As many of you know, my tattoos explain a lot about my relationship with God and my passions. I left for the race with 6 tattoos and soon will be coming home with a grand total of 13 tattoos.
Each tattoo was placed on my body in the country that I learned the lesson in. Some of them were lessons that took me more than one month to work through and I received the tattoo where the truth of the lesson finally clicked.
Two of my tattoos I received in Colombia:
I have a tattoo that reads daughter in Hebrew. If you’ve been keeping up with my blogs, then you’ll remember the sandwich that led me to figure out that I was a daughter of God. This moment was monumental for me. To grow up in the church and hear these words and even repeat these words of “I am a daughter”, but never believe them was a struggle. I constantly saw God looking down on me in judgment as a sinner and never felt the love that comes from believing God as my heavenly father. I ran from Him more times than I can count because I did not want to see the disappointment on His face. Once I realized who I was in Him and could state with full heart knowledge that I was a daughter of God, I started feeling completely safe and protected knowing that when I screwed up I only needed to run back into His arms and feel His love to know I was going to be ok.
Another tattoo I received in Colombia was my tattoo that reads “G>ΛV”. This tattoo to me means God (G) is greater than (>) the mountain tops (Λ) and the valleys (V). For a lot of my life, I have been notorious for acting like I am giving over my problems, concerns and cares to God, but instead I’ve decided that I am better at taking care of everything and only ran to God when it all starts crumbling. This is a terrible way to live because God wants us to run to Him and give Him these things because He knows what’s best and wants the best for us. My lesson I learned was that My God is greater than anything I go through and I can make it because He will walk with me through the great times on the mountain tops and the hard times in the valleys.
In Greece, I got the privilege to work with Syrian Refugees. I loved every minute of it. The people were generous with the little they had and willing to teach me some of their language (Arabic) to me. As I spoke with families, I could hear the love for their home country in their voices and see the hardships that they were living through since leaving. My tattoo I got in Greece, says “We want more” in Arabic. The letters don’t necessarily look Arabic, but the words were written by a Syrian man whose family took us in almost daily to share their lives and little bit of food with us. I felt like for many of the people this was why they left Syria. They wanted more for their families and more for themselves, but also as Christians we want more than what this life can offer us. We want Heaven and more of God.
I received 4 tattoos in Thailand. Thailand was a month of revelations and fully understanding more things in my heart.
My first tattoo says “restoration” in Thai. I wanted this tattoo because it was the word God gave me at the beginning of my month in Thailand. I knew Thailand needs restoring and that there were many hearts that were/are in need of being restored by God. I had excitement to see what God was going to do and how He was going to heal these people. I may not have seen a ton of physical signs of impact from our team, but I know God was not absent and that restoration was happening.
My second tattoo says “Spirit move me”. This tattoo is a constant reminder that I always want to be led by the Holy Spirit; however, the reason I did not get the words “Spirit lead me” was because I want the Holy Spirit to move my feet. I don’t want to be led somewhere and still not act, so by saying “Spirit move me” I am asking the Holy Spirit to push me to act on where I am led to and move with the grace and gentleness of God.
My third tattoo is a semi colon with a heartbeat sign next to it. Many people that we met and passed by seemed to be hollow shells of a human. These people were so deep in sin that they saw no way out. The semi colon is a symbol used in English writing when a sentence could stop, but instead is continued. For many of these people that’s what I saw, people that believed their lives were over and needed an encounter with God to know their story isn’t over. He can bring them out of their sin to be His sons and daughters. He longs for them. I never want to forget that my story is not over. As long as my heart is beating, I have a life and purpose to fulfill by bring others to know the God I know as my Father.
My fourth tattoo is a crown. On the race, we have talked about being queens. As the church, we are God’s bride, if He is the King than we His people make up the other half of the marriage. I see myself more as a princess, the daughter of the King of Kings. The daughter of the one true God that I get to call Father.
My tattoos are lasting reminders to me of all God has shown and how much He can show me as long as I am willing to look to Him and stay in His will. I love tattoos because to me they are an expression of one’s self. I have even seen tattoos as a conversation starter. I am excited to share all that God has shown me. If you see me around, ask me about them and I’ll tell all God has taught me!!
