to be. That is enough. So today as you go through your everyday stuff and you find yourself believing the lie of not measuring up to those around you, just stop. Go somewhere alone and listen. Ask God who He made you to be. He will tell you because you are the apple of His eye. Fearfully and wonderfully made. Live in that Truth today.

I call on You, O God,  for You will answer me; 

give ear to me and hear my prayer. 

Show the wonder of Your great love, 

You who save by Your right hand 

those who take refuge in You from their foes. 

Keep me as the apple of Your eye; 

hide me in the shadow of Your wings.  

Psalm 17:6-8