Here's an example from today.
But first a cute picture of my granddaughter this morning.
I have the grand kids over today and had them for the night. Eight o'clock in the morning the door bell rings. I've been up for bit and since the bananas are all spotted and the kids love muffins, I'm in the process of mixing the muffins. I had just spilled some oil on my pink t-shirt that now serves as my pyjama shirt and the pyjama pants I chose to wear the night before have the left seam blown-out from the waist to the hip. My shirt doesn't quite cover the skin exposed and doesn't cover the fact that I'm not wearing a bra either. Hmm... What do I do?
I go to the door, open the door, crane my neck around the door to keep my body hidden. Oh... it's only the postmaster on her way to work. I've known her a long time. I babysat her kids as a teen, and her kids later babysat my kids. She was just dropping a card off for us. She hopes she didn't bother me too early. I assure her that she didn't. Hours later I still looked the same, so it actually wouldn't have mattered when she would have come!
Last week Julie asked the question from Beth Moore's So Long Insecurity chapter 15. "Name a couple of ways pertinent to your sphere of life and influence that you could look out for your own gender in our battle with insecurities. In other words, how can you (not others but you in particular) start becoming part of the solution in your female relationships rather than default into part of the problem."
The example from this morning is one way I can. I take these little opportunities to steal my resolve to not make any excuses for myself or my husband or anyone else that I may be tempted to think reflect "badly" on me. If someone drops in unexpected, and my house isn't cleaned for company (far from it, actually!), I again choose to take my focus off my "shortcomings" and make my guest my focus instead. For me, that's maybe a way that I would say that I battle the insecurity thing, and my hope is that this also gives them freedom to just be, too. Maybe they too would begin to let others see them in their real-life, natural habitat! (Trust me, if a man had been ringing the doorbell this morning and I did open the door, my body would have remained hidden behind that steal door!)
It seems to me that I've been having ample opportunities lately to choose something other than hiding behind those tempting thoughts of insecurity. Twice, I dropped in at the local supermarket and ran into an acquaintance of mine who I've only seen picture perfect. Both of these times, in my opinion, I looked pretty bad for shopping, but didn't think about it as I was working in the yard. Love drove me to go into the store when I was more than slightly embarrassed about how I looked, and love made me stop and talk to my friend instead of listening to the easy escape option so perfectly laid out before me.
Peter says that we as women shouldn't make it all about how we present on the outside.
but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart
The hidden person of the heart is where the beauty needs to come from. I know God has had to work freedom in so many areas of my heart to have that hidden person be even close to beautiful!
with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious. 1 Peter 3:4
I want to have this precious beauty. I don't mind not having it all together on the outside. Besides, it's good for my pride.
No comments:
Post a Comment