I had to laugh when I read the story at the beginning of the chapter. I laughed because I have been the woman accused of having too many groceries in my basket and because I have been the woman who was doing a silent count in my head of the basket in front of me, making sure they had the allowed amount of items. It’s not only situations like that, it’s others. I can laugh now but after the “incidents” of losing my temper, jumping to conclusions, being unnecessarily rude, lacking faith etc. all I felt was a sense of guilt and shame. I asked myself the same question Stasi asked herself “What’s going on here?”
I’ve always wondered what the world would be like if Eve wouldn’t have eaten the apple… What kind of woman would I be then?
Has this question ever ran across your mind?
“Eve was given to the world as the incarnation of beautiful, captivating God, a life offering, life-saving lover, a relational specialist, full of tender mercies and hope. She brought strength to the world, but not a striving, sharp-edged strength. She was inviting, alluring, and captivating.”
We often don’t feel like this. Life can be overwhelming, and we can feel caught in the struggle of balance. We may not feel inviting, alluring and captivating. ..
BUT, our God says we are. He created us as the incarnation of beautiful, each in our own way. We are relational specialists, a Gift from God. We are strong, a feminine strength that only women possess.
Deep in my heart I don’t believe that Eve’s decision that day changed God’s purpose for women. We were still created to be beautiful; we are still created in God’s image. We have tough days where we are the 15 or under police in the line at the grocery store, and we can’t explain our feelings. But God knows us, He knows who He created, He knows our tendencies, our strengths, our weaknesses and our struggles.
The days where we feel torn and unbalanced are the days we need to remember the most that we are God’s. We are inviting, we are captivating and we are alluring.
With Love,
Tonya
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Lets Pray:
Dear Lord, it is hard to be a woman some days. Our emotions and feelings can feel uncontrollable and we can’t justify our thoughts and actions, especially when they don’t line up with those of the woman we strive to be. But, on these days we know that we can turn to You. We can remember that we are Yours and that You created us. We don’t have the answer for the question of why we may react the way we do at times but the one definite thing we can rely on is that we can turn to You. Thank you for loving us through our unbalanced imperfection. In Jesus Name, Amen.
Your Assignment:
On days where we wonder “what’s going on here?”, what do you do to bring your focus back to God? What do you do to help yourself to remember that despite the situation you are still a beautiful woman (inside and out) that was created in Gods image?
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