You matter

Stop Trying to Be What You Already Are

/ Gina Haney / 2 Comments

When your girl nuzzles into you on the couch and asks you, “Do you think she’s better than me? She has blond shiny hair like the pretty girls. She does gymnastics and horseback riding. What am I good at?” And she can’t look at you because she’s squirming around in a big ugly cauldron of insecurities Lucifer is stirring her up in. I just squeeze her tighter and feel how we have more than genetics in common.

Aunt Wilma says, “Every black crow thinks her’s is the blackest.” Amen?

“The truth is baby girl, what the world thinks of you, what I think of you, it doesn’t compare to what God thinks of you. I think you’re the prettiest thing my eyes have ever seen. I think you’re smart, funny, kind-hearted, loyal, a good secret keeper, and you’re only two classes into tak-won-do and you’re already earning high praises and stripes from your instructor.”

But God.

•God calls you friend. John 15:15
•God says you are His heir. Romans 8:17
•You are wise, and You. Are. Redeemed. 1 Corinthians 1:30

“Bird, maybe we should spend time highlighting Gods’ love notes to you because there is a world full of people who get confused about what makes someone matter and all my reasons you are great are a bit tainted by that world. But God, all his reasons you are enough, they are holy and good.”

Let me say this to you dear reader; stop trying to become what you already are. All my reasons you’re great are a bit tainted by the world, but God! …And You. Are. Redeemed.image

Advertisement

You Are Here

/ Gina Haney / Leave a comment

I’m the girl holding up the drive-thru. I take too long. I take too long to choose from the menu. I take too long to choose an outfit. I take too long at the store. I take too long deciding on plans.

I also take too much. I pack too many outfit choices. I buy too many hair products. I own too many eyeliners. I say too many yes’ that should be no’s, and too many no’s that should be yes’.

The point is to choose one word as your focus and reminder of your goal for the year. Here we are in the second half of January and I’m just now deciding. I was holding out for an epiphany. I knew all along what I needed to choose though. It’s nothing deep and super spiritual. It’s been blogged, preached, talked, published and made its way to the bargain books by now.

I am also too messy. I take too many words. I need at least a four word minimum. Be fully here to fully hear; a do-over lesson for me.

My decision was affirmed last week when a friend called hoping for a hair appointment for that same day. I explained that I was full and we set an appointment for the following morning. I said I would see her tomorrow. I expected her to say, see you tomorrow. As I pulled he phone from my ear and hit the end call button I realized she said, “I’ll see you tomorrow if I’m ok enough.” I was in such a hurry to get to what I was deeming most important that I finished her sentence and cut her off. In doing that I told her she wasn’t important to me. I called her back and turns out she needed a friend more than a haircolor.

How many times have I failed to love people well because the timer on the cloths dryer went off? I received a text? I needed to scrub the toilet before the blue cleaner I had just put in it got flushed?

Be fully here to fully hear. Because when I am dividing my attention I am saying, you don’t matter.

People matter most.

Be fully here to fully hear. Fully hear God, our friends, our family, the girl working the register…

People matter most.

No big epiphany or super spiritual thoughts. Just a do-over. Be fully here to fully hear.

Anyone want to tell me your word/words for the year and your thoughts behind them? Leave a comment. I would LOVE to hear. And I promise to be fully here to fully hear you, because you matter.

image