The last two years of my life the Lord has been teaching me about who I am. Part of this process has come through prayer and mentoring by primarily three amazing women of God. Initially, the Lord took me through a process of “inner healing” concerning how I viewed myself. While I used to see myself as a quiet, average, fearful, plain looking blonde haired girl who was ashamed over some areas of her life; the Lord removed those old ideas and replaced them with the truth of how He designed me. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” 2 Corinthians 5:17 I now know that I am a beautiful and pure child of God. I am a woman of strength and dignity who is not fearful but carries a spirit of power, love and self-control (2 Tim 1:7). I have been chosen and set apart, the bride of Christ.
The other part of this teaching has been a process of God speaking to me and challenging me about the ideas I have regarding myself in a more practical sense. Growing up there were certain things I came to believe that I just couldn’t do, one of those things was running. For whatever reason I got it into my head that I was not a runner and that my body was just not made for running though I always loved the idea. A few months ago my coworker asked if I would be interested in running the St. Patrick’s Day Dash with her. It was a 5K race. I mulled over the idea in my head when the Lord just nailed me. “Why not?” was the question that came to mind. “What makes you think you can’t do this when ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me'(Phil 4:13)?” Not being able to argue with the Lord, I committed to the race and started training. Over the next month and a half I found out that I could indeed run and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I finished the 5K with a time of 36:32 minutes!
Over this same two year period I felt the Lord put it on my heart to start ice skating. Interesting I thought, but none the less, I signed up for lessons. I met some wonderful friends at the ice rink and enjoyed a physical outlet for creative expression. Then an opportunity to compete came around. I thought over the idea when the Lord spoke again, “Why not? Remember ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me'(Phil 4:13)” Still being unable to effectively argue with the Lord, but also starting to embrace these challenges that he was putting on my heart, I signed up to compete. I trained with my wonderful coach then completed in the ISI Spring Fever competition taking home a first place medal.
The Lord is good and does not stretch us beyond what we can bear. But He will stretch you. The simple fact that He is challenging you means that He is thinking of you. Secondly it means that He loves you so much that He is unwilling to leave you stagnant in your ways but desires for you to be closer to him. During this time in my life I accumulated a few theme songs, one of which is I hope you dance by Lee Ann Womack. I love it because it talks about choosing to live your life to the fullest and not “sit it out.” The Lord has promised us abundant life John 10:10 “…but I have come to give them life abundant.” So let us know who God has called us to be and choose to live our lives abundantly in the Lord everyday and with every opportunity.
