Saturday, May 21, 2011

You are beautiful...

YOU.  ARE.  BEAUTIFUL.  

I've heard these words before. But the first time I heard them not audibly, but from God...was, I don't know, about a year ago.  It was during a difficult situation when I got caught up inside my head.  And when I get caught up inside my head, the direction tends to go something like this:  I'm down on myself, whining, complaining, feeling pity on little ol' me, and then God speaks truth to those lies that were taking over.  And then the lies try to get another run, and then God speaks again.  The number of back and forths vary, but eventually truth wins.

But when I first heard these words, I was upset thinking, "How does that have anything to do with this situation?  Yea, sure, I may be beautiful, but I don't see how that is supposed to help.  And I already know that I'm beautiful."  Negative feelings about my outward appearance has never really been issue for me.  So I shrugged the words off.  I was able to get past the lies, but those words didn't seem to be part of that solution.

But situations in the future resulted in this same phrase.  YOU.  ARE.  BEAUTIFUL.  I started to get pretty frustrated.  Help is great but it should actually be...well, helpful. And this didn't seem to have anything to do with the situation. 

Probably a good half a year later, it dawned on me.  God wasn't speaking to my outward appearance.  Sure I might be pretty high on the good-looking scale ;-) but that was not what He was talking about.  He was speaking to me, my core, who I am.  Something I hadn't been quite as confident about for some time.  It wasn't the things I did, it wasn't something I had to try to be, I just was.  I just am.  Beautiful. 

YOU.  ARE.  BEAUTIFUL.

I believe someone else needs to hear that.  You don't have to try to be the beautiful you already are.  That you always were.  When you remember and dwell in that place of truth, your response to situations and lies that creep up on you won't last.  They can't last.

YOU.  ARE.  BEAUTIFUL.

"There is none like you.  No one else can touch my heart like you do. And I would search for all eternity...and find, there is none like you." 


I know this song is meant to be one where us the children are speaking to the Father, but recently I heard it the other way around.  I heard God speaking this over me.  I was a little unsure if thinking of it this way was a bit conceited or not, but I think it's okay.  And I think it is true.  I believe our Father thinks about each of us this way.  He says to me, "Ashley, there is NONE like you. NO ONE else can touch My heart like YOU do..."

He says the same to each of us.
"There is NONE like you.  NO ONE else can touch My heart like YOU do.  And I would search for ALL ETERNITY...and find, there is NONE like you."

You need to know that YOU.  ARE.  BEAUTIFUL.