Your Heavenly Father delights in YOU. You are not a disappointment, and you are enough. YOU my friend, are destined for greatness! Don’t believe me? Take His WORD for it!
“The LORD your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you. In his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.” Zephaniah 3:17
Other translations read, “…he will calm all your fears.” “…he will quiet you by his love.” Suddenly you call out, “SIGN ME UP Girlfriend!”
“ASK ME ABOUT MY BABY GIRL!”
I don’t know the circumstances surrounding your grand entrance into this world, but step into my story and you’ll find Miss Piggy on scene and my dad proudly sporting a pin that read, “Ask Me About My Baby Girl!” Don’t ask me why a celebrity showed up. Have you met me? I’m kind of a big deal. OR perhaps it was a work event, a baby shower of some kind, celebrating my dad becoming Daddy. All I have is a photograph to go on, and a sense of the pride he felt on that day written all over his face. I hadn’t accomplished any great feat in life, couldn’t feed myself, or even hold the weight of my own head. Could have been due to the massive amount of guerrilla baby hair I was endowed with. Helpless and His. Like it or Love Button it, he was going home with a DAUGHTER. No greater title could be worn.
At this point you’re sorely disappointed, thinking the Christian was going to swear. Umm, I do at times, but not this time. The D word changed overtime. Stay tuned!
We were best buds. I danced on his feet, played catch, and practiced swinging the bat with Coach standing by. Life was full of bike rides, basketball games, and made up games of how far he could throw his DAUGHTER in the pool. Our yard was full of easter eggs, campfires, tents, smores, and even an annual pig roast. He was always in the stands, or holding my hand. I was simply his.
FROM DAUGHTER TO DISAPPOINTMENT
No longer a little girl in this big big world, he didn’t change, but I did. What a DISAPPOINTMENT I turned out to be. Never a word used to clothe me, but I owned it. From now on to hear, “I’m proud of you,” I’d need a title. I’d practice it in my head. What would he say? “This is my daughter the______.” Well with time, college filled the empty space. My daughter the teacher. I earned it gosh darn it. Three years in Iowa! Hello wind tunnels, frozen breath, and lack o snow days. Always the last to close, it’s the story of my life. Better than My Daughter the DISAPPOINTMENT.
Older indeed, but not wiser did I become. I dated the wrong men. Yes, I can still finish the line, “Are you who…the person you’re looking for is looking for?” NOPE, but I sure gave them more than the time of day. Said goodbye to one, and ready to marry the next. We mustn’t overlook the waiting room of 3 1/2 years in prison, but that’s another story. A breath of fresh air, and then staleness and ready to marry again. Never me brining up marriage. Men who make plans should more than think they mean what they are about to say. My parents met two lucky fellas and never saw them a second time. No stocking hangs with their name on it. Back to My Daughter the DISAPPOINTMENT.
I wasn’t stupid in the small decisions but the big ones. None I can regret, but I got myself in a heap of debt not having the means. My mom says, “You don’t know until you know,” and boy is she right. Once I was out on my own I didn’t know the price of furniture, so I paid the price tag. Now I know the PRICE. Four cars later, and adulthood isn’t appealing. My husband doesn’t show up when I need him to say, “No.” I’m tired of doing Adult on my own. Let’s be honest, he’s pretty much M.I.A. Oh, look it still sticks, My Daughter the DISAPPOINTMENT.
FROM DISAPPOINTMENT TO DELIGHT
In the past year, I have been through more heartache than I thought possible. I lost my best friend, my church, my job, my apartment, my furniture, and my person. Furniture shouldn’t even make the list, but man did I purge with passionate purpose. I resigned as a teacher of 11 years, broke my lease, sold everything, and flew back to the nest for a season. Talk about DISAPPOINTMENT. I went from my own space to living in their house, eating their food, dining on their dime, and feeling lazy and overwhelmed all at the same time. God was calling me out and up to something more.
I remember that moment like it was yesterday, when my good friend Marlo told me I needed to take this season to rest for World Race, then went as far as challenging me to allow Jesus to be my only medical insurance. It was then, in November that God gave me my word for 2015. I was to DELIGHT in Him as He delights in me. “What? Hold up! Back up the bus. Jesussaywha?” My Father DELIGHTS in me! I am His and I’m enough. From that point on I learned how to truly rest in the finished work of Christ. I didn’t read my Bible every day. Still don’t. I didn’t go through some checklist, or follow some kind of ritual. THIS was a depth of trust I had never known before and I was diving in head first, naked and unashamed.
FROM DELIGHT TO DESTINY
The curtain closes, and the audience applauds. Oh, that would be quite a story, but Training Camp ushered in a new D word. It was there Super Christian left her Bible in the trunk of her car. It was there someone told my story, without uttering my name. “A Woman of DESTINY,” they would say of me…and like 132 other women in the company of precisely 18 men. Well, maybe not exactly. But I believed it, and it made all the difference. I was destined for something more. I was assured that yes, I am a woman of influence and I have something to say. No longer would the fact that I intimidate be a bad thing, but I would own it and leverage it. A breed of woman I would proudly wear. So with 3 days till Launch, I am not a DISAPPOINTMENT, but a DELIGHT DESTINED for greatness! …even at 2:00am.
